Cassadaga Trustee Cathy Cruver is exactly correct. What the village did to a business — Valley Outdoors — was not fair and quite questionable.

Cruver brought up the topic last month after owner Adam Diate voiced his displeasure with the concrete blocks that surround a hydrant near his business asking for those objects to be removed. In Cruver’s view, the village failed to properly communicate the options to Diate.

“At the permit process, we had every right to say to the owner of the business that in order for him to get the permit, he needed to include protection for the fire hydrant. We did not do that,” she said.

Another concern was the purchase of the blocks that exceeded $1,500 and did not go through the proper approval of the Village Board. The overall cost was $2,600. Later during that meeting, board members, in a 3-1 vote, approved work around the hydrant at the business that will remove those highly priced and unapproved blocks.

One problem was solved, but there are others to consider. Most importantly for the village is it must be friendlier to those starting up businesses. There was no reason for the disagreement with Diate, who has invested a great deal of his own money.

Government does not do that. It usually spends the cash from those who pay the taxes in the community. In this case, those costs were tainted. No board member knew about the block purchases that were made.

There is something very wrong with this picture.