If at first you do not succeed, try again. The village of Fredonia’s Board of Trustees voted 3-1 to appoint Heidi Powell to former Trustee Kara Christina’s vacant seat.

An hour into the meeting Trustee James Lynden put forth a discussion on an interested party for the seat, John Siskar.

“He expressed his interest and forwarded all of his credentials, which I forwarded to all of the trustees, the mayor and the village clerk,” Lynden began. “He has an extensive list of credentials and I asked for feedback on that. No one responded whatsoever to me or him. With his extensive history and experience, I think he would be a very valued member of our board.”

Lynden further asked the board to not do anything more with the vacant seat until taking time to review Siskar’s information. However, that wouldn’t be the case as during the last five minutes of the meeting Powell was presented again by Trustee Roger Britz.

“A vote that was taken at the Board of Trustees meeting held on Dec. 14, 2020 for the purpose of appointing a trustee to the vacant position has been challenged,” Britz stated.

“And whereas the legality of this vote remains in question due to the discrepancy in the definition of what constitutes a majority of the board and whereas it’s not the desire of this board to enter into the legal determination on the validity of this vote and where it is now the intent of the valid public vote for the purpose of filling the vacant trustee position therefore I would like to resolve that Heidi Powell be hereby appointed to the vacant position of trustee for the village of Fredonia effective immediately.”

Trustee EvaDawn Bashaw seconded the motion.

“As I stated there was another person who has not been voted on who I brought forward with credentials that exceed pretty much everybody on this board and it’s a darn shame that there was no response to him or myself, who brought it forward,” Lynden stated. “Whereas Heidi Powell had the least amount of experience to move forward with this, a temporary position appointed until the next general election, I presented other ones that had a great deal of experience with this board and those were voted down.”

Lynden then added that this move is a “darn shame” to the community.

“We can’t have people that have a great deal of background and great credentials to move our village forward,” Lynden added. “The village deserves better. You are presenting a motion that describes legal determination, we had legal determination, the attorney that was the village’s attorney provided that legal determination and back up evidence from the state that prove that that vote was not valid, so Heidi should not have been considered at the time.”

The vote was finalized and Powell was named to the vacant seat.