In a 3-2 vote, Fredonia Village Board members narrowly approved the water contract with the town of Pomfret.

During discussion of the controversial issue, there was an urgency by some of the trustees to agree to the contract because the town was tiring of the wait, which may have led Pomfret to move its supplier to the North County Water District.

Fredonia Trustee James Lynden was the most outspoken on this issue. “The contracts were not even negotiated,” he said. “Roger Britz (Fredonia trustee) and I were part of the water negotiations and how it ended up at this point I don’t know. In my opinion it wasn’t ready to come out of any kind of committee. The other contracts that are being presented are not even a realistic request. They represent great loss in revenues to the village.”

In Lynden’s opinion the reduction in the town water and wastewater costs would hurt the village financially as the expenses would exceed the revenues. “The reason we were able to build a fund balance was because we were able to sell water outside of the village,” he said. “To reduce costs to such a minor amount of revenue, we don’t have that. The terms and conditions of this contract are not in the best interests of the village. This contract seems to be more of a contract to protect the town and give them the ability to leave the village and go to an outside source. I’m going to ask that the board table this until the negotiations are done, this contract is not suitable for the village.”

“I don’t have a problem tabeling this, but I do not want to make this longer than it needs to be,” Britz chimed in. “But the resolution has already been passed regarding the rates. There’s not much we can do.”

“Until a contract is approved and signed there is no set rate yet,” Lynden noted.

“That’s what we offered them and they agreed,” Trustee EvaDawn Bashaw said, later noting some worry about possibly losing a major customer in the town. “This has been a 14-month process and I think that it’s ridiculous,” Bashaw said. “They have told us straight out if we aren’t able to come to terms with this rate and this term of contract that they will go to the North County Water District. My fear is that the town of Pomfret will walk from us because we’ve dragged our feet too long.”

Bashaw further noted the village charges the residents $4.80 per thousand gallons for water and the village pays roughly between $3 and $3.50 to generate that.

“We make a profit not only on our own residents, but our town residents and we certainly have enough revenue to maintain our plant, our employees, our chemicals and everything else,” she said. “We don’t have to have that much of a profit; we have a million dollars in an account.”

Essek asked then for the committee to review everything on Wednesday and clear up any concerns. However, with the approval during the regular meeting, that was deemed unnecessary. The two “no” votes belonged to Lynden and Trustee Scott Johnston.

“If the contract hadn’t been approved Monday we would have walked,” Pomfret Supervisor Dan Pacos told the OBSERVER.

The current water rates for Fredonia are $4.80 per thousand gallons with a $25 base price and the sewage rates are $6.17 per thousand gallons with a $20 base cost.

Pomfret’s contract will have a rate for water of $5.52 per thousand gallons with a 48-cent add on charge for water line maintenance and $7.10 per thousand gallons for sewer.