The latest North County Water District meeting this month featured numerous queries from audience members about finances.

Fredonia Trustee Jon Espersen started the questioning by asking if the village would have to help repay a Chautauqua County loan to the district, if it joins. Board chairman and Pomfret Town supervisor Dan Pacos said “no.”

Jay Warren, a Dunkirk town board member, asked Pacos to clarify the “paperwork” of district finances. Pacos said the loan from the county was to a capital improvement fund.

He also said district municipalities owe money to its billing arm, CBI Waterworks, for the first five years of operation. Meanwhile, CBI owes the district $1.6 million.

“Is everyone good with the finances of how this payback will work or is it a work in progress?” Warren asked.

“A work in progress,” Pacos responded.

Warren said the town of Dunkirk was asked to contribute 30% of the billing payback to CBI, and town residents want a better understanding of how the ratio was created.

Pacos said it is based on the amount of customers billed in each municipality. “If Dunkirk had about 30% of the water billing’s they’re responsible for about 30%,” he said, adding, “If you have a municipality with 300 customers, you can’t expect to pay the same as a municipality with 1,000.”

After the Pacos-Warren exchange ended, Fredonia Trustee Michelle Twichell alleged in a statement that “the defective connection” between Fredonia and the district “is not yet functional,” due to a water pressure issue.

Her statement was briefly interrupted by Espersen’s cell phone ringer, playing the “Pink Panther” theme song. Twichell glared at him, he silenced it, and she continued. There’s no love lost between the two on water issues — Espersen wants Fredonia to buy water from the district, or directly from its supplier the city of Dunkirk, but Twichell opposes that.

Pacos said to Twichell, “You have several misconceptions in there.” He said the connection is not inoperable, but a test in the spring caused water to flow incorrectly because the village was not operating its Webster Road tank at the time. That tank has since come back online.

“You need pressure-reducing valves in your system in many locations,” said Natalie Whiteman, a county Health Department water specialist who has worked closely with the village since 2023 on correcting deficiencies found by the state in inspections.

Noting that the connection in question is with a Pomfret water line, Pacos — briefly speaking as a town supervisor — stated, “We connected our system to the North County Water District … you connected to Pomfret.”