The village of Fredonia has approved the LaBella engineering firm to do a State Environmental Quality Review on its water system, a review that is supposed to cover all available options for future projects.

The village Board of Trustees voted, 3-1, to approve LaBella for the review. Trustees Ben Brauchler, Jon Espersen and Paul Wandel voted “aye,” Trustee Michelle Twichell voted “nay,” and Trustee Nicole Siracuse was not at the meeting.

The resolution states the village wants the SEQR to go with “further planning and investigation into available alternatives.” Fredonia is “specifically reserving the right to investigate and ultimately choose any viable alternative, while not committing to any definitive course of action or alternative.”

The SEQR by LaBella, the village’s engineer of record, is supposed to cover all of the alternatives presented in an August report. That was itself an update of a 2023 comprehensive study of Fredonia’s water system by LaBella.

The alternatives include “improving the village water treatment plant, decommissioning the treatment plant, drawdown of the village reservoir, interconnection of the city of Dunkirk and/or interconnection with the North County Water District.”

Wandel wondered what the SEQR would cost the village. “No idea,” said Espersen.

Twichell said she voted “no” for four reasons:

– The resolution does not name a municipal entity as lead agency for the SEQR.

– There is no specified deadline for LaBella to complete the review.

– LaBella’s proposal for the SEQR lists specific concerns that won’t be included. “These include details of the connections and their costs,” Twichell said. “A SEQR without including all details is not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

– The resolution does not specify a cost.

Twichell went on to say that none of the costs related to LaBella’s SEQR “would be necessary if we choose to maintain our own water system.”

Espersen disagreed with her, stating that a SEQR would be needed to apply for funding of water treatment upgrades.

He added the lead agency “will be on documents we sign with LaBella – we can tell them who we want to be lead agency.”

Village Hall got burned earlier this year by failure to do a SEQR last December. The Board of Trustees voted Dec. 26 to pursue a reservoir drawdown, plant closure and water purchase from Dunkirk – but five village residents subsequently sued to overturn it.

When State Supreme Court Judge Grace Hanlon upheld the lawsuit and tossed the trustees’ decision, she cited Fredonia’s failure to complete a SEQR before the board’s vote.