Mayor Michael Ferguson

Fredonia is in danger of running out of money, and village trustees plan a special meeting at 9 a.m. to deal with it.

Trustee Jon Espersen said at this week’s Board of Trustees meeting that a report by Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau warned of the cash-flow issue. “You’ll notice that it indicated that unless immediate steps are taken, we’ll be out of cash before the end of this fiscal year,” he said.

Espersen called for a special trustees’ meeting to figure out what to do. Mayor Michael Ferguson promised he’d work with trustees to quickly find a date and time for the meeting.

“By the end of the year?” asked Trustee Michelle Twichell.

“By the end of the week,” Ferguson said.

Espersen referenced the Fredonia Central School District’s upcoming capital project vote Thursday to argue that a big tax hike is not the way to fill village coffers.

“I’m going to ask my fellow trustees during that (planned special) meeting to keep an open mind… considering shared services, possible mergers, drastic cuts in department budgets. You know, there’s a very real possibility that at the end of the week there will be a 10%+ school tax increase,” he said. “So, foisting a large tax increase on our residents is unimaginable and undoable.

“We have to come up with a way we can provide services without a large tax increase — whether that school tax increase gets approved or not,” Espersen concluded.

He and Twichell agreed trustees should give department heads a “heads up” that budgets for next year will be significantly impacted.

Twichell talked up LeBeau’s expertise, stating the treasurer can be of assistance in deciding where to cut. “I, for one, will listen to her… to help to decide what is best for the village of Fredonia,” Twichell said.

Trustee Paul Wandel said, “We’re in a difficult, challenging situation right now — we all know that.

“I think we really need to stop and assess what we have, where we’re at, and take a good, hard look,” he continued. “That’s going to require some good effort. I’m all in on that. I want to work with the team because we really have to address some of these rough decisions and figure out… what’s best for Fredonia.”