Village of Fredonia officials discussed a variety of ways to soothe the dire budget situation last week — and Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau was very clear about the seriousness of the situation.

“We need to cut $262,500 minimally,” she told a Board of Trustees special meeting that was convened to discuss the village’s dismal bottom line. Fredonia risks running out of money by the end of December.

“I would recommend more, if possible, because we’re kind of out of fund balance after the last couple of years,” LeBeau added. “We need to start rebuilding that, at this point.”

She said a $262,500 reduction in the budget “just leaves us exactly where we were budgeted for, which we were budgeted to have a negative $131,000, I believe it was.” Asked if the village could absorb that $131,000, LeBeau responded, “We can. I would not recommend it, if we can figure it out.”

“It’s not just cutting. There are other options,” Trustee Jon Espersen said. He advocated renegotiating union contracts “sooner rather than later” so the village knows where it stands when it is time to do a 2025 fiscal year budget, in March.

Mayor Michael Ferguson noted at one point that about two-thirds of the village’s budget comes from contractual obligations.

Espersen said he asked LeBeau to look at early retirements for village employees. He also wanted her to inquire about short-term borrowing and cashing in on financial investments, to help close the budget gap.

“If we look at cutting services now or cutting budget now, I think we’re cutting off our nose to spite our face, because we don’t know what the next budget year’s going to look like,” Espersen said. “If we could fill that gap with any combination of these kinds of things, then we could be more deliberate in our negotiations for next year’s budget, and what cuts we may or may not have to make.”

LeBeau said she found seven employees who could take early retirement, but it would only save about $60,000 and “may be harmful to our operations.”

She had no information yet on short term borrowing options, but had reached out to someone about it. Fredonia would have to start paying back that borrowed money with tax revenue in June, she said.

Cashing in on village investments seems to be the most imminent option. Trustees agreed that LeBeau should draw from those investments to help make the village solvent.

“Regardless of which way we look at it, we’re going to have to use our investments,” LeBeau said. “I don’t think there’s even enough in our investments to cover the actual cash portion of what we will need for the remainder of the year.”

Ferguson stated the community has lost 2,000 people in the last six years “and yet expenses have increased, in some places, 15 to 40% within our government. You cannot expect brand new and shiny when you have lost over 2,000 of your constituents.”

Ferguson also said, “We are certainly not in the predicament of some communities that are in debt with many. Does that mean it’s right? Not at all. But until you can create new sources of revenue, or generate more revenue from our sources, this is the nature of the beast. … We have to create more jobs, more revenue, more residents, in order to bring things to some type of balance — or we will be without many, many services we enjoy now.”