OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Chris Pinkoski gestures as she makes a point during the January North County Water District meeting. Pinkoski is blocking out the face of Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson. Her husband is sitting next to her.

Fiscal watchdog Chris Pinkoski set her sights on the North County Water District Board this month.

Pinkoski is a Dunkirk resident who used to work for the state Comptroller’s Office and was briefly the city’s fiscal affairs officer. She attended numerous city council committee meetings in 2024, often firing off detailed questions about City Hall accounting and sometimes adding critical comments. Pinkoski’s first meeting of 2025 was in a different venue, the town of Dunkirk’s hall, but in the same style.

Board Chairman Dan Pacos was not at the meeting so Vice Chairman Rich Lewis and the rest of the board tried to answer her financial questions. However, they were occasionally unprepared for the level of detail she was seeking. Several of Pinkoski’s queries were met with, “I don’t know,” though everyone seemed receptive to getting her the information she wanted at a later time.

Pinkoski asked to see contracts concerning Chadwick Bay Intermunicipal Water Works (CBI). Lewis said he did not have them there but could get them to her.

“CBI seems so mysterious. What are they allowed to do?” she wondered.

Board member Dave Hazelton of Brocton responded, “CBI came about because Brocton and Portland had billing in place, Sheridan, Pomfret and (the town of) Dunkirk did not.” The whole object of the operation was to buy water and sell it back to each municipality, with the municipalities billing their own customers — but that didn’t happen because some of the municipalities don’t have the ability to bill.

As he has done previously, Lewis attempted to correct what he said is “misinformation” that the North County Water District must pay a loan back to Chautauqua County. Rather, “the county is owed for outstanding water bills,” he said. Basically, CBI couldn’t meet financial projections because people didn’t pay their water bills. Lewis acknowledged CBI is running a deficit.

The NCWD does owe money to the county but that was an outlay for capital projects, Lewis said. That has not been paid back because a bond is taking longer than anticipated, he said.

The somewhat convoluted arrangement behind the North County Water District was explained. Lewis said there are three contracts: The district has a contract with the city of Dunkirk to be its sole water supplier. It also has a contract with CBI for billing — though Lewis, the Portland town supervisor, noted that will need to be amended as Brocton and Portland are now doing their own billing. Finally, CBI has an intermunicipal contract with each NCWD member.

“I think the issue was, none of us had ever run a water system before,” Hazleton lamented. “Some adviser or engineer should have said at some point, ‘You need about a million dollars to get started.'”

Board member Terry Niebel pointed out the water district was originally counting on a surge of usage from Athenex in its original projections. That state-backed project in the town of Dunkirk fell through.

He also mentioned the COVID-19 epidemic, because municipalities were not allowed to pursue action against customers who didn’t pay their bills.

“It wasn’t until March or April of last year you could get to turn off water for not paying bills,” said Natalie Whiteman, county Health Department water specialist.

The question-and-answer session with Pinkoski lasted half an hour and took up the majority of January’s NCWD board meeting.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson attended as a spectator and did not speak.