Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson

The village of Fredonia tried to raise morale this past weekend in response to an OBSERVER article that summarized a challenging week for the village.

Fredonia’s Facebook page, which is currently run by Mayor Michael Ferguson, featured a post “in response to recent news concerning our village.” The post called the village’s budget and its water situation “our first priorities.”

The post promised that Fredonia is “in the midst of our last water study to determine our direction. One that after a lot of hard work cost our taxpayers nothing to produce (the study). The study will take three months and should save our residents millions while creating the long term solution we all seek.”

The post went on to point out, “we have very few empty storefronts on the street level left and eight small businesses that have joined the village in the past few months … and they deserve our attention and a fighting chance to prosper too.”

Fredonia’s consideration of sharing services with other municipalities was mentioned. “We are also looking at ways to SAVE you money every day: consolidation efforts with neighboring cities and towns, discussions at both county and state levels on various roles.”

There was also a reference to Not Fred Fest, the annual springtime bacchanal by SUNY Fredonia students. “And as promised, addressing (that) issue with the formation of a committee of county, state and college personnel, faculty and students.”

Ferguson usually doesn’t attach his name to the Fredonia Facebook posts, but this time, he did.

He was evidently responding to an OBSERVER story over the weekend that summarized some of the woes Fredonia faced during the previous week. The village had a boil water order and a power outage, and continued to wrestle with its financial problems.