OBSERVER file photo Trustees will start budget meetings this week.

There is a 55% property tax increase in Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson’s proposed 2025-26 budget.

The number will almost certainly change as village trustees look over the plan and suggest changes. The trustees set dates to meet about the budget at their Monday meeting.

“We’ll need at least four meetings before we can have a public hearing,” said Trustee Jon Espersen, who is acting mayor as Ferguson recovers from surgery.

Trustees wound up scheduling five budget meetings. They will discuss the Department of Public Works and police budgets Thursday at 1 p.m. The fire department is up April 10 at 1 p.m., and the wastewater and water budgets will be considered the following day at 9 a.m.

Code enforcement, recreation and the public access channel will be the subject of the April 14 session, set for 9 a.m. The fifth meeting, at 9 a.m. April 15, will tie up any loose ends not previously covered.

The trustees intend to schedule the legally required public hearing on the budget for 6 p.m. on April 16.

All budget sessions will presumably be held in the trustees’ second floor meeting room at Village Hall.

James Lynden, the former trustee who has become one of Village Hall’s most prominent critics, took some more shots at the board Monday over the budget.

Lynden said that while “this board would like the public to believe they have a good understanding of the finances of the village,” it needed a $825,000 Revenue Anticipation Note to keep the village afloat, and is starting the 2025-26 budget year with a negative fund balance.

Lynden noted Ferguson’s sizable proposed tax increase and suggested it might not help the village avoid an even larger deficit.

“You’re going to have to cut expenses dramatically,” he told trustees. “It’s not going to be pretty, but you have to.” Lynden added that current trustees can’t blame the financial situation on previous boards, because the prior trustees stuck to their budgets.

Lynden attempted to talk about Fredonia’s water situation but Clerk Annemarie Johnston’s buzzer went off, signifying his three minutes of allotted time was up.

Though Trustee Michelle Twichell said she wanted Lynden to continue, Espersen enforced the rule. “You could write a letter to Annemarie and she’ll read it (aloud in the meeting) no matter how long it is,” he told Lynden.