Fredonia Trustee Jon Espersen backed an attempt to list village-owned property on Glasgow Road for sale, but did not get enough support from fellow trustees.
The Fredonia Board of Trustees voted down an attempt to list village-owned property on Glasgow Road for sale.
Trustee Jon Espersen has advocated selling the property, on the south end of the town of Pomfret near Cassadaga Lake, as a way to pump some more revenue into the village tank. However, only Nicole Siracuse backed him, with Trustees Ben Brauchler, Michelle Twichell and Paul Wandel voting “no.”
“I’d like to have a little more investigation of the situation first,” Brauchler said. “I’d be more comfortable, if we’re getting rid of the property, with either turning it over to the county or the Watershed Conservancy.”
Wandel turned out to be the deciding vote Monday. With the vote count tied 2-2, he asked if the resolution could get tabled and rewritten. Told that it could not because a vote on it was already underway, he voted “no.”
Prior to the vote, Twichell read from the State Environmental Quality Review handbook to state that “municipalities are required to obtain permission from the state Legislature to alienate parkland via a legislative bill signed by the governor, and a municipality must complete a SEQR before adopting its resolution to alienate parkland.” She referred to the undeveloped property as “Glasgow Park.”
Twichell wanted an executive session to discuss the possible sale listing, and a postponement of any vote on the matter. The board did conduct an executive session at the end of the meeting.
“With respect, we’re not in the process of selling it, so we should probably make that very clear,” replied Mayor Michael Ferguson. “We are in the process of analyzing, I guess it’s about 42 acres that’s available, and we are in the process of trying to determine: 1, just what is entailed in that park, and 2, what the value of that property is. There is no active motion just yet to make any kind of sale.”
Twichell reiterated that what she pointed out from the SEQR handbook is important, as it is required by law.
Espersen agreed with Ferguson that the resolution lists the property for sale and does not actually sell it. Twichell and Espersen bickered a bit on that issue, with Twichell pointing out that the words “for sale” were in the resolution.
Twichell and other opponents of selling the land, such as Sam Drayo who spoke against the sale during public comment time, want to keep it as a possible access point for Cassadaga Lake water in an emergency. According to Espersen, that’s a non-starter.
“DEC would oppose the application due to environmental impact. We would not, unless DEC changes their tune, ever be able to pull water from Cassadaga in the future,” Espersen said.
Drayo barked from the crowd that the village did it 30 years ago during a prior drought. “I know we did it, Sam. 30 years ago. Things have changed,” Espersen said. Ferguson has stated in the past that a change in federal regulations, made after that 1990s drought, discourages municipalities from using different watersheds to get water. Fredonia is in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River watershed but Cassadaga is in the Mississippi River watershed.