Engineering report recommends tying Fredonia to North Chautauqua County Water District over rebuilding reservoir

La Bella Associates recommended that the Village of Fredonia decommission its water treatment plant, draw down the village reservoir and interconnect the village distribution system with the North Chautauqua County Water District, La Bella engineers told the village board and a public meeting May 27.

The recommendation — what La Bella called Alternative 2 — follows an engineering evaluation and hydraulic modeling of Fredonia’s treatment plant, reservoir, dam/spillway and distribution system carried out in 2023–2024. “Our recommendation is alternative 2, which includes decommissioning the village water plant, drawing down the reservoir, and tying in with North Chautauqua County Water District,” said Matt Higgins, a water/wastewater engineer with La Bella Associates. Higgins told the board the recommendation weighed both capital and lifecycle costs and “meaningful nonmonetary factors.”

Why it matters: the decision affects drinking water supply, fire protection capacity, the village’s capital budget and long‑term liability for a dam that La Bella said regulators have found in poor condition. The firm presented two principal options: upgrade and retain the village plant, reservoir, dam and distribution system (Alternative 1), or decommission the plant and rely on interconnections with the North Chautauqua County Water District (Alternative 2). La Bella estimated Alternative 1’s construction cost at just under $35 million and Alternative 2 at about $20.7 million; the firm emphasized those figures exclude any grant funding and noted life‑cycle cost differences and operating tradeoffs.

Most important details: La Bella described major deficiencies at the water plant (process upgrades, an additional clarifier, HVAC, electrical, SCADA and streambank stabilization for a constrained site adjacent to the stream), vulnerability of the…