Fredonia’s water use rate is going up by $2 per 1,000 gallons used after a 3-2 vote of the village Board of Trustees this week.

Trustees Ben Brauchler, Jon Espersen and Nicole Siracuse provided the “aye” votes to pass the rate hike while Trustees Michelle Twichell and Paul Wandel voted “no.”

The vote, raising the usage rate to $6.95 per 1,000 gallons, came hours after another brown water event in the village’s troubled system. Mayor Michael Ferguson assured residents their water is safe.

Espersen said he voted down two water rate hike proposals last year. However, “looking back now, I look at the deficit that we’re running every year — we’re getting dangerously close to the minimum percentage required by law. So we need the added income.”

Twichell said, “I would have voted to table this until after we do our budget. I think this isn’t the time, even though I do agree it does need to be increased. I’d rather have it take place after we take a look at our budget.”

Wandel said it should be tabled because village officials must first investigate the discrepancies in financial numbers. “We need four or five months to get a better handle on this.”

Several members of the public admonished the board for the rate hike proposal, before it was voted in.

“I think it’s a little ironic that we had brown water this morning and we’re talking about raising water prices. Poor timing on your part, guys, that’s unfortunate,” said one speaker, Patrick Sexton. “I think we really should be looking into where water waste is going before we start charging the citizens here more money for it.”

Former Trustee James Lynden repeated his stance, similar to Twichell’s, that trustees should wait until they put together a 2024-25 fiscal year budget to raise water rates.