The funding was part of $66 million in financial assistance for water infrastructure improvements projects approved by the State Environmental Facilities Corporation Board of Directors.

Fredonia will receive $4,878,833 in long-term interest-free financing to plan, design and construct the first phase of the village’s wastewater treatment plant improvement project.

One of New Jersey’s finest Mikey Erg talked with WRFAs Anthony Merchant about his upcoming show in Fredonia with Mikey Erg Band and Doc Hopper, the coolness of Scott Reynolds of ALL being from Chautauqua County, working with Steve Albini last year, having Robert Pollard do your album art and much more

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The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office said 48-year old Richard Lorek was struck by a car driven by 64-year old Polly Gambino of Cassadaga when he tried to cross Route 60 on foot. Lorek was taken to Brooks Memorial Hospital where he died.

No charges are expected at this time.

The White Inn in Fredonia has received $1.25 million toward the renovation and reopening of the former hotel and restaurant.

In the village of Westfield, the Welch’s Building will receive $1.5 million toward its historic rehabilitation and adaptive use of the building. The project will create 46 new housing units in the village.

The City of Dunkirk will receive $1 million for its Central Avenue Transformation project. That project will address vacant properties in the 400 block of Central Avenue in Downtown Dunkirk. Local investor Allan Steinberg, who bought 411 Central, plans to create a “Broadway Market” type of space where kiosks could be rented and a butcher shop reopened. A two-story building located at 423-427 Central Avenue also would be developed into four new apartments.

And the Village of Silver Creek Senior School Apartments project has been funded with $1 million. The project at 60 Main Street involves the substantial rehabilitation, conversion, and an addition to a vacant, nearly 100-year old, 57,000 sq. ft. abandoned former school into a 59,900 sq. ft. building with 47 units of affordable rental homes for seniors ages 62 and older.

Restore New York supports municipal revitalization efforts across the state, helping to remove blight, reinvigorate downtowns, and generate economic opportunity in communities statewide. The program, administered by Empire State Development, is designed to help local governments revitalize their communities and encourage commercial investment, improve the local housing stock, put properties back on the tax rolls and increase the local tax base.

College Lodge Forest, Fredonia

The Western New York Land Conservancy and the Friends of the College Lodge Forest have announced the Land Conservancy has officially purchased the College Lodge Forest in Fredonia.

The College Lodge Forest becomes the newest Land Conservancy preserve. It will remain open year-round as a publicly accessible nature sanctuary with miles of existing hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country ski trails. The Faculty Student Association (FSA), a non-profit auxiliary of SUNY Fredonia from which the Land Conservancy purchased the forest, will continue to own the historic lodge and the 33 acres surrounding it.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 27, the College Lodge Forest was formally inducted into the national Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN).

During the past few years, the Land Conservancy and the Friends of the College Lodge Forest carried out an ambitious fundraising campaign to protect the property. Purchased in 1939 by SUNY Fredonia students, with their own funds, for the main objective of promoting health outdoors, the land has been a prized learning laboratory for thousands of teachers, researchers, students, and the entire community ever since. The FSA has owned the property and operated the lodge since 1969.

In addition to being a sanctuary for people, the College Lodge Forest is home to an incredible diversity of wildlife, a pristine wetland with carnivorous plants, old-growth trees, and unique native orchids. It is also part of a significant migratory bird corridor.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Officials report Fredonia fire crews were called to 111 Center Street just before 6 a.m. Residents in the upstairs apartment were able to escape without injury with a first floor resident having to break a bedroom window to escape. She was injured in the process and taken to Brooks Memorial Hospital for treatment and released.

Another resident of the downstairs apartment, 70-year old Patricia Ulkins, wasn’t able to escape and died in the fire.

Firefighters determined the fire started on the first floor of the home but there was so much damage that they do not know the cause. It is not considered suspicious in nature but an investigation is continuing.

The state Environmental Facilities Corporation board approved the funds as part of more than $115 million for critical clean and drinking water infrastructure projects across the state that protect or improve water quality.

The funding received locally will go toward constructing a new pump station and approximately 500,000-gallon water storage tank. 18-thousand linear feet of water mains and associated fixtures will also be installed and interconnected with Fredonia’s water system.

Susan Forrester-Mackay and Phyllis Jones both were elected or the first time to the village board, with about 1,500 voters turning out to vote in Monday’s election. Just 35 votes separated the highest and lowest number of votes for the four candidates running for office. Jones received 397 votes while Mackay received 396. Republican Michael Vinciguerra received 371 and Mary Jane Starks received 362.

Also in yesterday’s Fredonia village election, residents voted in favor of a proposition to move the village elections from March to November, starting in 2015.

Other village elections in Chautauqua County are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 19.

Election results for Fredonia voters will be available after the close of polls on Monday at www.votechautauqua.com.

All other village elections will be taking place next week, Tuesday, March 19. Villages that will hold elections include Bemus Point, Brocton, Cassadaga, Cherry Creek, Falconer, Forestville, Lakewood, Panama, Sherman, Silver Creek, Sinclairville and Westfield.

In today’s election Election Administrators, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., will be demonstrating its’ product as part of the Fredonia election. Election Commissioner Brian Abram says that voters in Fredonia will sign in to vote just as they always have, only they will be signing their name on an electronic signature pad similar to what is used at stores.

Both Abram and fellow county election commissioner Norman Green say that the advantages of the electronic signature pad is an elimination of  paper printing and an elimination of personnel time needed to produce paper poll books.  Another advantage would be a drastic reduction in the time needed to update voter history, and to process name or address changes after an election.

The Board of Elections will test a second vendor at the Westfield Village election on March 19.