Increased 2025 revenues leave village in solid shape

The Village of Fredonia’s unaudited financial report for 2025 shows an increase of 9% in revenue, Village Administrator Christophe Jenkins told the Village Board last month.

Revenues were budgeted to be $1.7 million but came in around $1.9 million.

Expenses were budgeted to be $1.7 million and came in around $1.8 million, putting the village ahead by about $100,000.

One of the elements driving the number to the positive was due to the Bob Oehme donation that came in at the end of last year.

Oehme, a longtime village resident, left more than $93,000 in his will for the village designated to be used for parks and recreation.

The village had budgeted $153,000 in the “other donations” category but received $220,000, Jenkins said.

“We always want to make sure that we’re adding to our fund balance, which means our revenues are going to exceed our expenses. The difference rolls over into that fund balance,” Jenkins said.

Fund balances are essentially savings accounts used to cover unexpected expenses.

Even without Oehme’s donation, Jenkins said, “In each annual budget we’re setting aside money for rainy days. We’re in a pretty healthy spot there.”

General fund revenues were budgeted to be $1.15 million and the village collected $1.2 million. The biggest reason, Jenkins said, was omitted tax money from Guy & O’Neill. The value of the company went up and down and was finally professionally corrected, he said.

License and permit revenues came in a little under budget from lack of construction.

“I will happily tell you this is the year the industrial park’s going to boom and we’ll reflect capturing those revenues,” Jenkins said.

Lab fund revenues were projected to be $43,000 but came in at $68,000. The village has its own wastewater treatment lab that tests its water and gets hired by other municipalities and private entities to test their water.

In expenses, general government was projected to be $386,000 and came in at $395,000, mostly due to changes in insurance costs that the village expect to decrease this year, Jenkins said.

The public works budget was $519,000 but came in at $591,000 “largely due to equipment maintenance,” Jenkins said.

“The more things that fell apart, the more repairs we had to do.”

The parks budget came in just over its $120,000 budget at $128,000 due to park maintenance, he said.

The debt fund budget was $377,000, but village residents didn’t have to pay that much.

“We had a little bit of fund balance in our debt fund we were able to utilize so that we didn’t have to impact our taxpayers as much,” Jenkins said, adding that it also allowed the village to pay off its $106,000 loan for a skid steer.

The budget strategy, Jenkins said, aligns with the village’s priority to be fiscally sound, focused on high-quality community services and focused on employees to offer flexible work/life balance, wage increases and a competitive benefits package.