2 water paths still open in East Williston

Noah Manskar

Village of East Williston officials remain committed to pursuing their landmark agreement with Williston Park as one of two “parallel paths” to resolving the village’s water supply issues, they said at a public hearing Tuesday night.

About 60 residents who appeared at Village Hall Jan. 12 were divided on whether East Williston should move to sign the agreement or move forward with updated plans for the second path — building an independent water supply system.

“We’re not forcing this on you,” Trustee Robert Vella said. “ We come to you as our residents because we trust in your collective intellect.”

The draft agreement Williston Park sent East Williston last week contained several provisions not discussed at the villages’ Dec. 17 negotiation meeting, East Williston Village Attorney Jeffrey Blinkoff said, raising concerns among residents and officials.

Some said an independent well system built with $7.5 million of bonded money could create more stability and lower East Williston’s water costs in the long run.

But others argued there was too much uncertainty in relying on infrastructure that doesn’t exist and would take 30 months to build.

“If we had the well and could provide you with water right now, then I would say that would be better than buying our water from Williston Park,” Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said. “But I believe there are two many unknowns and too many variables.”

The new clause in Williston Park’s draft causing the most worry would let the village to opt out of the agreement with 12 months notice to East Williston if it can’t meet its own water supply demands.

Other new pieces would indemnify Williston Park for damages or injuries resulting from East Williston’s water use; let Williston Park’s village code determine penalty payments; and set a minimum usage of 99 million gallons for East Williston.

Many residents said they were worried the new provisions could result in less stability.

James Daw, a former East Williston trustee, said he thinks the opt-out clause indicated Williston Park may be worried about its own aging water infrastructure and wondered why no one from Williston Park’s Village Board came to Tuesday’s meeting to explain the new provisions.

“If there’s a problem with their infrastructure, maybe if they’re going to have a problem supplying us, I think they owed it to you after all these months and hours and years of negotiating, they owed it to you to tell you, ‘This is a possibility here,’” Daw said.

East Williston Trustee James Iannone said he personally invited two Williston Park trustees to the meeting.

Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said he wouldn’t respond to specific statements made Tuesday, but said his board didn’t receive an official invitation.

Tanner said the board is “serious about negotiating” and will send Williston Park proposed revisions soon.

Ehrbar is “very optimistic” that the two villages will be able to work through East Williston’s worries about the first draft, he said.

“If there’s questions or concerns about aspects of the agreement, then we would expect to sit down and work those issues out and resolve them and move on,” he said.

Tanner said he’s not sure whether a final agreement would be ready for both boards to sign in early February, as they had previously discussed.

East Williston officials are also considering a bond resolution to move forward with updated plans for an independent water system, first proposed in 2014.

The project would put two supply wells and a 100,000-gallon storage tank at Devlin Park.

Accounting for bond payments and maintenance costs, residents would pay an average of $4.76 per thousand gallons on average after some water costs are deducted from residents’ income taxes.

The average rate before taxes would be $5.66 per thousand gallons.

East Williston residents currently pay $5.47 per thousand gallons to cover the village’s maintenance and billing costs.

The well system would make more of East Williston’s water costs fixed and therefor create more stability for the village, Vella said.

“I really would rather have control in my own hands than worry about a rate increase by somebody else,” said Evelyn Ritz, a former East Williston school board president.

But resident Rich Carrato said the system would expose East Williston to greater legal and financial liabilities.

“We’re better off limiting our exposure, or at least having it spread out, if we’re still tied in with Williston Park rather than us taking it on completely.

East Williston trustees approved resolutions Tuesday declaring itself the lead agency on the well project under state environmental review law, and declaring it would not have a significant negative impact on the surrounding area.

Williston Park’s draft agreement, which its Village Board approved Jan. 4, also contains the major terms both village boards agreed to last month.

East Williston would buy water exclusively from Williston Park for 25 years starting at the current rate of $4.33 per thousand gallons, which would be locked until June 2018.

Any future rate hikes would have to maintain the current ratio of East Williston’s rate to Williston Park’s residential rate, and East Williston officials would get to give input with Williston Park’s board before a public hearing on an increase.

Williston Park would continue to chlorinate the water, and both villages would continue maintaining their own water infrastructure.

Several East Williston residents applauded the term maintaining the rate ratio, saying the necessary impact of a rate hike on Williston Park residents could keep increases in check.

“They can only hammer us so hard, because if they hammer us hard, they’re hammering their residents equally as hard,” resident Mike Guglielmo said.

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