EW seeking to replace WP water

Richard Tedesco

Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner said Monday that the village has renewed its search for alternative water sources as it continues to battle in court the water rates charged by the Village of Williston Park.

Tanner said during a village board meeting Monday he has contacted Mineola, Albertson and Old Westbury about each one supplying a portion of East Williston’s water needs.

“We think it’s a viable option,” Tanner said.

Tanner’s announcement came in response to complaints from residents about their water rates.

The Village of East Williston filed suit against the Village of Williston Park last year after Williston Park announced in April 2011 that it would be raising East Williston’s water rates from $2.99 per thousand gallons to $3.83 per thousand gallons. East Williston won the first round of the suit in state Supreme Court with a ruling that Williston Park should have held a public hearing on the rate increase before it was imposed. The decision is being appealed by Williston Park.

“We think the current prices are way too high,” Tanner said.

Previous overtures by East Williston to the three municipalities to become the village’s sole provider of water didn’t spark interest. 

Tanner said the municipalities all said they lacked the capacity to provide East Williston with enough water to meet all its needs. The Village of Mineola trustees also expressed misgivings about dealing with a municipality that was suing its current water supplier.

Tanner told residents he thinks the neighboring villages might be willing to provide at least part of East Williston’s water needs and together they could take the place of Williston Park. All three municipalities maintain interconnections to East Williston’s water system.

Tanner said the village had also approached two private providers who he said expressed “limited interest” in doing business with East Williston.

Tanner said the East Williston board had made a counter-offer to Williston Park in a July negotiating session and recently repeated that offer in a letter to Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar.

“We did offer Williston a path to settle. We don’t know where that’s at,” he said.

The two villages had been in negotiations over the water rates, which broke down shortly before Williston Park imposed that rate increase.

Based on a revised analysis from engineering consulting firm Dvirka & Bartilucci, the Williston Park Village Board imposed a new wholesale rate increase in August of 13 percent to $4.33 per 1,000 gallons of water from $3.83 per 1,000 gallons of water.

An analysis of the initial Dvirka & Bartolucci report East Williston, commissioned from John Guastella, president of Guastella Associates, suggested the wholesale rate Williston Park should charge East Williston is $3.52 per 1,000 gallons.

Ehrbar said East Williston is seeking a rate discounted from the recent rate of $3.89 Williston Park imposed on its own residents with the August rate change. 

“They refuse to do anything other than that,” Ehrbar said.

At Monday night’s meeting, East Williston Trustee Robert Vella, Jr. said Williston Park officials are refusing to provide emergency chlorination of East Williston’s water as a “negotiating tactic” toward securing the long-term agreement they’ve been seeking

Tanner said Williston Park would be required by law to chlorinate East Williston’s water supply in an emergency. 

At a prior meeting, Tanner said the county Board of Health had notified East Williston it is obligated to provide emergency chlorination services in the absence of an agreement with its current water supplier.

Ehrbar said East Williston has been aware of that requirement for several years and that East Williston officials had been assured that Williston Park would provide emergency chlorination services early in his negotiations with them.

“The chlorination issue has been going on for six years,” Ehrbar said. “It has not been used as a bargaining chip.”

Ehrbar said he expected Williston Park would seek to charge for any emergency services. He said the latest rate increase factored in costs of maintaining Williston Park water mains and administrative costs. 

“We feel like we’re being dealt with capriciously,” Vella said.

Vella said the board is pursing “every possible” avenue to find an alternate source of water. 

In response to a resident’s question about East Williston erecting its own water tower, Tanner said a 2007 study to consider that option concluded it would be too costly.

One resident said his most recent water bill was $3,800 for six months. Another resident said he’d received a bill for $4,100.

Vella said those bills seemed excessive. Tanner asked them to provide their addresses and said the village Department of Public Works would check the meters.

As of April 1, 2011, East Williston water rates are $5.47 per thousand gallons for the first 100,000 gallons used and $5.72 per thousand gallons over 100,000 gallons. 

Village officials have said charges added to the Williston Park rates are needed to pay for East Williston’s water system infrastructure costs.

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