The Village of East Williston voted 4-1 Wednesday for a resolution to set a minimum water usage bill of $50 every six months for residents.
East Williston Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said there are currently 30 households in East Williston not using water that should share in the $107,500 cost of village water lost through leakage in pipes.
“Because there is some loss of water at the pipes, not at the homes, you don’t know who to attribute it to,” Parente said.
She said the cost of the lost water is typically included in residents’ water bills, but for residents paying less than $62.94 every six months “you’re not paying your fair share.”
She said she rounded the bill down to $50 since it’s a new charge.
“This is a non-arbitrary way of figuring out what the household minimum should be to have the access to the water,” Parente said.
East Williston Mayor David Tanner cast the lone no vote, saying he favored holding a public hearing before the trustees voted on the resolution.
“In the past we have had public hearings whenever we’ve set water rates,” Tanner said. “I still am somewhat concerned about the way some of the calculations were done. I would have preferred a more in depth analysis because there is a lot of conversation still about our water system there’s still a lot of unanswered questions that we have in terms of the problems we’ve been having in Williston Park and the lawsuit.”
East Williston has filed two lawsuits against the Village of Williston Park over increases in the amount Williston Park charges East Williston for water. Both suits have yet to be resolved.
Village Trustee Robert Vella supported the resolution and said, “I think it’s only right that we all share equitably in the infrastructure costs of having our water system and many other villages have a minimum water charge. If we implement that, not that we’re going to gain tremendous revenue from it, it’s just a cost sharing that makes perfect sense and is equitable.”
In other business, Tanner asked East Williston village attorney Jeffrey Blinkoff to propose a resolution to address future taxes owed on a dilapidated home at 8 Sumter Ave., which the village board has voted to demolish.
Blinkoff proposed a resolution to “transfer all pending funds that are owed on the property at 8 Sumter Ave. and any additional costs that will be incurred from this point going into the future to the village tax roll.”
The village board passed a resolution last month to transfer all unpaid taxes and other outstanding bills incurred up to that point from the Sumter Avenue house to the tax rolls.
The board passed the resolution after voting unanimously last month to conditionally accept a bid from J. Galvin Construction to demolish the Sumter Avenue house.
