The Williston Park Village Board withheld a decision on imposing new water rates at Monday night’s meeting after receiving a letter from the East Williston Village Board that included a critical analysis of the report that prompted Williston Park to consider upping rates for its own village and its neighbor village.
After an hour-long executive session to discuss the proposed rate hike, Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar emerged with his fellow board trustees to announce they would not be voting.
“There’s going to be no action taken tonight,” Ehrbar said.
Ehrbar later declined to comment on the reasons the board had decided to take no action.
The proposed rate change would push the wholesale rate Williston Park is now charging its neighboring village up 15 percent to $4.41 per 1,000 gallons of water from the current $3.83 per 1,000 gallons of water.
Village of East Williston Trustee Robert Vella Jr. said an analysis the East Williston board commissioned from Guastella Associates suggested the wholesale water rate should be $3.54 per 1,000 gallons.
Vella called that “a reasonable wholesale rate for us to charge our residents.”
Guastella Associates Inc. had been jointly commissioned by the boards of both villages to analyze the water rates in 2006. The Village of Williston Park’s latest rate proposal was developed by the engineering consulting firm Dvirka & Bartolucci. A rate hike developed with Dvirka & Bartolucci last April – from the $2.99 per 1,000 gallons to $3.83 – prompted a lawsuit earlier this year in which East Williston contends the rate increase was “arbitrary or capricious.”
It was not clear after the meeting what part the input from East Williston made on the Williston Park board’s decision to hold up voting on the water rates until its Aug. 6 meeting.
Two days after Williston Park’s last board meeting, Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar and Deputy Mayor Kevin Rynne met with East Williston Mayor David Tanner and Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente to discuss a possible settlement between the two villages to the protracted water rates dispute.
On Monday night, Ehrbar said only that the meeting had been “cordial” and had generated information for each side to report to their respective boards.
Before the executive session, Williston Park village attorney James Bradley said the East Williston board objected to the 12 percent surcharge Williston Park had planned to include in its water rate hike, along with other cost factors.
The Dvirka & Bartolucci report advised Williston Park to include a “modest” 12 percent surcharge on the rates charged East Williston, which would bring Williston Park $611,000 in its current fiscal year. The report puts the minimum cost of water services to East Williston for the current fiscal year at $546,525.43.
Vella, who attended the meeting with East Williston village attorney Jeffrey Blinkoff, said he found the result encouraging.
“That’s all we can ask for, is a chance to continue talking,” Vella said.
Vella had interceded last month as the Williston Park trustees seemed ready to endorse the new water rates after a public hearing, asking for time to evaluate the report and engage in a dialogue about the rates.
“Our hope is that the board will hold this decision in abeyance until we can discuss the rates. My hope is that we can find some middle ground,” Vella said at the June 18 meeting.
Prior to the meeting, Vella said the proposed rate hike would be difficult for East Williston, which he said must “tack on” 25 percent to what Williston Park charges it for water “just to cover our costs.”
Vella said there were infrastructure costs incurred with the water flowing across the railroad tracks that divide the municipalities.
Asked if he anticipated another meeting to discuss the water rates with East Williston officials before the Williston Park board’s next meeting, Ehrbar declined to comment.
