East Williston’s Village Board still has yet to approve a draft water-service agreement with the Village of Williston Park, officials said this week.
The agreement was set to go back to East Williston trustees Wednesday after Williston Park’s Village Board agreed to “minor, insignificant changes” to legal language on Monday, Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said.
Within a week of East Williston trustees reviewing it, Mayor David Tanner said, he will personally deliver the draft pact Williston Park’s board approved more than a month ago to the Nassau County Health Department. The health department must review the agreement’s emergency chlorination plan, a sticking point in negotiations earlier this year.
“These things never seem to happen as quickly as everybody would like them to, but that’s just the nature of these things,” Tanner said.
The two boards agreed to the final terms of the agreement two months ago at a March 3 public negotiation, at which they settled differences that had emerged since a similar meeting in December.
Tanner said the delay is “not at the fault of any particular party” and attributed it to the schedule of the village boards’ meetings and the involvement of so many people.
Under normal circumstances, the county health department would have required East Williston to provide its own emergency chlorination, but the department told the village in 2011 an agreement with Williston Park would suffice, trustees have said.
Under the plan, East Williston will likely not have to build its own emergency chlorination system, as its Village Board worried in February.
Williston Park would chlorinate East Williston’s water in an emergency to the maximum extent it can.
East Williston’s Village Board still plans to put out a $7.5 million bond referendum to let residents decide whether to build two wells and a supply tank at Devlin Field, Tanner said.
To Williston Park trustees’ frustration, the village has maintained an independent water supply system as an alternative to the agreement with Williston Park since 2014.
Voting down the bond would effectively approve the agreement, village officials have said.
If the agreement is eventually signed, East Williston would buy water exclusively from Williston Park for 25 years, with the current rate of $4.33 per thousand gallons locked until June 2018.
Any future rate hikes would have to maintain the ratio of East Williston’s rate to Williston Park’s residential rate.
If East Williston wants to dispute a bill, Williston Park would get the full amount and hold the disputed amount in escrow while the villages settle the dispute within 60 days.
East Williston would pay Williston Park $100,000 over the course of a year to settle existing lawsuits. Both villages would continue maintaining their own water infrastructure.
A clause indemnifies both villages for damages resulting from each other’s water systems as long as they maintain liability insurance policies.
Reach reporter Noah Manskar by e-mail at nmanskar@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @noahmanskar and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
