East Williston and Williston Park are continuing water service negotiations as the time approaches when the two villages first hoped to have an agreement finalized.
Williston Park’s Village Board began discussion Monday night of East Williston’s most recent proposed revisions, which East Williston delivered Jan. 28, Mayor Paul Ehrbar said.
Since their public Dec. 17 negotiation, both village boards have discussed the agreement mostly in closed-door executive sessions because it involves active litigation between the villages.
Neither Ehrbar nor East Williston Mayor David Tanner would say what East Williston’s revisions specifically included.
“I believe that we can resolve their concerns, and I’m optimistic that we’ll move forward,” Ehrbar said.
He added Williston Park will continue discussion and respond to East Williston “as quickly as we can.”
Since the December meeting, the boards had hoped to finalize the agreement by mid-February.
Tanner and Ehrbar both said they couldn’t give a specific future timeline for the negotiations.
“We’re both interested in putting together the right agreement,” Tanner said.
The villages agreed on the terms of the landmark agreement in December.
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.
Williston Park approved an agreement Jan. 4 containing several provisions not discussed in December, including clauses that would let the village to opt out with 12 months notice to East Williston if it can’t meet its own water supply demands; 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.
East Williston trustees identified these as concerns at a Jan. 12 hearing, where they presented the draft agreement to residents, along with plans for the village’s own $7.5 million water supply system.
They also raised questions about Williston Park’s water operation, as Village Auditor Frank Faber said Williston Park’s water fund had no cash balance and no reserve as of May 31, 2015.
At Williston Park’s Jan. 19 Village Board meeting, Ehrbar said the water fund had a $43,000 surplus at the end of 2015, and the village has recently rehabilitated several pieces of its water infrastructure.
“Any inference that we are less than able or less than professional about the manner that we operate for the last 90 years is really unfounded,” Trustee Teresa Thomann said Jan. 19.
