The Water Authority of Great Neck North’s board of directors approved a $7.6 million operating budget for 2012 last month that showed a zero percent rate increase.
“We are happy to inform our customers that in these difficult economic times there will be no rate increase for 2012,” said Gregory Graziano, superintendent of the Water Authority of Great Neck North. “This is the fifth consecutive budget with the current rate structure and the third consecutive year with a zero or negative operating plan increase.
Graziano credited the zero increase to cost-saving initiatives such as proper management, employee attrition, a radio-read meter system, and a system called supervisory control and data acquisition.
Supervisory control and data acquisition is a computer program that allows the water authority to turn on and off wells using a computer. Previously teams would be assigned to monitor wells 24 hours a day.
Graziano said this allowed the water authority to eliminate two shifts and use a team that only works 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Sunday.
Another system that helped save money was the implementation of radio-read meter systems, he said.
“Instead of our workers having to go out and read homeowners meters, we are able to read the meter using a laptop from the workers vehicles,” Graziano said. “We’ve installed it in about 90 percent of households and it makes the process much faster and takes less work. We’ve been tightening up controls and keeping costs down.”
Since its creation in 1985 by the State of New York, the water authority has provided drinking water to the northern areas of the Great Neck peninsula. Included are the villages of Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Kensington, Kings Point, Saddle Rock, portions of Great Neck Plaza and Thomaston, and portions of the unincorporated areas of the Town of North Hempstead.
The water authority is a not-for-profit entity, and currently serves more than 35,000 people.
