Our Views: Bridge over troubled Willistons

The Island Now

It is now nearly four years since the Village of East Williston filed suit against the Village of Williston Park over the price Williston Park charges East Williston for water. 

The residents of East Williston and Williston Park should be embarrassed by the way their village boards have behaved and they should be angry about the thousands of dollars that have been wasted on senseless litigation.

These are two small neighboring communities. There’s no reason why the two sides could not have negotiated an acceptable settlement long before the matter went to the courts.

The dispute centers around rate increases that Williston Park has imposed on the water it delivers to East Williston. 

The East Williston board filed the first of two lawsuits in July 2011 after Williston Park imposed a rate increase from $2.99 to $3.83 per 1,000 gallons in April 2011.  It called the increase “arbitrary or capricious.” A second rate increase was imposed in August 2012, increasing the cost per 1,000 gallons to $4.33.

East Williston officials have yet to explain why Williston Park doesn’t have the right to charge East Williston whatever it wants to charge for water. If East Williston is not satisfied with the price, they can always go somewhere else. Not paying what is charged for a service, certainly doesn’t seem like the message a municipality wants to send to taxpayers.

Two letters sent recently, one by Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner and the other by Paul Ehrbar, the mayor of the Village of Williston Park, show how entrenched both sides are and how little progress has been made in resolving this dispute. 

In the letter to Ehrbar, Tanner writes:

“As of this date, it is the understanding of the Board of Trustees of East Williston that all of our proposals have been rejected by you. Essentially, Williston Park’s position remains that the rate for the sale of water to East Williston will remain as Williston Park has previously determined, with only the change in services as Williston Park has set out, and apparently with no room for modification.”

The “understanding of the Board of Trustees of East Wiliston?” The Village Hall of the two municipalities are six blocks apart. How about going over to Williston Park and finding out for sure. Or better yet, meeting somewhere in between at one of the fine dining establishments located on the few blocks that separate the two villages.

For his part, Ehrbar responded:

“[Tanner’s] letter is a self-serving, misrepresentation of the demands made by East Williston to resolve this dispute and misstated Williston Park’s position in negotiations. 

“The truth is that on February 7, 2014, I wrote to Mayor Tanner requesting that we continue talks to resolve this dispute, and he had never responded except by his letter, dated May 6, 2014 … Williston Park believes that this dispute between neighboring communities should be resolved by negotiation, but East Williston has refused to do so.”

Both sides talk a good game.

East Williston Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente told our reporter, “Every member of the East Williston board is in favor of coming to a resolution between the two parties.”

In response to Tanner’s letter, Williston Park trustee Michael Uttaro said, “I think we’ve always been motivated to reach a settlement. The general consensus of all of us is to show our citizens we can solve our problems on our own.”

However, apparently sensing a victory in court in the next few weeks, Williston Park Trustee William Carr said at the moment he not favor a negotiated settlement. “It’s in the court right now and hopefully the court sees it in our favor,” he said.

Of course there is always the possibility that this matter will drag on in the courts for another three years. In that case the residents of both villages will continue to be the losers.

We don’t pretend to be an expert on the legal nuances of this dispute. 

However, if both sides have the good will they pretend to have, it seems to us that a better solution would have been to submit the matter to arbitration. 

Then again we don’t see why the village boards couldn’t have gotten together four years ago and resolved the matter like the neighbors they are.

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