HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-10-16 - WC Ulysses Water Commission
October 16, 2008, 12 : 00 p. m.
Ulysses Town Offices
Attending: Doug Austic , Diane Hillmann (chair) , Chip Martin, Mike Lunger
Diane provided a short review of the previous meeting, held in September. She provided a basic
outline of a web page that the Commission could include as part of the Town of Ulysses Website
(see below for the outline) . The group discussed this, and felt the outline looked appropriate .
Doug agreed to provide the text of the enabling resolution, maps appropriate to be served on the
web showing the districts, and some tm documents the
and finances . Dian agreed to p rovide a simpler version of the chart prepared
by the engineers to help explain the steps to requesting extensions .
The group discussed an issue first brought up in September concerning a possible extension of
water lines on the short stretch of Cold Springs Road between Rte . 96 and Jacksonville Rd. The
original lines were not extended down that stretch because it was largely undeveloped when
District 3 was set up , but now several new houses have been built on the north side of the road.
Given that there is considerable benefit to closing the loop between Jacksonville Road and Rte .
96 , it was suggested that the Town might use some contingency funding remaining in the District
3 budget to extend the line and include those houses in the current District 3 . The members felt
this would be a good use of those funds . Doug agreed to explore the costs of having Town
employees do the pipe installation next spring as time permits, and to provide Diane with names
of the new residents so they can be surveyed.
Doug brought up an issue that had been brought to his attention by the owner of the Washington
Heights trailer park. The original plan for charging District 3 costs made a distinction between
housing that was separate units (each one charged separately as 1 unit) like Washington Heights ,
and those that were attached units, such as Jackson Heights, further North on Rte. 96 , charged at
8/ 10ths of a unit . Doug noted that these distinctions were made at the suggestion of the
engineers, who cited this as a common charging standard based on experience in urban areas .
The members agreed in principle, after some discussion, that this did have an aura of unfairness .
The problem was that the Jackson Heights development does not have separate connections per
unit (rather the whole development has one connection and the owner divides the costs among
residents) , so direct comparisons based on actual usage are impossible to make . The members
recommended that as it is problematic to change the charging for Jackson Heights
retrospectively, they would not do so , but strongly recommended that new developments be
required to have separate connections and that they be charged as single units . As a corollary,
they suggested that Jackson Heights be required to have separate connections when and if the
development changes owners . The issue may come up again if truly multiple residence units are
built in District 3 , rather than duplexes sharing a single wall but in reality little different from
single units .
The Commission did not set another meeting time, but instead determined to do as much
business virtually as possible, and set a meeting when necessary
Minutes by Diane Hillmann, Chair
Ulysses Water Commission, proposed Webpage table of contents
1 . Charge
a. Text of enabling resolution from the Town Board
2 . Water districts
a. District 1
b . District 2
Ulysses Water Commission 2
10/ 16/2008
c . District 3
i . Include maps
ii . Description of infrastructure and mechanisms for charging fees and
paying debt
d . District 4
3 . Commission Members
a. Names, contact information, which district they represent
4 . Operating summaries
a. Revenue and expenses (summarized) for each district
5 . Procedures for requesting extension of service
a. Summary of process
b . Brief discussion of allocation of costs
6 . Contact information