HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-04-21•
T13 4 -21 -04
TOWN OF DRYDEN
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
DRYDEN VILLAGE HALL
APRIL 21, 2004
Present:
Christopher Michaels, Dryden Town Councilman
Mark Strom, Dryden Village'i'rustee
Ron Moore, Dryden Village DPW
Michael Hattery, Dryden Town Councilman
Steven Trumbull, Dryden Town Supervisor
Shannon Harding, PLS Engineering
Chuck Franzese, Hunt Engineers
Jim Finnigan, Hunt Engineers
Mary Ellen Bossack, Dryden Village Trustee
Debra Marrotte, Dryden Village Clerk
Daniel Wakeman, Dryden Village Trustee
Stephen Stelick, Dryden Town Councilman
Jon Bradley, Dryden Village DPW
Mayor Taylor explained she had called the meeting in order to move forward in getting
the sewer contract for the Cortland Road Sewer District finalized. There is a draft contract and
there were some issues about quantities, the Town's share of cost: and how much of the sewer
plant the Town was actually going to be using. She would like to develop a calendar for moving
forward with this and renovations that need to be made to the Village sewer plant. She said a
lot of work has been done on the plant already. She said the time for bidding and construction
this year is basically over, and so they will be looking at doing it next year.
Mayor Taylor noted there is area designated in the Town's Comprehensive Plan for
growth around the Village and the Village would like to know how much that is actually
anticipated to grow in the near future and if any of that: area is anticipated to be served by the
Village's sewer plant. She noted that some of those areas are quite a ways from the Village and
if the Town is anticipating hooking those areas into the sewer plant they will have to think
about a larger plant: than they are currently anticipating. Chris Michaels said they would
anticipate that areas right around the Village would hook up eventually, but not so much the
areas around Freeville or Varna. Mayor Taylor said she was concerned about the area around
Dryden Lake. Mike Hattery said that when comprehensive plans are done, infrastructure is
not necessarily considered, but rather where they think growth will be or where they want
growth. Chris Michaels said they do anticipate growth from the Village outward and the idea is
not to have a house every 1,000 feet and then come back and put houses every 500, but rather
to direct some of the development through the infrastructure expansion. He noted the reality
the Town is not growing that fast, raid that allows for some planning as opposed to playing
catchup.
Mayor Taylor asked whether there was any plrun for a major development: plan and the
Town boru"d members said they were not aware of any. Mayor Taylor said there is someone
getting ready to do a major development in the Village. They are anticipating and planning for
that and had anticipated development in the Cortland Road Sewer District and perhaps toward
Hanford and on Route 13. She said the development at TC3 with the dorms and new athletic
facility have been taken into consideration when they were planning for the sewer plant
expansion. The Village is ready to move forward because they know they need to work on their
plant and the first thing they need to do is set the current Cortland Road Sewer District
Page I of 9
TB 4 -21 -04
because it has rates and shares for things that need to be taken care of. There are Town and
Village responsibilities as far as pipes, cleanup, etc, and they would like to move forward with
that because that will be a basis for moving forward with other things.
C Michaels asked for a bullet point list. of changes the Village would like from the
previous agreement, something contrasting the draft agreement proposed by the Village with
the previous agreement. There is not one available. J Bradley and PLS Engineering worked
together to prepare the proposed contract and it has not been prepared by the Village attorney.
Mayor Taylor said the attorneys for the Town and Village thought the boards should meet and
review the proposed agreement and provide comments to them. M Hattery asked for a list: of
what was in the old contract that is not in the new one.
J Bradley said he could do that and noted that the way the old contract was written it
was totally unenforceable. He said it referred to a meter policy of the Town's that he
understands never went into effect, and referred to enforcement through the Town that doesn't
take place. J Bradley said it tries to address the infiltration problem with a suggestion of
metering pits coming into the Village, though it is costly. He said the other issues concern
what was actually in the sewer district and that Par View seems to have "just appeared" after
the contract was written, and it also refers to the fact: that the contracts have been assigned for
TC3 and the High School to the Town. Billing is also addressed, gallonage versus unit prices,
which is a big change.
S Stelick asked if any tangible data had been collected with respect. to infiltration in the
Cortland Road Sewer District. S Harding said she believes they have been metering some of
the manholes and have recorded data of the inflow in areas of specific concern.
O M Hattery asked Mayor Taylor if there were things that were not in the old agreement
that the Village would like in tihe new agreement:, or that were in the old agreement that they
would not like included in the new agreement. She said she was going to ask the attorneys
about the need for a map detailing where the Town would be responsible for pipes, etc. There
had been a question about the pipes on TC3 property and whether they were responsible for
those.
The Village is also concerned with the manhole problem at the Mott Road Trailer Park
and wonders if the owner is responsible for replacing that: or if the Town is responsible for it..
Mayor Taylor said she is not sure it is clear in the contract. She said that if a problem is in the
sewer district in the Town, the Village can say they want something done, but it is up to the
Town to enforce and /or make sure it gets done. It needs to be clear who is responsible: for
doing what.
C Michaels said that the Village runs a sewer plant and because of that they have a
certain amount of expertise in house about infiltration and other related issues, where what
the Town has is a highway department. lie said he appreciates that there has been some
ambiguity and enforcement, but if the Town contracts with the Village to run the plant and the
Village has the expertise to identify issues, he prefers to either empower the Village to take
action on its own or obligating the Town to assist the Village in taking necessary- action. He
said he mould rather obligate the Town to assist as necessary. C Michaels said the Town could
certainly install necessary lines.
Mayor Taylor said they need to come up with some way to empower the Village and say
that the Town will pay the expense of doing it, and these are the areas she thinks needs some
work in the draft contract. She said in the past when the Town has had problems, the Village
is has sent men to help and it has never been spelled out that it was okay for them to help, and
maybe there should be some sort of reimbursement: for their time, this needs to be discussed
and ironed out.
Page 2 of 9
L_
I'll 4 -21 -04
C Michaels said there were a couple i ssues . Th e T w i cou ld construct within the
district. Monitoring and maintenance is a second issue and third is expense. The Town is
currently paying one and a quarter rate. Presumably when someone in the Village pays a
particular amount they are paying for maintenance, staff, etc, and when people in the 'Town
pay an increased amount, then hopefully there is an economy of scale. The Town is paying one
and a quarter and he thinks the Town is paying for it once in the rate, paying a premium for
not having to administer it at 1.25. He Said when they are talking about reimbursing the
Village for work time in addition, he is starting to see a disparity between a person on one side
of road from the other, and we should keep in mind that: all the people are town residents and
he would like to treat them all fairly. Those within the district that are receiving the services
are going to be taxed for the entirety of the cost, and when we get to a cost issue we need to
talk about how to share the cost among the people that are receiving services from the same
sewer system.
Mayor Taylor said she understands what he is saying, but she would have to look at
how much the one and a quarter actually offsets the Village costs, because they have to employ
three or four licensed operators and they get a certain amount of call back pay, and all of the
salaries for those people come out of the Village taxpayers. The Village does not have separate
sever tax. There is a separate sewer fund and water fund and they are supposed to be self -
supporting entities. They have recently had to raise the wager rates because they were being
self- sufficient. With what the cost of the improvements to the sewer plant will be, they will
probably have to increase the sewer rates.
C Michaels said that 100% of what the 'Town obligates itself for with respect to the
sewer district will come out of the sewer district. Those residents outside the Cortland Road
® Sewer District do not pay anything for the maintenance of that district. Mayor Taylor said
certain administrative and labor costs for Village employees are charged to the sewer fund in
the Village. The Village will have to borrow substantially for the improvements to the sewer
plant and that may mean increasing rates for sewer. The Village has prepared a list: of work
done that according to the old contract was a cost: share that the Village never passed on to the
Town. She said it is not her intention now to ask the 'Town for payment, but the Village put
about a half million dollars into the plant, all from the Village sewer fund.
C Michaels asked about the reference to the Village of Freeville in the old contract and
Jon Bradley said that in the mid- eighties the outfall line from the Village of Dryden sewer plant
was extended to Fall Creek and Freeville uses that same outfall line. The new proposed
contract does not mention Freeville and J Bradley said he is not sure that it should because
the original contract was a. pre - construction document.
D Wakeman said going back to the fees charged, the sewer plant handles the sewer for
the Town and Village the same way, and if we can get a handle on percentage of use, we can
get a real good idea of how to split that up. Presumably with everyone paying by gallonage it
will be split correctly, but getting from point n to point B, the Town is using more
infrastructure because the lines are a lot longer, so there is a little bit more usage of
infrastructure. So when Village employees maintain lines in the Village it is for the residents of
the Village but it is also a conduit from the Town to the Village plant.
C Michaels said the Town is paying for all of the lines in the Town, where all the lines in
the Village in terms of the rate are 1X, whereas the Towns are 1.25X plus the cost of installing
the lines. D Wakeman said installation is a one time cost. C Michaels said there is a 1.25 rage
and the reality for anyone in the Village without the flows from the Cortland Road Sewer
® District is their rates go up because the Town is able to share many of the costs across a.
broader spectrum.
Page 3 cif 9
TB 4 -21 -04
iJ Bradlev said he disagrees and the Village could save a lot of money by not servicing
the Cortland Road Sewer District. It would take a burden off the Village, and they could get by
with a smaller sewer plant without the Town flows because there aren't that many places left to
develop in the Village. He said he is not sure why the Village is trying to negotiate this contract
and his position is they should cut off the Town's sewer district and let the Town do what ever
they want.
C Michaels said all business experience and economic studies would suggest the
opposite, that larger scales allow economies of scale. He said he appreciates that is the law of
averages and there are ups and downs in that and he is willing to accept that in this particular
situation an economy of scale is false, but would like some information. He would like to know
the costs for expanding to accommodate the Cortland Road Sewer District flows are versus
what the costs would be if the Village did not need to accommodate those flows. J Bradley said
he doesn't think they have ever figured that out, but since everything is pumped that comes
into that plant, by the quantity and amount of energy used that is used, the Village is a lot
better off not taking the Town's flows.
S Steliek asked if it was correct that the Village was losing money by processing the
Town's and J Bradley said that was pretty close. C Michaels said that as a Town Board
member who does not benefit personally from this district, his interest is in seeing that the
Village customers are not paying an unfair amount relative to a gallon of sewage that: they
dispense into the situation versus one across the road in the Town's district. He is wondering
whether the rate should be 1.25 or 1.5, and he is ready to look at any information the Village
has. J Bradley said that information is expensive to obtain as there are engineering reports,
etc involved.
® Mavor Taylor said they know at the present time there are areas that definitely need to
be fixed, and it seems the Town is willing to pay for any new construction that needs to be
done, and the Village would be responsible for monitoring inflows that were too high and to
maintain and correct any problems there are. She asked if the Village knows there is a
problem or major construction needs to be done in some areas, how do they proceed?
C Michaels said fixing the pipe is not necessarily a problem for the Town. He said we
need to parcel out monitor versus fix. What the Town is going to have difficulty doing is
identifying the problem. Once the problem is identified and properly characterized, in many
situations, fixing it is usually pretty straightforward. The Town has a Public Works
Department to do that kind of thing. He is comfortable with an obligation to fix things. It
makes sense given the talent and skills of the people that will be mutually employed, that the
monitoring be done by the group that's doing the metering and billing. The Village would be
able to identify a problem with water and sewer usage through its billing procedures.
Jon Bradley has provided PLS Engineering with figures from the monitoring they have
done to date, so they know where some of the problem areas are. S Harding said the manhole
which collects most of the flow from TC3 has been monitored and on March 1, shows a. now of
63,000 gallons, indicating estimated infiltration of roughly 19,000 gallons. March 2 and 3 (a
rainy period) there was 176,000 gallons of water through the manhole; roughly 133,000 of that
was infiltration. That is .1 mgd in a plant which is rated for .5 mgd. She said for one manhole
to be getting one quarter of the permit is a significant impact. On an average daily flown they
are looking at .5 mgd, but are seeing up to 2.5 mgd in wet weather flows. S Harding said this
is an odd plant to design and the biggest problem with the existing plant right now is the
hydraulics. They have a good idea how far the Village can expand in development, and they
need a realistic prediction of growth in the Town for the next 20 years. She said they are at a
ispoint with DEC where they need to make a determination on what size permit to ask for.
Page, 4 of 9
T3 4 -21 -04
• C Michaels said we need to make sure we don't overbuild in order to handle infiltration,
that the infiltration problem needs to be corrected, and we need to make a good estimate of
anticipated growth. The desire is to have a lot of the growth happen in proximity to existing
services, but the reality is that growth won't necessarily happen where Town officials want
growth because of where developers want to put things or where people actually want to live.
S Harding with respect to the rates, the biggest thing that needs to be established in
assessing rates is there is a difference between costs for treatment and costs for infrastructure.
She said it doesn't; matter if it is a house in the Village or a house in the Town, they should all
be charged a certain rate for the gallonage that they are producing, but then there is the capital
costs and costs associated with maintaining the wastewater treatment plant. And it needs to
be determined how those will be shared between the Village and the Town. She said there are
sewers within the Village that. are strictly for Village and there are transmission mains that
serve not only the Village, but also the Town. They need to come up with sorne way of
assessing maintenance of the shared lines within the Village.
C Michaels asked if when the Village sets its rates, the only way they are covering their
capital and treatment: costs is from the rates and Mayor Taylor said that was correct. C
Michaels said then when someone in the Town pays one times the rate they are paying for all of
the capital costs of the Village and for the treatment costs, and they are being taxed for all the
capital costs for the treatment where as none of the Village residents are paying for any of the
capital costs out in the Town, and then the Town residents are not only paying one times, they
are paying one and quarter. He said there may be a disparity.
D Marrot:t:e said that for the past five years there
has not been a profit
at all in
the
Village's sewer fund, and there was about $50,000 contributed from the fund
balance
each
year. The rate increase has made a difference though.
Mayor Taylor said she knows
there are
® proposed new lines and new manholes and maybe what
they need to do is gel:
a breakdown of
what new lines will be purely lines for recovering Town sewage and manholes
that are
there
solely for the Town sewage.
C Michaels said one of the proposals in the new contract is that the Town will cover part
of the cost of putting in interceptor lines that will take Town sewage to the plant. As he
understands the proposal, it is to have the Town pay for the Town lines in the district and for
the interceptor lines to get it to the plant, and have the Village residents cover the entirety of
the capital costs for the infrastructure within the Village and both municipalities cover the
plant. He said he can understand where that makes some amount of sense and the disparity
is that the Village resident who lives next door to the plant is still paying for the lines for the
guy that lives the furthest away in the Village. That is not what the agreement seems to say.
The agreement seems to say that the Town residents will pay for 100% of the capital cost: of the
lines within the Village in the rate and the Village wants them to be charged for all of the
interceptor lines and the lines within the Cortland Load Sewer District, and ghat does not. seem
fair. They are paying one and quarter for the rate to cover the cost of Building the interceptor
line once and then they are going to be paying for it: again. It seems there is double dipping in
the cost of the capital infrastructure equipment.
D Wakeman said he didn't think the one and a quarter is intended to be explicitly for
interceptor lines; he thinks it is separate. As an operation it is a whole different scale, because
if the Village didn't have any flows from the Town, this would be a lot simpler and they
wouldn't be talking about a new plant at all and the Village residents wouldn't have new capital
outlays because the plant would not be reconstructed.
® C Michaels asked if it was cheaper to keep the Village plant as it is and build a separate
one, or cheaper to build a bigger new plant to accommodate both flows. J Bradley said that
information is contained in the Flunt Engineers report..
Page 5 of 9
14B 4 -21 -04
Mayor Taylor said they are all in agreement that it is cheaper to run one plant; that it is
easier for the Town
to spend a million and a
half dollars and have the Village
keep doing
everything than for
the Town to spend three
and a half to four million dollars
to build a new
plant. Upgrades to
the Village plant are currently estimated at 3.6 million. Without Town
flows the upgrade to the Village plant would
not have to be of the magnitude;
that is required
now.
D Wakeman said that there are several different components of a sewer plant: the
capital, the maintenance and on going operations, costs for capital and costs for maintenance.
He asked S Harding if in her experience in other places whether that was ever broken down in
a bill, such as one component on the bill and another for transmission. C Franzese said that
you build your rate up and arrive at a number that appears on the bill, and somewhere in the
calculation is the information that D Wakeman is looking for. D Wakeman said perhaps they
could charge based on distance from the plant.
C Michaels said that this is one sewer agreement out of many that the Town deals w6th
and the To1wr1 is a member of Bolton Point. Bolton Point, for instance, doesn't: have a rate
based on how far it is from the plant. One rate is charged throughout the entire system.
Those systems work by a group of municipalities getting together and agreeing on a cost -
splitting and asked if that was a fairer way to deal with this. Mayor Taylor said that's where
they are trying to end up, getting the stuff that's broken fixed in a timely fashion so they can
move forward and not have a lot of infiltration, so they don't build a plant to deal with the
infiltration. She would like to see all this fixed before the end of the construction season so
that next year they are ready to go to bid for this plant. They would like to get the bids out in
the middle of January or February. C Michaels said the things that have worked well for the
® Towr► have been .joint ownership. They put the costs in a pot and the municipalities agree how
to split: them up. Sometimes the cost of the underlying lines are included, and sometimes
they're not. They divide it up and all the customers pay one rate. He said it seems that as
opposed to discussing who should pay which costs, and asked could we agree on something
like that.
J Bradley said the Village has already built this infrastructure and the reason that TC3
and the Town made a sewer district wasn't because they had a sewer plant. it's because the
Village residents invested money in the sewer plant and everybody else is trying to ride the coat
tails for nothing.
C Michaels said it is a question of how much money does the Town pay. M Hattery said
the situation is that there is a standard rage and in acknowledgement of Village ownership and
the existence of the plant, the district pays rate and an increment. That is reflected in the local
laws recently passed by the Town. He said there are infrastructure issues and the question who
is going to pay the costs of the infrastructure that's needed because of the large flow to the
plant: from the district.
C Michaels said he doesn't: think that the rate differential is the same thing as a co-
ownership, co- management agreement. It is one proposal. C Hattery said there had never
been a discussion where the Town was offering to invest what it takes to become a co- owner;
that would be a whole new discussion.
C Michaels asked what: the relative flows into the plant are. S I•larding said currently
the Village has a flow of 203,000 gallons per day, and what is coming from the'1'own is 81,000
gallons per day. These flows are based purely on the number of units connected, neglecting
® any inflow/ in Filtration problems. She said there is no way to quantif}- inflow and infiltration
without daily monitoring. D Wakeman said he'd be interested in seeing some of the other
agreements the Town has. C Michaels said that with the suggestions that: are being made for
Page 6 of 9
TD 4 -21-04
sharing of expenses and capital costs, joint ownership should be considered. He said he
expected the Village was going to ask the Town to contribute significantly to the financial cost
for the sewer plant upgrades and asked if that was an accurate statement, or whether it would
come out of rates. D Wakeman said that he understand those funds would come from rates.
M Hattery noted that the previous agreement between the Town and Village assumed that
major infrastructure increases would be shared, and the Village despite that agreement
invested half a million dollars without asking for the shared portion from the Town, and that.
would have been outside the rates.
M Hattery asked if the Village wanted the Town to deal with the issue of needed
maintenance in order to correct inflow as part of the agreement, or are they saying they want
the Town to in some way respond to that outside the agreement. J Bradley said the reason the
way the contract was written so ghat it spells out the need for measuring stations coming into
the Village was because the assumption was the Town would continue the same way that it
has been. It is impossible for the Village to handle that kind of flow for the amount of money
they are getting, and he thinks it needs to be in the contract and enforced somehow. Mayor
Taylor wants to be sure that the Town will maintain a structure if the Village says there is a
problem with it. in the past problems have not been fixed, though they have been identified.
Any contract needs to state that the Town will repair areas when they are notified that work
needs to be done.
C Franzese said he is also a councilman for the Town of Dix and they are just
completing negotiations of a new wager and sewer district and have completed their
negotiations with the Village of Watkins Glen to provide water and take their sewage and would
like to make some observations and comments intended to assist with what the Town and
Village are trying to do. Iie said it is clear that: the agreement needs to have a well- thought out
0 Lip M section. The Town sewer use ordinance must demand individual agreements with TC3
and the Mott Road trailer park to make sure there is leverage on them to help fix their internal
problems because Town funds can't be spent on their property. iie said it is imperative that
there be a similar agreement negotiated with the Village to demand their performance, and the
Town's ordinance should mirror the agreement with the Village. If the 'Town has to do any
changes to its sewer district that have to do with rage adjustments whether passing on debt
service or a new agreement with the Village, the State Comptroller's Office will demand a
complete cost of 0 & M as it relates to the Village and the Town.
The Village of Watkins Glen did not like to have capital assessments to the Village
residents for capital improvements to the wager and sewer so they have always tried to pass on
the debt service in the rate structure with the idea that they were building in reserves as they
reduced their debt service and pay it off as they build their capital reserve for future
improvements and construction. However, as they started reducing their principal and interest
expenses they never raised their rages to go along with inflation so they never built up any
capital reserves and then they were out of money when they had to make an improvement.
One of the troubles they got into with their out of district users was they were passing all their
capital improvements into their 1.5 rate adjustment for out of village users at the same time
their Towns were charging their consumers a debt service charge to pay for their infrastructure
improvements. That caused trouble between the Town and Village because the Town residents
were paying their share of capital improvements in addition to the Village charges.
D Wakeman suggested the Town could assess a separate charge to residents of the
Cortland Road Sewer District for whatever capital is needed to put into the transmission
outside of the Village. C Franzese said what happened was the Town of Dix ended up charging
the Town residents all their capital improvement costs outside of the Village and ended up
® taking on a higher rate with the idea that the Village already had the infrastructure of the
plant:. They had figured out that the Village had to add a half a position and a truck to service
the district, so there was an additional charge on 0 & M, and by the Town paying the
Page 7 of 9
TB 4 -21 -04
additional charge on the 0 & M and consumption numbers, they were contributing to that
"future capital reserve" and would not be assessed in the agreement they made with the Village
for plant improvements in the future any more than the rate increases that: were resolved at the
time of improvements. He said it is clear that the Town and Village of Dryden are on the right
track because these costs of operation need to be defined and understood.
Mayor Taylor said she understands the sewer contract with the Dryden High School
expired in 1982 and asked if there were letters of agreement or something between the school
and the Town now. The Village originally had the contract with the school and when the
Cortland Road Sewer District was formed the contract was assumed by the Town. C Michaels
asked if they were part of the district would they require a contract more than any homeowner.
M Hattery said there may not be a contract since the original contract was assumed at the
formation of the sewer district. Mayor '1`aylor said the contract with TC3 expires the end of May
and it would be a good time to address maintenance of the lines, infiltration, etc. She noted
the Dryden Middle School has been added to the High School Campus, resulting in increased
flow, so that should be addressed. She suggested there also be a contract for the Mott Road
Trailer Park. Once those are in place, the major infiltration problems can be addressed.
Mayor Taylor said they had talked about a lot of different things tonight and would like
to keep moving forward and suggested they develop a calendar for future discussions.
C Michaels reviewed what needs to be resolved:
1.) Update the Town's Ordinance if necessary after review.
2) Strop infiltration.
3) Who is going to monitor flows and identify problems in the future.
4) Who fixes and maintains the pipes.
S) Who builds the pipes in the Village.
Mayor Taylor said access to property in the district that needs work needs to be
addressed.
C Franzese asked if there was an identified interceptor project and J Bradley said the
interceptor project is in sketch form. The problems have been identified. S Harding said they
have proposed two alternatives, one to rebuild the main interceptor that runs down Route 13,
or to put a relief sewer on a side street that would be cheaper. C Michaels asked if that
problem would go away if there were no infiltration problem. S Harding said some of it would
relieve some of it, but with the growth happening on the North end of the Town there is still
limited capacity. The estimated cast of this is $400,000. M Hattery said it would be good to
get an opinion from the Town's engineers on the interceptor. PLS Engineering will provide a
copy of their report to Hunt: Engineers.
M Hattery said he would like to have the Village Attorney prepare a proposed agreement
that include the issues raised, provide copies to the Town and Village Board members and the
Town will ask its attorney to comment on the proposal. C Michaels would like a red -line; copy
between the old and new agreements, and offered to prepare that.
9 M I-lattery said he would like some kind of provisions in the agreement: about what
happens if additional property in the Cortland Road Water District is annexed into the Village.
Page 8 of 9
01'13 4 -21-04
isJ Bradley said two things that need to be explored further are anticipated development
south of the Village and whether the Town is willing to put in extra money to make the plant
bigger in anticipation of that, or should the Village go ahead with the design they have now. He
said that is a decision to be made by the Town. C Michaels said they could probably come up
with an idea of anticipated growth from George Prantz and the Town's Comprehensive Plan. S
Harding said the concern from the Village standpoint is they are talking about a larger increase
in the capital expenditure for the wastewater treatment plant and the Village people being
assessed for improvements that they otherwise wouldn't need. There was some discussion
about how the Town would raise funds for that if they decided to proceed.
J Bradley asked if the improvements being discussed under this agreement would be
bonded for and then paid for out of sewer rents, divided among the Village and Town, or keep
the rates they way they are with the Village and Town paying their portions up front. He said
the contract is ambiguous in that regard. C Michaels said the `T'own's portion could not: come
from Town funds, but must be paid by the district., and it would probably need to be bonded
for. M Hattery said there could be a fee charged to raise funds. The Town will have to invest in
infrastructure. Mayor Taylor said they would have to do it through bonding and build it into
the rate to cover the costs for both the Village and the Sewer District, C Franzese said either
way debt. service would be subject to referendum, and there was some discussion about
whether that was necessary for improvements to existing infrastructure. J Bradley said if it
was paid for through rates, the agreement: would need to be changed. C Michaels &�Ud it would
be much more efficient to do it through rates. Mayor Taylor said they would have to find out:
what can legally be done. The Town has the option to raise some of the funds through its
special district assessments.
The boards will arrange to meet: again after the draft contract is received and reviewed.
M Hattery said the agreement should be conditioned upon the 'town having agreements in
place with TC3, Dryden Schools and the Mott Road Trailer Park. Mayor Taylor said that might
be accomplished through easements. C Michaels said the problem with making that a
condition to the agreement with the Village is that the Town cannot legally bind itself to a
contract to provide sewer services when the Town doesn't have an agreement with the Village.
There would need to be some flexibility, and everyone agrees that those are things that need to
be worked out.
Res )ectfully submitted,
Bambi L. Hollenbeck
Town Clerk
•
Page 9 of9