No sewer surcharge for New Hartford

By ELIZABETH COOPER

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Jan 27, 2010 @ 10:46 PM

NEW HARTFORD —

Town residents whose homes are hooked up to the Oneida County Sewer District’s system won’t have to pay a $1.05 per $1,000 surcharge after all.

The Town Board voted Wednesday to pay for its share of the 2010 costs out of mitigation fees from developers.

“We don’t want to rack up the $1.05 and put it on top of the 46 percent tax increase,” board member Don Backman said, referring to the property tax increase town residents are seeing this year.

Oneida County Commissioner of Water Quality and Water Pollution Control Steven Devan said he was glad the town was contributing its share of the money, no matter what its method.

“The whole goal was to get the money to fund the debt service, which is what we did, so they will move forward as part of the project,” he said.

The money is needed as soon as possible to help pay debt service on a $25 million bond for an estimated $158 million project aimed at preventing raw sewage from flowing into the Mohawk River.

The project, which is state mandated, must be completed by Oct. 31, 2014.

Had the surcharge been approved, the average New Hartford homeowner would have paid about $100 more on their sewer bill this year. New Hartford’s vote means the town is the only one of nine municipalities on the sewer line not to sign onto the surcharge.

Next year, the issue will be revisited. It’s not yet clear what the amount of the surcharge will be in 2011, sewer officials said.

Town Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski was the only one on the five-member board to vote against the measure.

“There are too many unanswered questions,” he said.

Tyksinski said his main concern was to make sure residents of his town didn’t end up paying more than their share of the sewer costs.

According to his calculations, New Hartford residents may be billed for a higher percent of the costs than they are currently estimated to owe. Sewer officials said in the end each community would pay what its own repairs cost.