New Hartford balks on sewer fee

By ELIZABETH COOPER

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Jan 18, 2010 @ 08:33 PM

Last update Jan 19, 2010 @ 12:21 AM

NEW HARTFORD —

 New Hartford is the only one of nine municipalities on the Sauquoit Creek sewer line not to approve a surcharge meant to help pay for state-required repairs to the system.

The surcharge would add about $100 to the average sewer user's bill in New Hartford.

Oneida County sewer officials say the money is needed as soon as possible to help pay for an estimated $158 million project aimed at preventing raw sewage from flowing into the Mohawk River. It would be one of the largest public works project in regional history.

But the Town Board is holding off on approving the $1.05 per 1,000 gallons additional charge on sewer users until it can be determined if there are other ways to pay.

“I'm for this project,” new Town Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski said. “To say all we want is pure water going into the Mohawk is a great thing. We just don't have enough information.”

Tyksinski said he didn't want town residents and businesses to be charged unless they absolutely had to be.

Not all the preliminary studies are done, and it's not yet known exactly how much each municipality would actually owe for the repairs.

Tyksinski also questioned what would happen if New Hartford residents paid out more than they needed to.

“That's a tough sell for a town supervisor,” he said.

But Oneida County Commissioner of Water Quality and Water Pollution Control Steven Devan said he is under the gun. The state Department of Environmental Conservation in 2007 slapped Oneida County with a consent order to fix the sewage problem by the middle part of this decade.

“I have to start before I have all the answers,” Devan said.

In the end, he said, municipalities would pay only as much as it cost to fix their systems.

There are about 14,000 homes and businesses along the sewer line, in communities including the towns of Paris, New Hartford and Whitestown and the villages of Clayville, New Hartford, New York Mills, Yorkville, Whitesboro and Oriskany.

Why it's needed

Since no sources of outside funding have yet been found, at least for now the money is going to have to come from local sewer users along the affected Sauquoit Creek sewer line.

In 2010, the $1.05 per 1,000 gallon surcharge is hoped to raise $1.2 million across the nine municipalities.

That money would enable the sewer district to borrow $25 million for the first phase of the repairs, Devan said.

The $1.2 million would need to be raised annually until the initial debt service is paid off, and that could be between 20 and 30 years from now, Devan said.

Additionally, other bonds might have to be taken out to cover the rest of the expenses, he said.

Mitigation fees

Tyksinski said he had asked Town Attorney Herbert Cully to investigate whether developers' fees from the French Road and Seneca Turnpike/Commercial Drive area could be used instead.

It's not clear, however, whether the mitigation fees could be used for that purpose, however, because they are earmarked for projects within certain boundaries. Even if the money could be used this year, New Hartford residents would likely have to pay the surcharge in the future.

There is now a little under $1.5 million in the mitigation accounts, Tyksinski said.

Town Board member Christine Krupa said she believes the sewer repairs must be done.

“If the town can use mitigation fees first before charging taxpayers, I think that's probably the best way to go,” she said.

Board members Rich Woodland Jr. and Don Backman both said the use of the mitigation fees should be investigated, but only used if appropriate.

“At this point, the taxpayers are feeing enough pain,” Woodland said.

Board Member David Reynolds could not be reached.

Whitesboro Mayor Richard Pugh, whose village approved the surcharge, said he believed the payments were necessary.

“Some funding has to be raised,” he said.

Miles of sewers

* New Hartford, with its residential areas and commercial strips, owns the largest share of the sewer infrastructure under the state consent order. That's 92 miles of pipes out of a total of 220 in the system, or 42 percent, Sewer District figures show.

* New Hartford's total repair bill is estimated at $26.1 million, and its first-phase repairs are tallied at about $5.3 million.

* If the repairs are not made by a 2014 deadline, it could resulting a $37,500 per day fee for the system as a whole, as well as limits on residential and commercial growth in suburban areas including New Hartford.