$1,800.00 Per Year in Water!!!: $167 Quarterly Water Rate Increase in Peaceable Hill, New York has Residents Outraged (LowHudNews)

Feb.02, 2009 in Public Works, Water Bills, Water Rates

(Feb. 2, 2009, LoHud News)

Peaceable Hill homeowners vehemently protesting an “outrageous” increase in their water bills may have found some relief from the town.

More than a dozen residents showed up at a Town Board meeting last week to vent their frustrations about a $167 spike in their quarterly water bills, arguing many people may have to move because they cannot afford the steep price. Residents are now expected to pay about $461 per quarter for water, up from $294 last year. The town has offered to bring the cost down modestly.

“We will be paying $1,800-a-year in water. Outrageous,” said Manor Way Drive resident Susan Berman at the meeting. “The citizens of this water district are not wealthy. We don’t have million-dollar houses. Many are elderly and on fixed incomes.”

The Peaceable Hill Water District, which includes 144 homes on and around Peaceable Hill Road, gets water from Brewster, though it falls within the town boundaries. Residents are charged a flat rate because they don’t have individual water meters. Brewster increased that rate from $.015, or a penny-and-a-half, to two pennies per gallon this year, Brewster Mayor James Schoenig said. The increase is because of the nearly $10 million in infrastructure work the village recently completed to replace its water system, he said.

“The town is our customer,” Schoenig said. “What you have to understand is that the village is charging the town two cents per gallon. Whatever overhead they (the town) put on that, we have no control over.”

At the meeting, the Town Board unanimously voted to lower the town’s portion of the costs it tacks on to the water bills by $208 per household per year. That equates to a $52 reduction per quarter. The Town Board also approved waiving the 10 percent late fee for those not paying their bills on time.

Supervisor Michael Rights assured the residents they will continue to work on the issue and research alternative water sources. An emergency meeting requested by Berman with town and village officials to explore options was scheduled for Feb. 12.

Special Districts Administrator Levon Bedrosian explained one possibility is for the district to get its own water by purchasing a 6-acre piece of property nearby and installing wells there. That would cost about $1.2 million to $1.8 million, he said. Residents would then pay $336 to $414 in water bills per quarter that would include maintenance, paying off the bond to buy the land and other costs, he said.

Schoenig suggested installing meters at every residence so that each homeowner is paying for their own water usage and not also their neighbors. The town is looking into that plan, Bedrosian said.

Right now, the district is using 8 million gallons of water per year, Schoenig said. The village is expected to receive $160,000 from the town for that expenditure this year, Schoenig said.

Peaceable Hill residents are also demanding to know where their money is going, concerned that it may be funding other village departments.

“We’re just up in arms here,” said Alice Conklin, 67, who has lived off Peaceable Hill for 37 years. “It’s not fair that we have to pay for a Police Department that we don’t even use – we can’t use – because we’re not in the village.”

Earlier this month, the Brewster Central School District called into question the rise in utility rates it pays to the village for Garden Street Elementary School and whether Brewster might be illegally allocating that revenue toward running its government. Some school board members, along with the Brewster-Southeast Joint Fire District, suggested a forensic audit to determine how the village is using the money.

Schoenig said then the village’s counsel advised that it could pay its personnel, including its Police and Highway departments, through its three funds. The structure is set up so that in most cases, 30 percent of each department’s budget comes out of the water fund, 30 percent from the sewer fund and 40 percent from the general fund, he said.

Peaceable Hill’s monies go into the village’s water fund, Schoenig said.

Either way, district residents still want their water rates lowered.

“What happens when they can’t pay their water bills?” asked Harvey VanDerlyn, 82, of Lodar Lane. “It’s morally incumbent upon the town and village to find a solution. I’ve lived in my house for more than 50 years. and I want to die there.”

Reach Marcela Rojas at mrojas@lohud.com or 845-228-2271.

(Original Article Here)