Property owners near and outside sewer district No. 1 are being invited to create adjoining new ones

by Dan McClelland

Town officials met in special session last Wednesday afternoon and agreed to extend invitations to any property owners who own parcels near the large sewer district No. 1 to consider forming new ones alongside it at their own expense.

The invitation came as part of ongoing work by the town board, in cooperation with the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) and an architectural and engineering firm, GYMO, with making needed infrastructure improvements to the town’s two large water and sewer districts, both termed respectively as Nos. 1.

They are the districts that were created in an earlier consolidation procedure for the town by DANC, where all water and sewer districts without debts were consolidated together into one.

Step number two of that ongoing process is to prepare for construction upgrades to the oldest of those several dozen districts in each of the Nos. 1.

The offer Wednesday is another element of that ongoing study work.

Councilman John Gillis, who has been working closely with DANC and GYMO on this unfolding work, led the discussion Wednesday before the board voted unanimously to invite property owners outside but near Sewer District No. one into it.

Before the board that afternoon was a map of the town showing the various neighborhoods around the various pieces of sewer district No. 1 that would be eligible to join it.

“So what we have to decide this afternoon is whether or not we want to canvass the residents of what would be a new sewer district,” Mr. Gillis began.

Some of the neighborhoods that could become new sewer districts or a single combined district were on Glenwood and Becky Avenues, Hosley Ave., Mitchell Lane and sections of Kildare Road, according to the map provided by GYMO.

The map showed green areas which are the existing pieces of sewer district No. 1. Brown areas showed potential new districts and larger red blocks represented undeveloped areas of the town that could also become districts.

“When GYMO first proposed these areas they thought because they were so close to our existing systems, that they might want to tag onto district No. 1.”

“It turns out the price of doing that (to tag on) wouldn’t be fair to the people in district No. 1, so GYMO now proposes any interested people should create their own district.”

The town is also considering having property owners near the main town water district (No. 1) also join, but according to Mr. Gillis, that procedure is expected to be less costly and less complicated.

“In some of those cases it would be just creating loops on some streets (that are already part of a water district), he continued.

Those changes would also boost the water pressure in some of those district neighborhoods, which will help any firefighting efforts there, he told his colleagues that afternoon.

Several existing water districts on Victor, Hosley and Lincoln Drive currently have “dead ends” which curtail water pressure, it was noted. New loops that would join them would improve the water pressure and supply in each, he noted.

“What we are doing this afternoon is agreeing to canvass these new property owners about creating their own sewer districts, he added.

“This is not about adding onto sewer district No. 1, but about whether or not you want to form (or join) your own district,” Supervisor Ricky Dattola stated, making sure everyone around the board table was clear.

The end result will likely be one new district, despite their different locations around the town, said Councilman Gillis.

“The time to do it is right now.” He said if the town adds more houses to the sewer district that currently serves a couple of houses on Larkin Ave., it might just as well as pick up the properties on the adjacent streets of Glenwood and Becky avenues.

Mr. Gillis said the financial numbers also fit well right now. “So roughly it will cost sewer district No. 1 residents $3 million to do all the needed repairs and another $3 million to add the new properties” into a new district.

Mr. Dattola asked him how many properties owners near the existing sewer district No. 1 could be merged into a new district and start enjoying village sewer services.

Mr. Gillis estimated it was in the 50s range.

So those 50 or so property owners would share the cost of the $3 million over a long bonding financial period of 30 or more years? the supervisor asked Mr. Gillis and he said that approximation was essentially correct.

“What would be the new number of this new sewer district?” Councilman Rick Donah asked his colleague and Mr. Gillis said that wouldn’t be known yet. “At this point we’re just asking those people if they would like to form a new district” and enjoy the services of the village-provided system.

“It can’t hurt to ask those people!” said Councilwoman Crystal Boucher and her colleagues agreed.

“It’s a good time to ask right now, because we have the numbers before us,” explained Mr. Gillis.

He said he thought that under state law the office of the state comptroller says a town can’t exceed $680 per household a year in sewer district fees. He said those property owners will pay whatever the cost of connecting to the sewer mains near their properties, but cannot be asked to pay more than $680 or so in amortization of construction costs of forming the district and building its infrastructure each year of the bonding period.

That information will be explained in the letter the board agreed to send to those affected property owners in coming days to get an idea of who wants to form a new sewer district and who doesn’t.

Under municipal law, whenever new service districts are formed, their creations are determined by a majority vote of those in the proposed district area. If the outcome of the vote is affirmative, every parcel must be included.

“We are also looking at the repairs that need to be done in water district No. 1 as well,” Mr. Gillis also reported. “But that is a different issue and not on the table right now!”

The board agreed unanimously to canvass the owners of the approximately 50 parcels that could be formed into a new sewer district.

Mr. Gillis said that in terms of tackling the needed repairs to the large sewer district No. 1, they are awaiting a financial determination from Town Attorney Kirk Gagnier to make sure that the $680 per year contribution cap is not exceeded.

There are apparently hundreds of property owners in that big district that would share the estimated $3 million cost of needed repairs on charges on their town tax bills in coming decades.

The supervisor calculated that dividing the $3 million repair bill into that many property owners should produce an annual payment far less than $680 per household. Mr. Gillis agreed with him.

There are a half dozen or so areas in that consolidated district that have been identified by Village Water and Sewer Superintendent Mark Robillard as in need of improvement work.

It was noted too that there may be some properties very close to the boundaries of sewer district No. 1 that they may be able to run their own lateral line to attach to it, and become a new member of that large district to save both the district and themselves considerable money.

“For example, if the district covers the first three houses on your street and you own the fourth house, if you can get there using a lateral line with a gravity feed and easily tie in,” and you are willing to pay the $1,000 cost of tapping into the village system, the cost of joining the bigger district would be relatively small, Councilman Gillis predicted.

“But we’re not opening up joining district No. 1 to people who we’d have to spend a lot of money” with new infrastructure to get them to it, he assured his colleagues.

If the plan is successful, it would free up more town residents here from their reliance on on-site septic systems.