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Thread: West Seneca water district residents asked to consider consolidation for takeover

  1. #1
    Member dtwarren's Avatar
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    West Seneca water district residents asked to consider consolidation for takeover

    From: http://www.buffalonews.com/city-regi...eover-20131217

    Residents of West Seneca’s eight water districts are being asked to consider consolidating into a single district to be taken over by the Erie County Water Authority.

    There are two separate systems within the town: a direct service area, along the borders of Buffalo and Lackawanna; and eight, lease-managed districts of varying size to the east containing approximately 9,000 dwellings.

    In the direct service area, “Erie County owns and operates the system. They pay for any of the repairs that are necessary,” Jason A. Foote, of Clark Patterson Lee, explained during Monday’s Town Board meeting. The town pays a hydrant maintenance fee.

    Meanwhile, the town is responsible for all capital improvements in the eight leased districts, where the water authority handles customer service, billing, meter reading and maintenance. The town doesn’t have a Water Department, and has practically no budget nor manpower for its responsibilities.
    But a takeover by the Erie County Water Authority would cost approximately $7.5 million. The town has a $400,000 local government efficiency grant to offset planning costs.

    For the takeover to happen, the town would have to replace 44,280 feet of old water mains; replace 57 hydrants; and make improvements to water storage tanks, according to Foote.

    For homeowners in those eight districts, their total annual cost would increase from $220.00 to $265.41. The $3.20 annual operation and maintenance fee charged by the town would be dropped.

    If things were to remain the same, residents could be looking at a total annual cost of $620, some of which would pay for a systematic replacement of water lines.
    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

  2. #2
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    or homeowners in those eight districts, their total annual cost would increase from $220.00 to $265.41. The $3.20 annual operation and maintenance fee charged by the town would be dropped.
    Isn't your town near the top on property taxes to begin with?

  3. #3
    Member dtwarren's Avatar
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    In 2015 the Town bonded close to $8 million to perform repairs on our water system and to convert from a leased managed to direct service with the Erie County Water Authority. At the time we were told that the repairs would be completed in November 2016 with the transfer to ECWA to take place in early 2017. However, this does not to have been done since in the most recent budget we are still paying for the water districts.

    There are two separate systems within the town: a direct service area, along the borders of Buffalo and Lackawanna that is completely serviced by the ECWA; and eight, lease-managed districts of varying size to the east containing approximately 9,000 dwellings.

    In the direct service area, “Erie County owns and operates the system. They pay for any of the repairs that are necessary,” Jason A. Foote, of Clark Patterson Lee, explained during a Town Board meeting in 2013. The town pays a hydrant maintenance fee.

    Back in 2013 we were told that the town is responsible for all capital improvements in the eight leased districts, where the water authority handles customer service, billing, meter reading and maintenance. The town doesn’t have a Water Department, and has practically no budget nor manpower for its responsibilities.

    We need to shed operations such as this and get out of the water business and we need to look at doing something like this to our sewer districts.

    If elected to the West Seneca Town Board I will work for you to make this happen.
    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

  4. #4
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    dt, beware. Does the county own the direct service area or is it owned by ECWA? ECWA is notorious for putting the cost of updates on district taxpayers as a condition of merger. ECWA gets a fully modernized system to manage & make $$$ from while the district residents get to pay for years to retire the debt incurred to pay for the upgrades. This is still another reason that Erie County and it’s bastard children, ECWA, ECIDA & NFTA should be dissolved.

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