The highest marginal rate for water consumption for Village of East Williston residents is $5.72 per 1,000 gallons. The VEW is billed by Williston Park $4.33.
The incremental cost of $1.39 is levied by EW to pay for maintenance within the Village on mains and meters, exploring water supply alternatives, and operating shortfalls in our water fund resulting from main breaks and other unbillable leaks. The $5.72 rate is indeed the highest I have come across, compared to $5.60 in Port Washington, $5.47 in Garden City, $4.05 in Manhasset and $3.95 in Mineola.
Williston Park raised the cost from 2.99 in 2007 to 4.33 in 2012 and it has remained flat since then, for a compound annual growth rate of 5.5 percent.
While still a high annual rate of increase, this is sounds more reasonable than the egregious “45 percent in three years” the EW Board of Trustees are using to garner support around their plan for East Williston water “independence”.
The already high costs of this project presented last week by the East Williston board and their engineers were discovered to be flawed, specifically in the very low assumed cost of financing.
So after two years of investing in this proposal, we still do not have an honest and compelling cost-benefit analysis for the average resident.
Furthermore, the argument that East Williston would be able to sell water to neighboring towns is null, as we currently have no customers in need of it, or willing to share in the burden of developing the facility.
If this project proceeds, residents of East Williston are likely to face ever-increasing costs to maintain this water district, with only 854 households sharing the cost burden.
Take for example the Roslyn Water District, which has recently floated a $22 million bond to finance existing well maintenance and the installation of an air stripper to reduce contaminants.
Their cost is spread over nearly 6,000 households and businesses.
What will East Williston do when down the road, we have huge maintenance related capital needs to spread across a mere 854 households?
The proposed cost of $7 million (or in excess of $600,000 annually for 30 years) is not only misleading, it is simply inaccurate. They cannot possibly know what the future actual costs will be.
In addition, this analysis doesn’t provide any reason to expect that East Williston will have a competitive advantage to be a significantly lower cost producer of water than any neighboring town in Nassau County.
As East Williston currently comprises roughly 30 percent of the revenue generated by the Williston Park Water District, the loss of that revenue will undoubtedly result in higher costs borne by Williston Park residents and businesses.
Judging by the empty storefronts along Hillside Avenue, higher operating costs for local businesses should be avoided at all costs in order to keep a vibrant local economy and residential taxes low.
There are indeed alternative solutions to this stalemate.
It only requires that the elected officials of East Williston and Williston Park put the interests of their residents ahead of their own.
Let them return to the negotiating table and strive to make the Willistons a place where residents can once again be proud to call home.
John Azzara
East Williston
