East Williston and Williston Park’s Village Boards left Williston Park’s Village Hall with the final framework for a water-service agreement Thursday after settling their remaining differences.
But the path to an independent water supply system is still open in East Williston, frustrating Williston Park trustees.
“I thought we had an agreement. This is why we were here, and we don’t have an agreement,” Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said.
While some East Williston trustees said they favored the 25-year agreement, reached after years of negotiations, the village plans to put a $7.5 million bond referendum for an independent system to a vote.
History indicates such a referendum will be defeated, Mayor David Tanner said, but the board thinks letting residents decide how to settle “the largest public issue we’ve ever faced as a village” is the most democratic approach.
“It is my strong belief that this is an issue that is too large and, in my village, it’s too contested within the community for us to impose our views on it,” Trustee Robert Vella said.
The boards reached compromises Thursday to settle disagreements that had emerged since Williston Park approved a draft agreement in January.
Williston Park Trustees Teresa Thomann and Michael Uttaro were absent Thursday night.
They removed a clause that would have allowed Williston Park to opt out of the agreement with 12 months notice to East Williston if it couldn’t meet its own water supply needs, which had raised alarm among East Williston residents in January.
East Williston will likely not have to build its own emergency chlorination system, as its Village Board had worried last month.
Under the finalized agreement, Williston Park would chlorinate East Williston’s water in an emergency, such as contamination, to the extent it can without exceeding the maximum level of chlorine in its water supply.
East Williston’s water mains might have to be flushed to ensure enough chlorine gets into its system.
Under normal circumstances, the Nassau County health department would have required East Williston to provide its own emergency chlorination, but the department told the village in 2011 an agreement with Williston Park would suffice, trustees said.
The question Thursday was who would pay to install a separate system if future health department officials told East Williston it needed one.
The boards agreed to include a separate clause saying neither village would have to pay directly for any infrastructure in the other. Williston Park could still raise water rates to cover infrastructure costs.
The separate clause prevents any potential “red flags” for the county health department when it reviews the agreement, East Williston water consultant John Mirando said.
The villages struck an indemnification clause that concerned East Williston residents, instead deciding to maintain liability insurance policies and include a clause indemnifying both villages for damages resulting from each other’s water systems.
In exchange for removing a the clause indemnifying Williston Park for any damages resulting from East Williston’s water use, Williston Park wanted both villages to maintain a $10 million insurance policy.
East Williston only needed a $5 million policy, Mirando said, because Williston Park has more infrastructure and a “bigger amount of exposure to liability.”
The new agreement also contains provisions for late fees and bill disputes.
East Williston must pay a 5-percent late fee if a bill goes unpaid for 60 days, and 5 percent more for each additional 30 days.
The structure represented a compromise between Williston Park’s proposal of an initial 10-percent penalty and following 5-percent penalties and East Williston’s want of an initial 5-percent penalty followed by additional 1-percent penalties.
If East Williston wants to dispute a bill, Williston Park will be paid the full amount and hold the disputed amount in an escrow account.
The villages must settle the dispute within 60 days in an “expedited arbitration.” The disputed bill won’t accrue late fees.
Williston Park’s board initially thought the escrow provision left it “totally unprotected,” Ehrbar said, from disputes over the water rate like the one that started the villages’ battle in 2011.
But the provision is meant to create an avenue to settle a “good faith dispute,” Vella said, and would put the money in Williston Park’s hands.
Rate disputes would be excluded from the escrow process under the agreement.
“We’re giving up the money,” Trustee James Iannone said. “The money is out of our control.”
The new agreement comes more than two months after the villages reached the terms of a water-service agreement at a Dec. 17 negotiation and a month past the date when the villages had said they hoped to have an agreement signed.
East Williston would buy water exclusively from Williston Park for 25 years. The current rate of $4.33 per thousand gallons would be locked until June 2018.
Any future rate hikes would have to maintain the ratio of East Williston’s rate to Williston Park’s residential rate, and East Williston officials would get to give input with Williston Park’s board before a public hearing on an increase.
Both villages would continue maintaining their own water infrastructure. East Williston would pay Williston Park $100,000 over the course of a year to settle existing lawsuits.
As the boards have negotiated, East Williston trustees have continued to present an independent water supply system to residents as an alternative.
Once the county health department approves the chlorination provisions, East Williston’s board put a referendum out for a public vote as soon as the law allows, trustees said.
“The village board has completed our job as a village board. We now have the two best options available to us,” Tanner said Friday. “The most democratic approach is to allow our residents a vote on how they want to proceed.”
Iannone and Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente both said Thursday they favor the agreement.
While Iannone said he thinks most East Williston residents will support the document, he said a vote is necessary because many passionately support the well.
“I think the agreement accomplishes the goals of protecting our residents and the concerns that they have,” Iannone said.
When Williston Park trustees left December’s meeting, Ehrbar said, they were under the impression that the well was off the table. He called the vote on the well a “back-door referendum” on the agreement.
“We’ve tried to make both sides come together and be a win-win for both, and it seems to me you’re playing us against everybody else,” Ehrbar said.
Tanner said he thinks residents’ approving the agreement by voting down the referendum would strengthen the villages’ relationship, but the permanency of the decision requires a vote
“We’re either all in with Williston Park and the agreement that we’re about to sign, or all in with building a well,” he said.
