The Bethlehem Town Board has approved a pilot plan that would allow residents to send their water and sewer bills to a postal box operated by Key Bank rather than to the town.
At its meeting on Wednesday, April 11, Town Board members approved a three-month trial to test using the Lockbox system for those who mail their water and sewer payments instead of paying the bills online. It is estimated 70 percent of those bills are still mailed.
The bank would pick up payment checks mailed to a postal box, open them, scan the checks, make the deposits and electronically deliver the information to the town. The service would be offered free for at least a year because of the large amount of business the Town of Bethlehem does with the bank.
Although all board members eventually voted in favor of the pilot, except Councilman Kyle Kotary who was not present, Councilwomen Joann Dawson did have concerns.
“There has to be a cost and none of that has been presented to us,” said Dawson. “Obviously the bank has a cost and that hasn’t been explained to us truly.”
Receiver of Taxes Nancy Mendick also had concerns that she raised at an earlier meeting about the system’s accuracy. She said a resident once accidentally placed bill payments into the wrong envelopes, While Mendick caught the error, an insurance company’s Lockbox service cashed a $3,500 check despite the fact it was made out to the town.
Any cost savings to the town were not discussed in detail, though if staff spends less time processing payments that could lead to staffing reductions. Supervisor John Clarkson said he is opposed to making any layoffs but shrinking staff through attrition is definitely on the table.
Clarkson said more information would be known after the trial is over.
“This is basically a perk (the bank) is offering in a competitive marketplace as a way to encourage us to keep our business there,” said Councilman Jeffrey Kuhn in answer to Dawson’s questions. “This is a pilot as the supervisor discussed and I really don’t see any downsides here.”
The town would be able to stop use of the service at any time without penalty and a scanned copy of all checks would be made available to the town.
Clarkson said he feels the program will work and the potential savings are “too good to overlook.”
Pool house repairs approved
Also at the April 11 meeting, the use of $100,000 was authorized from the Recreation Capital Reserve Fund to use for the town’s share toward an alternative project in lieu of replacing the bridge over Onesquethaw Creek damaged in last year’s hurricane.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency would allow a plan to demolish the bridge, secure the embankments, and use the remainder of federal and state aid to go toward replacing the roof over the Elm Avenue Park Pool House if the new project is shovel ready.
$100,000 had been budgeted in 2011 for basic repairs to the roof, but upon further inspection there was significant damage to some of the roof’s support beams. Town officials said the roof is currently safe, but if the alternative project isn’t approved the town would need to find $300,000 in the near future to pay for the repairs.
According to estimates, it would take nearly $575,000 to fully restore the rail bridge, which is rarely used. Instead, the town will use about $200,000 of federal and state aid money to demolish the bridge and use the remaining $300,000 to replace the pool house roof.
The town would need to contribute around $62,500 to complete the plan, but the figure could grow depending on actual costs of the project. The numbers now are based on estimates.
“Now, we did get some reasonably good new from the state that they may be covering our share of the 12.5 percent costs, so we be may be doing all of this for naught, but again that is somewhat in flux,” Commissioner of Public Works Erik Deyoe told the Board.
The same morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at an event in Middleburgh that $61 million would be given to 25 counties to help municipalities pay for their local contributions towards needed repairs sustained from Hurricane Irene. Albany County would receive an additional $1.9 million in state aid but there is a total estimated cost of $15.1 million in recovery needed.
Clarkson said it is still “up in the air” if the town would actually receive any additional funds.
