Officials in the Town of Ballston are hoping to make managing the town’s water system less complicated and more equitable by consolidating extensions.
The primary water district in the town, Water District 2, could soon add its 22nd extension in Timber Creek, a housing development that is starting Phase II of construction. Officials said these extensions are creating a massive headache for the town when it comes to billing and determining a fair and equitable distribution of debt. An ever-expanding water system is both good and bad, said Water Superintendent Joe Whalen.
“More extensions mean more users, more customers and more revenue from those customers,” said Whalen. “But certain extensions are profiting from other extensions and not paying their fair share. If the water district was consolidated, it would mean that they would have to start paying their fair share.”
Whalen said he finds all of these extensions extremely difficult to manage, especially when crafting a budget, in which officials must decide which districts or extensions should pay for capital improvements like construction of a water pump, or be billed for repairs.
Water District 2 was established back in the 1970s. The first extension made to Water District 2 was No. 7. Numbers 3 and 4 are in the village of Ballston Spa and Nos. 5 and 6 are in Glenville.
Since that first extension, 14 more extensions have been created off of Water District 2. Whalen is still amazed by how quickly the extensions have grown.
“This is my 11th year as water superintendent,” he said. “When I first started, there were approximately 1,100 to 1,200 customers. Now, there are 2,060 customers. That is 100 percent growth.”
The situation is made even more complicated in that extensions were sometimes added to existing extensions, making some of them isolated and difficult to consolidate.
At a Wednesday, Dec. 12, meeting, members of the Ballston Town Board discussed ways to do away with the system and put something more sensible in place.
“There is even a possibility of obtaining a state grant for funding the consolidation because New York State encourages consolidation,” said Supervisor Patti Southworth. “They would like to see less special districts and less extensions in towns.”
The board invited Ed Volpelak of C.T. Male and Associates to discuss the possible project. Volpelak gave a brief history of the complex water district.
“As you can see, there’s a lot of different parts to this and has gotten pretty complicated,” he said. “It is a pain to do what’s required to spread the expense around, to track the maintenance going to which district, what maintenance should be spread over the whole district, the assessor has to determine the rolls, the clerk has to maintain all the expense. That’s a lot of paperwork. The thought is to try to consolidate the districts to make that easier and then so some things that will probably make the costs more fair, because things have gotten out of whack with what you have done so far.”
Volpelak said the process of consolidation is fairly simple. Several towns have consolidated recently, including Niskayuna and Guilderland, both of which had 21 extensions. The Town Board would have to pass a resolution and hold a public hearing to go ahead with the consolidation, and could hold a public referendum, though that is not a necessary step.
Volpelak said the board could take a number of different courses. The town could consolidate just operational expenses, consolidate debt or both.
“A lot of things that happened benefited everybody, but not everybody paid for those benefits,” said Volpelak. “The town is trying to make things fair.”
After a lengthy discussion, the board elected to move forward with consolidating Water District 2 and its immediate extensions, and to determine how to consolidate the isolated extensions at a later date.
Also to be determined will be how to keep debt costs spread fairly across the entire district.
“It doesn’t have to be perfectly fair,” said Volpelak. “You as a board make that decision.”
Volpelak cautioned the board that they could not add any more extensions while they are in the process of consolidation.
The board decided to contract Volpelak and C.T. Male to write a grant application. Although the consolidation will be a lengthy process, board members expressed hope it will go smoothly.
“My desire is to find the fairest way to consolidate districts so that it is easily understood and administered,” said Councilman William Goslin.