Proposed A fee for water hookups
ALTAMONT The mayor and board of trustees have proposed a fee for new hookups to Altamonts water system.
Mayor Jim Gaughan calls it a benefit assessment fee and said its to help fund planned improvements for the system.
"We need to really look at lessening the impact of our capital improvement projects," Gaughan told The Enterprise yesterday.
The water-strapped village has proposed a two-phase project. The first is to develop a new water source from a well on Brandle Road, outside the village, at a cost of about $1.4 million. The property owners who were selling the land to Altamont when the village drilled the well have since sued; the case has not yet been settled.
The main source of water for the current system is a reservoir in Knox.
The second phase is $1.1-million project to improve the water distribution system. Pieces of it are over 100 years old.
According to the new plan, the village will charge a fee of $2,500 per unit for each new residential unit hooking into the water system. Those already on the system will not be charged.
Water users in and out of the village will pay the same fee. This will take some of the burden off the village taxpayers, Gaughan said.
Benefit assessment fees are not uncommon, he said. In Saratoga Springs, a $3,000 fee is charged per unit for new connections. In the Latham Water District, new hookups cost between $1,125 and $3,470 per unit, depending on where the property is located, Gaughan said.
In Altamont, the $2,500 fee is half of the current fee for connecting to the sewer line. Sewer taxes are usually about twice that of water taxes, Gaughan said.
"We found that, given our experience, [the fee] should really be half," he said.
According to the proposal, an apartment will be considered a fraction of a unit depending on the number of bedrooms it has. A single-family home would be a full unit.
Commercial property owners will be charged by usage, one unit per 200 gallons of water used per day. Fractions will be rounded up to the next whole unit. So, for example, the village says, a restaurant projected to use 700 gallons per day will be charged $10,000.
If current building projects, now in the planning process, proceed, Gaughan said, about 30 new houses and 78 new apartments will be added to the water system, bringing the village about $140,000 in benefit assessment fees. That includes a large senior complex planned along Brandle Road by developer Jeff Thomas.
Gaughan said the fee is not targeted at the senior complex or any specific development. Its to pay for improvements to the whole water system, he said.
"As I looked at the budget, there’s no evidence that there’s been a look at how to budget for these capital improvements," said Gaughan, who took office last year. "This is our attempt to be fiscally prudent."
The village held an information session on the proposal and has posted information on its website, www.altamontvillage.org. A public hearing on the matter will be held at the next village board meeting, Feb. 7.
"We’re looking for input from the community to help to come up with a fair and equitable system for everybody," Gaughan said.
