NEW SCOTLAND — Recently while signing off on rate hikes in a few of New Scotland’s water and sewer districts, the town board also agreed to move forward with a plan to connect the Northeast Water District to the Kensington Woods Water District.

Northeast was taken offline for two months in late 2019 after an unusually high master-meter reading. The 4,000-gallon-an-hour leak left the town looking for ways to improve the district’s aging infrastructure and had Northeast customers paying more for their water.

The town paid $12,500 to fix a 3-foot-long vertical crack in the district’s 25-year-old underground 18,000-gallon fiberglass tank, and paid engineers Barton and Loguidice thousands more to come up with a solution for future outages. 

The town placed an interconnection with the village of Voorheesville seven or eight years ago, because the Northeast system had to previously be taken out of service for repairs due to problems with build-up in its filtration system. 

But along with the interconnection comes increased rates: Voorheesville generally charges out-of-village customers double, although it charged Northeastern users only 1.25 times the village rate when their system was taken offline. The town in January 2020 estimated that, cumulatively, Northeast Water District users were paying between $3,100 and $3,500 per month extra for Voorheesville water.

The Barton and Loguidice fix included in the May 12 town board agenda packet was a back-up interconnection to the Kensington Woods Water District, an in-town water source. The proposal is to connect the two districts by installing a total of about 1,850 linear feet of water main along Hilton Road, Fairfax Boulevard, and Smith Lane. 

The 129 customers of the Northeast Water District reside along Route 85A, just outside the village of Voorheesville. 

Many of the district’s users live on Elizabeth and Robin drives, and on Appleblossom and Smith lanes; the district also includes approximately 21 homes on Forest Drive, just off Route 85; and the 18 lots of the LeVie Farm subdivision further down Route 85A toward Route 85.

New Scotland has anticipated connecting the two water districts for some time. 

In 2017, the town worked out a deal with the developer of Kensington Woods who had been looking to obtain building permits faster than what was originally agreed upon. In exchange for faster permitting, the town got a hump taken out of Hilton Road and, in anticipation of someday eventually connecting the two water districts, part of a water main was installed under Hilton Road.

In addition, a two-inch sewer pipe was installed to eventually supply the Hilton Barn project with both water and sewer.

The cost of the new back-up interconnection was not included in the Barton and Loguidice proposal, and Supervisor Douglas LaGrange this week declined to speculate on its cost. 

A full interconnection between Northeast and Kensington Woods, which would cost more than the back-up, was estimated to cost about $442,000 in June of last year. 

Rate increases

During its May 12 meeting, the New Scotland Town Board also voted to approve rate increases in the Heldervale Sewer District and Font Grove and Clarksville water districts. 

New Scotland sends out water bills twice a year — the usage periods cover roughly January through the end of June and July through the end of December.

LaGrange said the town tries to notify customers of increases “in a timely fashion,” but since New Scotland relies on the neighboring town of Bethlehem for some water and sewer services — in this instance, the Font Grove Water District and Heldervale Sewer District — the town decided to postpone the increases until the second billing of the year, July through December.

That bill, reflecting the six months of new increases, won’t arrive in customers’ mailboxes until January 2022. 

“So these aren’t retroactive water rates [increases] we are possibly approving, but they are going to start commencing on July 1 and finish out the year,” LaGrange said.

He said the increases had been “discussed thoroughly” and were needed because Clarksville had been “eating into” its fund balance while, in Font Grove and Heldervale, the town had been working to just defray the negative fund balances in each of those districts. 

In Heldervale, there is no increase in the water rate, LaGrange said; the increase is solely to accommodate the purchase of 33 new grinder pumps, which the entire district is responsible for because “that’s the way it was created years ago; it’s a deed restriction.”

As of June of last year, there were 103 customers in the Heldervale Sewer District; when the district was created, there were just 33 users. As part of that original district agreement, the 33 users will have the cost of their new grinder pumps borne by the entire district — however, if the grinder pump of users 34 through 103 were to break down, that cost would be entirely borne by the owner. 

The company that makes the grinder pumps is three generations beyond what Heldervale customers use, LaGrange said; the company “no longer [has] the parts; they no longer rebuild them, as we’ve been doing for the past 10-plus years.” 

In Clarksville, LaGrange estimated that, for an average family of four using an average amount of water, the increase would be $33 for a six-month payment period. “That would stem the reduction of the fund balance,” he said of the increase. LaGrange said that the increase in Font Grove would be “pretty much the same … but I didn’t figure out the exact amount.”

Councilman Daniel Leinung said he had thought Clarksville “had increased rates a few years ago; not a lot, just a little bit.”

Leinung went on to say, “You know, a dollar increase per 1,000 gallons doesn’t sound like a lot,” but that increase for the minimum amount of water, for example, from $6.50 to $7.50 for zero to 15,000 gallons, is a 15-percent increase.

“Again, the rates in Clarksville are much, much less than in other parts of the town,” Leinung said. A Clarksville Water District customer himself, Leinung said his water bill is “significantly less than what others have around here,” and he said he’d be more comfortable with a 50-cent increase and re-examining the issue in six months. 

New Scotland has nine different water districts and, depending on the origin of the source, some customers can pay as much as $18.50 per 1,000 gallons of water used over 15,001 gallons while others pay as little as $5.50 per 1,000 gallons.

Customers in districts with in-town water sources — Clarksville, Kensington Woods, and Northeast — pay less for water than customers in the other six districts who are supplied from either Voorheesville or Bethlehem because those two municipalities are allowed to charge out-of-town customers double what they charge their own residents.

LaGrange, responding to Leinung, said the town had, in effect, already lost out on six months of increased revenue by not being able to raise the rates in the all three districts earlier because of not receiving the necessary information it needed from Bethlehem for Font Grove and Heldervale.

In helping to build up the Clarksville fund balance, LaGrange said, the town had been “counting on 365 days — not half of that — to help catch up, and we’ve already lost half.”

Councilman William Hennessy said he was “fine” with the 50-cent increase suggested by Leinung because a similar stepped increase had been used in Heldervale after a “significant increase” had been proposed. 

Councilwoman Bridgit Burke and Councilman Adam Greenberg shared a similar sentiment on the increase: They were OK going with the recommendation given “by the people who are closest to it,” in Burke’s words. 

The board then voted 3-to-2 in favor of the rate increase for Clarksville.  Hennessy and Leinung voted against the increase.

Water customers in the Clarksville district in 2021 will see their twice-a-year minimum payment increase from $97.50 to $112.50, and a dollar increase per 1,000 gallons for each of the four tiers of water usage. 

For example, Clarksville customers currently pay $6.50 per 1,000 gallons up to 15,000 gallons; starting in July, they’ll pay $7.50 per 1,000 gallons up to 15,000 gallons, which will be reflected in their January 2022 bills.  

The board then voted unanimously to increase the rate in Font Grove by $1 per 1,000 gallons of water for 5,001 gallons and above.

The board also voted unanimously to increase the rate and minimum payment in the Heldervale Sewer District. Customers will now pay $198 every six months, up from $163.50. And pay $13.20 per 1,000 gallons up to 15,000 gallons, up from $10.90 per 1,000 gallons, and $14.20 per 1,000 gallons for 15,001 gallons and above, increased from $11.90 per 1,000.