Leaders in Niskayuna say the town is addressing residents’ concerns about current water billing structures.
Town Supervisor Erin Cassady-Dorion is partnering with Democratic state Assemblyman Phil Steck of the 110th district to develop a new approach to improving the town’s water billing structures and infrastructure needs after some residents complained about higher water bills.
Cassady-Dorion was appointed as the new Town Supervisor after Jaime Puccioni resigned September 1st. She had previously served as the confidential secretary to the supervisor.
After constructing the town’s $19.8 million budget, Cassady-Dorion says addressing rate changes is her priority.
“Now I’m really focusing on, ‘OK, we’ve got this budget, we know how much money we have to spend on our infrastructure, how can we make sure that either our rate design makes sense, or how can we make sure that we’re making changes in the right direction so that we’re coving our costs but that we’re allocating those costs correctly to our community members,” said Cassady-Dorion.
Some town residents saw significant increases to their water bills this spring.
Cassady-Dorion says a number of factors have contributed including the Schenectady County town’s shift away from flat fees to use-based billing.
“It started because our comptroller at the time had looked back at the way that we were billing out for water and sewer, which are two separate charges, and realized that instead of there being a flat fee on our property tax bill for water, in some cases, that included not only debt service, which would be that flat fee, but it also included operations and maintenance, which really should be billed by usage. So for a big chunk of our community, they saw a big charge that was on their property tax bill now showing up on a utility bill, and it was a different amount, because now we were charging by usage,” said Cassady-Dorion.
Rising construction and maintenance costs coupled with the town’s aging infrastructure, Cassady-Dorion says, means residents’ bills are going to be on the rise.
“And we have a lot of water main breaks. We have sewer issues, we have lots of reactive construction that has to happen on our infrastructure. But then also we want to try to get ahead of that as well, and part of getting ahead is funding set aside for a new water tower,” said Cassady-Dorion.
Steck is designating $500,000 in state funds for infrastructure upgrades within the town, and says Niskayuna isn’t alone in facing higher repair and upkeep costs.
“I’ve said all along, this is a local matter. We can’t tell Niskayuna how to manage its water fund. However, when it comes to dealing with infrastructure problems, which, like I said, is an issue all over the state, we can certainly help,” said Steck.
Cassady-Dorion says town leadership is looking into implementing a new payment software that would allow residents to pay in installments at an approximate cost of $30,000 annually.
