Mayor: No $2,500 Sewer Access Fee
Louise Hoffman Broach / Wayuga Editor
Tuesday, March 9 2010
FAIR HAVEN - It took questioning from a resident and village trustee for a Cayuga County Water and Sewer Authority official to check into village board minutes to determine there is no $2,500 sewer access fee for those who don’t hook into the new system immediately.
“Warren reviewed the resolution the board passed,” said Mayor William McVea, referring to CCWSA Director Warren Albrecht. The $2,500 fee, Albrecht learned, referred to a cost that would be incurred if someone subdivided their property and needed a second lateral hook-up installed.
It was not, as the mayor and Albrecht initially said, a sewer access fee for those who chose to hook into the municipal system at a later date.
A letter from Fair Haven resident and business owner David Holdridge and a subsequent letter from Fair Haven Trustee Judy Dunaway challenged the validity of the $2,500 fee, and it turned out they were right, said McVea.
“It was Judy’s letter that inspired us to look,” he said. “I give her credit; she’s a good trustee.”
But Holdridge said the confusion over the fee is reflective of what he sees as the general disorganization of the sewer project, or at least the lack of communication between the authority and the residents. He wrote a letter to the Post Herald two weeks ago, outlining his concerns.
“What triggered me was the $2,500 figure,” he said, noting that he heard about it secondhand and had received no information from the authority. “They haven’t notified people. I didn’t receive anything, or if I did, I don’t remember, but I don’t have anything saying ‘this is your time to hook up.’”
Holdridge said he’s been annoyed with the entire process. He said the company that put in the connection in front of his house put it in the wrong spot “and then tried to tell me my house was in the wrong spot.
“I’ve been simmering since the beginning of this thing, and the mess they made since they started,” he said. “I’m very concerned we’re in a dangerous situation here,.”
He said he’s had a hard time getting copies of the minutes of the authority’s meetings and can’t seen to find who has “authority over the authority.”
The authority is governed by a board of directors appointed by the Cayuga County Legislature. CCWSA is an independent body. Holdridge referred to the authority as “a loose cannon that is stressing the village financially.”
“They can’t really explain how they are making their decisions,” he said.
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