Metered Billing At Last

by Bea Peterson
The Village of Hoosick Falls will finally begin metered water billing. Residents and businesses will see the results with the new billing cycle in August 2011. The cycle is three payments for residential properties, made in August and November of one year and February of the next year, and twice yearly for businesses. The new billing plan was approved at the regular meeting of the Village Board on Tuesday, February 8, after the close of the public hearing on the rates.
30 Year Bonds
The Village has two outstanding bonds, payable over 30 years. The bond to upgrade the sewer plant and provide improvements to sewer mains is $7.8 million. The bond for the new water treatment plant, replacement of the Rensselaer Street water tank and resolution of issues with existing water mains is $8.5 million. The payment on those bonds for 2011-2012 is $446,037 and will be shared equally by residential and business properties in the Village and the Town. Town residences and businesses will pay one and a half times the water usage rate of Village residences and businesses. Business rate categories are Municipal/Non-Profit, Industrial, Small Business, Big Business and Tenant Housing.
Village Residential Rates
The annual cost for the sewer and water bond per residence is $353.07 or $117.69 three times a year. Added to that is the annual cost of trash pickup which is $132 or $44 per billing period. That is $161.69 plus a water and sewer rate of $7.42 per thousand gallons of water used during a billing period up to 25,000 gallons. Over 25,000 gallons the rate for water and sewer is $9.28 per thousand gallons. Town residents will pay $11.13 per thousand gallons under 25,000 gallons and $13.93 per thousand gallons over 25,000 gallons.
Commercial rates vary, depending on business size. Copies of all the rates are available at the Village Clerk’s office.
Long History
Several years ago the Village was forced to build a new sewer plant when DEC put a moratorium on any new building in Hoosick Falls and threatened to shut down the plant if improvements were not made. The Village, under Mayor Laura Reynolds, was able to secure an interest free loan to build the new plant. After the completion of that state-of-the-art facility the issue of the water plant needed to be faced. When the water plant flooded once again and the wells were flooded, requiring bottled water to be brought in for residents, DEC was about to step in once more. Again, an interest free loan was secured and the new water plant, plus improvements to the wells was completed and the Village had another state-of-the-art facility. The new water tower and improvements to water mains are still to be completed. Five years ago the Village began asking residents to install water meters in their homes and businesses. It has taken this long to have almost complete compliance. The final stage in this lengthy process was establishing new water and sewer rates. There was an outcry at the first public hearing over the rates to be charged to businesses. After the meeting Mayor Monahan devised a new rate plan that seemed to satisfy all sides and no one offered complaints at Tuesday night’s hearing.