East Williston and Williston Park officials expressed optimism last week at the prospect of a settlement in the villages’ ongoing water rates dispute on the heels of a compromise proposed by East Williston Mayor David Tanner.
“Negotiations are continuing and we remain optimistic,” Tanner said last week as Williston Park trustees reviewed the new proposal.
Williston Park officials confirmed receipt of Tanner’s compromise proposal in a letter earlier this month and sounded positive about prospects for a settlement over the issue of how much Williston Park charges its neighbor village for supplying it with water.
“I’ve always been optimistic that we can come to some agreement and I remain optimistic,” Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said.
Tanner and Ehrbar both declined to disclose any details of the proposed compromise to the current rate of $4.33 per thousand gallons of water being charged to East Williston.
Ehrbar said the Williston Park trustees have responded to Tanner’s letter with questions seeking “clarification” on some points in the proposal. Ehrbar said reaching a compromise in the dispute depended on those clarifications.
He said Williston Park trustees were hoping for a response from Tanner in time for their monthly business meeting on Sept. 14.
“It is different. And I am hopeful that it is something to negotiate about,” Williston Park Trustee Teresa Thomann said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
Thomann also declined to discuss details of Tanner’s proposal.
H2M officials have said the project would take 30 months to complete if approved, with construction taking 18 and 24 months. The supply wells would sit at Devlin Park on the north side of East Williston Avenue, between the Long Island Rail Road line to the west and Bengeyfield Drive to the east.
Tanner recently claimed that Ehrbar had rejected an offer from state Sen. Jack Martins to mediate a settlement between the two sides. Ehrbar declined to comment on Martins’ potential involvement last week.
Martins could not be reached for comment on the situation.
The Village of East Williston trustees filed lawsuits against Williston Park following the two rate increases after attempts to negotiate a settlement on water rates failed. In early July last year, a state Appellate Court found in favor of East Williston in one lawsuit, stating that Williston Park should have held a public hearing prior to imposing the first rate increase in 2011. But the court found in favor of Williston Park in the second lawsuit, stating that Williston Park was within its right to raise the water rates in 2012 to $4.33 per thousand gallons.
The Village of Williston Park sent East Williston a bill for $300,000 for interest and penalties following the court decision. The Village of East Williston made a payment of $239,000 to Williston Park to cover the cost of the rate increase, minus $61,000 accrued under the price hike that the court ruled to be improper.
The current Williston Park lawsuit claims that East Williston owes $210,347.47 that Williston Park assessed in penalties for its unpaid water bill balance. The lawsuit seeks $506,724.10 in arears and penalties.
Both sides published letters in local newspapers in March and April, criticizing each other and providing details of their negotiating positions. In his public letter to the Williston Park board in April, Tanner proposed paying $48,019 on the penalties Williston Park is seeking to impose.
Officials in both villages say their counterparts have been unwilling to compromise on a long-term water rate agreement or the penalties Williston Park is seeking to collect.
“They have not moved on the rate at all,” East Williston Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said after the Williston Park trustees filed the lawsuit seeking damages in July.
She blamed Ehrbar for the stalemate, insisting on the $4.33 per thousand gallon rate.
Ehrbar said in July that over the past five years of negotiations, the East Williston trustees have not changed their negotiating position on an alternative rate of $3.70 per thousand gallons.
