Voters endorse Dorset fire district bylaw changes

Andrew McKeever Photo

From left, Ben Weiss, Milton McWayne, Roger Squire and Abbot deRham, along with Town Manager Rob Gaiotti, (not shown in photo) presented the case for bylaw changes to Dorset’s Fire District No. 1 at a special meeting at the Dorset Firehouse Monday, Oct. 16.

Andrew McKeever

GNAT-TV

DORSET — Voters of the Dorset Fire District No. 1 voted overwhelmingly by a voice vote Monday, Oct. 16, to approve a set of proposed amendments to the district’s bylaws.

About 35 residents turned out to a special meeting held at the Dorset Firehouse and gave a thumbs up, after more than an hour of often lively discussion, to several language changes in the bylaws. One of the main changes being proposed was a condition that residents living within the district’s boundaries would have to continue paying for a water fee, even if they opted to voluntarily disconnect from the municipal system and obtain their water through a private well.

The purpose of the bylaw changes were to encourage existing users to remain part of the water system. There are currently 178 users, and the district’s board members reckoned that about 35 of them have parcel large enough to drill a private well. The fewer the number of customers, the larger the dollar amount each one needs to bear to keep the system financially solvent, according to documents distributed at the meeting and the powerpoint presentation the board’s officers made to the audience.

“….with each user lost, the cost of operations and future improvements will increase for customers that remain on the system,” the board stated in one of the documents distributed at the meeting. “This includes the cost of borrowing money through bonds. By stabilizing the user and revenue base, the district will receive more favorable interest rates  when financing water projects.”

Three customers have been lost over the past 12 months – including one that same day as the special district meeting, said Ben Weiss, the chairman of the fire district’s Prudential Board of directors. If all 35 property owners with large enough parcels to drill private wells left and weren’t still compelled to pay into the system, user fees could rise by as much as 20 percent, he said.

Properties connected to the water system would not be permitted to voluntarily disconnect from it, and permission would need to be obtained from the Prudential Board. If such permission were granted, they would continue to pay the “infrastructure availability fee,” just like those who remained on the system.

The fire district is in the midst of a wide-ranging overhaul of its system, against the background of two years when low levels in the main reservoir that feeds the system dropped to dangerously low levels, and prompted some restrictions on water use during the driest months of the year. The problem was compounded by a high rate of leakage from an aging pipeline network, particularly in the case of service lines leading to individual homes from the main trunk pipelines. In response, the state has imposed a moratorium on new users on the water system as well as additional water usage by existing customers, board members said.

That means new home additions that add a bedroom will not receive a mandatory waste water permit, nor will business expansion that includes water usage be approved.

Eventually, that will translate into a negative effect on property values, they warned.

Dorset is playing catch up with upgrading its water system, which has not had a serious overhaul in decades and maintenance was deferred, they said.

“It’s a critical thing that must be addressed, and it’s not something you can kick the can down the road and it must be paid for,” said Abbot deRham, one of the board members, adding a little later that “the thing to remember right now is that the economy of the village is under a moratorium that can affect not only business but residential homeowners.”

The board has planned to develop a better system for metering water use as well as to bring online a second well or supplemental water supply, to augment what the existing town reservoir supplies. Developing a supplemental water supply is one of the conditions for lifting the state’s moratorium on additional water use. A new site has been identified off of Cheney Road and the first of two lease agreements signed with the property owners there. As soon as those are finalized, the permit application process will begin, with a target date of completing the new water source set for the fall of 2018. The water flow is estimated to be in the 30-50 gallons per minute range.

Similarly, a system monitoring station is planned for a spot on West Road near the corner of Church Street, with construction expected to start this fall. Additionally, the board wants to install meters along the service lines which bring water into homes. The data provided by the meters will provide more accurate consumption and leakage rates, and will encourage conservation.

The fourth area where the board of directors is tackling Dorset’s municipal water issues  and the one that prompted the most discussion was around replacing the service lines, many of which are in poor condition. The deterioration is so pervasive that the board wants to take a comprehensive, system-wide approach, rather than focusing on individual lines. Part of the fix would involve extending certain main pipelines to allow for shorter service lines. Construction of the new service lines would be coordinated with the new meter installation.

The estimated cost for all of these improvements is currently reckoned to be about $1.21 million, paid for through a 20 year loan at 3 percent interest. But that was also based on a user base of 187 customers, which is not the case at present.

The board estimated the average annual user cost of the proposed improvements to be $427.

The loan would actually be broken into two parts; a planning loan and a construction loan. The planning piece would cover the permitting, drilling and testing of the new well as well as the design of the various components. The construction loan would cover the actual build-out, board members said. The metering station was estimated to cost $60,000; the supplemental water facility $400,00-; the individual water meters another $150,000, with the installation of the new service lines taking up nearly half of the total, or $600,000.

Those figures were still preliminary, the board members said.

The overall cost of the proposed overhaul, which would ultimately be paid for by the water users, prompted the most debate during the meeting, but the board members remained steadfast that doing nothing was not an option. The final design of what may eventually emerge has not been totally nailed down, however.

“The overall design is still under consideration,” deRham said. “You’re getting an early bird look at the direction and the kinds of things that have to be addressed.”