Mike LaFlair – 2nd Ward Councilor

NYS recently increased the amount of funding for the CHIP’s program that will result in Camillus receiving an additional $39,495.  This money is used to support our Highway funding.

The third public meeting on the future of Interstate 81 Syracuse Corridor Study will be Tuesday, May 21 from 3:30-8:00 at the OnCenter in downtown Syracuse.  This will affect our region for the next 50 years and your input is invaluable.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Fairmount FD annual award and installation dinner.  It was an honor and a privilege to meet the dedicated members of the department.  I want to congratulate the winners and all department members on there continued service.  The Town recently completed the sale of land to the department adjacent to the land fill so that they can begin construction of a Fire Tower.  If you recall they had one there many years ago and we were happy to work with the department so this could be a reality once again.

A recent application has been made to NY State by Oneida County and Onondaga County in the hopes of securing funding to effect a functional consolidation with Onondaga County to provide Medical Examiner services to Oneida County.

This long delayed project has received the majority of its necessary approvals.  The developer is currently reconfiguring underground utility lines.  The next part of the process will be the redesigning of the 4 major intersections nearest to the development.  This is a great feature of the agreement as it will greatly improve the traffic flow and save the town tens of thousands of dollars as it would have been necessary for us to do so within the next few years regardless of Township 5.

Brush pickup is scheduled for the weeks of May 5^th & 19^th.  Please ensure that the brush debris is left at the edge of the property.  Leaving them beyond this point creates a dangerous situation and also leads to out of schedule town pickups, which in turn leads to higher costs for all of us.  The week of May 27^th, trash will be delayed one day due to the Memorial Day holiday.

OCWA – A few people have called about the recent water bills sent out by OCWA. Some were higher, people thought and some were lower, some stayed almost the same. I want to clarify a few points not easily recognized on the new bills: 

1. Your very last bill from the Camillus Consolidated Water District was for a shorter period than usual. It actually only billed you for water thru December 15th not thru the end of the year as usual, so it may have seemed lower than normal usage. However, an error was made in that they overcharged customers for 8,000 gallons of water @$2.50 per thousand gallons so you have a refund coming in the amount of $20.00. This error happened due to the program not realizing we have always billed in advance the first 8K gallons or the minimum of $30.00. Thus you were charged for the full usage instead of full usage less 8K gallons. That refund will be sent with the refund promised from the surplus we accrued over the years or about $75.00 per customer. Look for that approximate $95.00 in June after our audit is complete.

2. You did not receive a tax bill this year (2013) for the water district as it had been closed. The tax rate in the past had been assessed at $.3807 per thousand on the assessed value of your house. Example – assessed value of a $150,000.00 house times $.3807 equals $57.10.

3. Your new water bill has a “base system fee” of $23.00 which is what they assess all 95,000 customers of OCWA. This is the ongoing infrastructure costs they accrue and depreciate over the life of such repairs.

4. The first 10,000 gallons of water from OCWA is billed at $2.53 per thousand gallons. So, the first 10,000 gallons cost $25.30 when in Camillus it would have been $30.00 for the first 8 thousand and then $2.50 for the next two thousand or a total of $35.00. The difference is $9.70 less with OCWA.  OCWA does have a higher rate for those who use more water than 10,000 gallons. It is $3.33 for the next 13,000 gallons after the first 10,000 gallons. This is to encourage people to conserve on water usage.

5. The water bill you received from OCWA included two extra weeks of water usage since OCWA started on December 16th when Camillus ended. Your water bills say previous read date of 1/02/2013 but that is what all 95,000 customers have as it is part of the billing program. So, you were not charged by Camillus for 2 weeks but it was picked up by OCWA (sorry, no free water). The best way to see what your normal usage is to go back to the Camillus water bill before the last one. This is the best indication of how much you use per quarter as it will have an accurate 3 month usage amount.

6. Your OCWA bill may have seemed higher than those previously sent by Camillus because of the base system fee. However, if you go back to item #2 the example showed you were not billed the annual tax of $ 57.10. In previous years you paid this with your regular Town taxes. If you divide this amount by 4 to get the amount it would be quarterly, the result is $ 14.26. Using this amount plus the Camillus water bill for 10,000 gallons as shown in #4 above your total water cost would be $ 14.26 plus $35.00 for a total $49.26. Your OCWA bill would be $25.30 as shown above in #4 plus the base system fee of $23.00 for a total $48.30. An actual $ .96 less.

7. One of the biggest reasons we made this proposal to the resident for going to OCWA was Camillus was facing an almost 5 million dollar in necessary upgrades to our system. Had we stayed as we were this would have cost the residents in the water district at least another $ .35 per thousand for the next 20 years assuming we bonded for the repairs. OCWA will now be doing those upgrades and spreading it over the 95,000 customers it has instead of the 6,500 customers we had. This what the base system fee covers and we can expect that rate to stay fairly constant.

We had hoped to get the rebates and refunds out earlier than June but necessary steps to insure accuracy had to be done by the Comptroller’s Office.

There is only one item on the Agenda and it is located in the 2nd Ward:

New Business

1. Richard Gialto    TM#: 010.1-04-01.0

    6536 Winchell Road   Warners, NY 13164

Area Variance: Would like to build a 32’ x 24’ free standing garage on the north side of the house.  

The West Genesee School District will present its Budget on May 1 & 7, 7:00 at the West Genesee High School.  The final budget vote is on Tuesday, May 21, from 6:00 am – 9:00 pm at the West Genesee High School.  Please contact the West Genesee School District if you have any Questions.

The Solvay School District will present its Budget Hearing on May 13, 6:30 at the Solvay Elementary School.  The Final budget will be voted on Tuesday, May 21, from 12:00-9:00 at the Solvay High School.  Contact the Solvay School District for further information