REGIONALISM: 3 cities consider water/sewer consolidation

By Joyce Miles/milesj@gnnewspaper.com

LOCKPORT — A groundbreaking three-city study of water and sewer systems looks more likely after a Wednesday meeting of the affected parties.

The meeting, arranged by Mayor Michael Tucker, produced consensus by Lockport and North Tonawanda common council members that they’ll support their cities’ involvement. The Niagara Falls Water Board already has.

The study, proposed about a year ago, would look at the feasibility of partial or full consolidation of each city’s water and or wastewater operations. In plain English, it could be suggested that one city’s plants take over some or all production for the other two.

The goal is to see whether consolidation saves money for each city’s utility consumers, according to consulting engineer Stephen C. Waldvogel of Conestoga-Rovers & Associates.

“If we cannot identify a benefit to each of the three service providers, and translate that benefit to the ratepayers, then there’s no point” pursuing consolidation, Waldvogel said.

Tucker called the meeting amid grumbling from critics in North Tonawanda and Lockport who have said they don’t trust the study set-up or the partly Falls-based CRA firm.

CRA wrote the grant application at the Falls water board’s request and later recruited Lockport to be the lead applicant because neither the board nor the City of Niagara Falls can be, board Executive Director Gerald Grose said.

To carry out the study, the cities obtained a $444,000 grant from the New York Department of State. A contract was delivered by the state in October — and only the water board has signed on so far.

Decisions need to be made soon in Lockport and North Tonawanda, Tucker said, because the Department of State has inquired about the contract and will pull the grant if it’s not going to be used.

“Time is of the essence,” Tucker said. “If we don’t use this, we’re all going to have a hard time getting (state aid) in the future.”

The study would look at the three cities’ six treatment plants, one each for water and sewer, and see whether some form of merged operations can hold down rate increases for residents and businesses.

Waldvogel said all of the plants have some grim indicators in common, from excess capacity and aged infrastructure to service in communities that are aging, losing population and suffering financially. The six plants together have a rate base of about 110,000 properties and spend about $29 million a year on operations and maintenance.

“If you look at it from a purely technical standpoint, there’s a lot of potential savings” in shared services, he said. “There are no pre-study assumptions or conclusions. ... We want to look at all possibilities.”

North Tonawanda’s utilities director, Paul Drof, seemed openly skeptical of that.

He’s in favor of a study, he said, but doesn’t like this one’s scope. Experts in the affected districts, including him, were not consulted before the grant application was filed, and that caused the application to include some technical inaccuracies, he said.

Drof said previously he suspects the study inevitably would favor giving Niagara Falls the lion’s share of utility business. He also takes issue with the fact the Niagara County water district, which exists between the cities, is not included in the scope.

Lockport Utilities Director Michael W. Diel said he wasn’t included in the application process either, and agreed the county districts probably should have been part of a regional look, but he’ll support the CRA study anyway, “as long as all avenues are explored and no stone is left unturned.”

The study doesn’t commit anybody to anything other than looking, Tucker said.

“The big criticism from our residents is we don’t go out and take an honest look at shared services,” Tucker said. “We’ve got nothing to lose by exploring the possibilities.”

Brett Sommer, North Tonawanda Common Council president, echoed him.

“Too many times we get caught up in minutiae. We need to do the study first, then consider the options,” Sommer said. “We owe it to our constituents.”

In advance of their councils’ business meetings next week, Lockport aldermen Tom Grzebinski, Flora McKenzie, Pat Schrader and John Lombardi joined NT aldermen Sommer, Catherine Schwandt and Nancy Donovan in saying they’ll vote in favor of upcoming resolutions to sign their cities up.

If the study goes forward, the group has to put up a 10 percent match on the grant. That equals about $14,700 each from the cities of Lockport and North Tonawanda and the Falls water board. Study expenses are limited to the grant and match, Waldvogel said. Once contractual issues are settled, the study could take six to 12 months.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

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