The Gloversville Common Council voted 6-0 Tuesday night to extend the city’s permissive use area for water service connections in the Town of Johnstown’s Water District 1 out to the location of the town hall on Route 29 — with a requirement that all new users connecting to the water line pay 2.5 times the city water rate plus an additional 16.34% surcharge.
The water line extension project into the Town of Johnstown won’t cost Gloversville any money, but will provide additional revenue to its water system and the city government from the water sold to properties in the Town of Johnstown.
The council’s approval of the expansion of the Town of Johnstown’s Water District 1 is a needed step for the Town of Johnstown’s estimated $800,000 water infrastructure project which will extend the existing water line from Gloversville’s water system into the town by about a half mile, connecting it to seven properties on Route 29 with these tax parcel IDs: 163.13-4-3, 163.13-4-6, 163.-1-8, 163.-1-80, 163.-1-75.1 and 163.-1-74.
According to the resolution passed by the council, any property wishing to connect to the water line extension will be required to enter into an individual contract with the city of Gloversville Water Works, will be required to pay the “out-of-city rate”, which is about about $8.76 per 7,500 gallons of water, about 2.5 times the city water rate, plus an administrative surcharge equal to 16.34% of the total water bill, which the Gloversville Water Board will then pay to the city of Gloversville government.
“That’s only limited to those seven parcels included as part of the extension of that water district, that doesn’t include all of the rest of the town (users that receive city of Gloversville water),” Gloversville Water Superintendent Anthony Mendetta said. “This is because this is a unique water project, and not part of the Smart Waters agreement, where the city already gets that 16.34%. So, that’s why we basically cut this deal with the city, so the city could see a little revenue from this in return for allowing us to extend the water permissive-use area.”
By comparison regular in-city water customers pay $3.70 per 100 cubic feet of water, equal to about 7,500 gallons.
Mendetta has said the Town of Johnstown water line expansion is only expected to result in an additional 2,500 gallons of water use per day to the Johnstown Town Hall plus about four more users ready to consume water, with the other three parcels having the potential to connect to the line if development occurs on them.
Gloversville’s water filtration system has the capacity to produce 12 million gallons of treated per day, with city users only consuming about 2 million gallons per day.
After the Common Council meeting Tuesday night Mendetta explained what happens next with the water infrastructure project.
“So the Town will go out to bid on that project now, and they’ll be awarding that bid, and then the construction phase will begin, all of that is through the Town,” Mendetta said. “There is an alternate plan in the (bid specifications) contract for the potential connection to the City of Johnstown. When the bids come in the (Gloversville) Water Board will take a look at that, and make a determination whether that’s feasible or not.”
Mendetta said the Gloversville Water Board requested the Town of Johnstown get cost estimates for the potential additional connection between the city of Gloversville’s water system and the city of Johnstown’s water system, which currently dead-ends in a line near the Fulton County jail. Mendetta has said if the prices are feasible the Gloversville Water Board may seek to pay for the additional water connection, building of the Town of Johnstown’s water line extension, to provide a more efficient way to send Gloversville water to the city of Johnstown when that city needs additional water capacity.
The city of Gloversville helped supply the city of Johnstown with four-and-a-half million gallons of water per day during two major water leaks over the past six months.
Johnstown Water Board President Michael Capparello said Tuesday night said he’s had discussions with both Mendetta and Town of Johnstown Supervisor Jack Wilson about the potential additional connection between the city of Johnstown’s water system and Gloversville’s water system. He said he didn’t think the city of Johnstown was likely to need any additional Gloversville water any time soon, but he would likely support the additional connection just in case.
“I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think I would have a problem with it the way that it’s been explained to me,” Capparello said. “Somebody would have to come to our (Johnstown Water Board) meeting and explain it to us, but it hasn’t gone that far yet.”
Travis Mitchell, the Town of Johnstown’s engineer for the water line extension project, has explained that the additional water connection between Gloversville and the City of Johnstown, although it would not require a lengthy water line to be built, it would probably cost at least $100,000, because it would need to include a “water meter vault.”
