Village of Lewiston votes to raise water rate & surcharge to bolster water system, fund account

Eydt notes need for second water line in ability to fight fires

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Come Jan. 1, water fees in the Village of Lewiston will increase. The board acted Monday to approve local laws raising the water improvements surcharge from $10 to $15 per billing cycle, and to up the water rate from $4.03 to $4.25 per 100 cubic feet of usage.

As to the first change, “We've had that miscellaneous $10 surcharge for a while now; it would be raised to the $15 on water bills. That is to pay for our aging infrastructure; water improvements that we need to do; so, we need funding to do it,” Mayor Anne Welch said.

Deputy Mayor Vic Eydt explained, “Just to give you an example, the work that we did on Ninth Street, tying that in with all the water breaks, that money that we've been collecting for the last couple years paid for a good portion of that (repair). We did get a grant on it, but it didn't cover the whole thing. So, the money that we had set aside doing this enabled us to actually go ahead and do that project. If we hadn't had that $10, we wouldn't been able to do it for another couple of years, and we would have had to put it abruptly into the budget, which would have increased our budget.

“It just helps us out, as far as in the future. We were talking about the sewer, but we’re also having problems with the water, as far as old systems and breaks, whatnot. For example, on Ninth Street, between Center Street and Mohawk, over a two-year period, we had like 19 breaks – and our cost was about $3,000, almost, per break. Add that up.

“So, by doing this, you're able to eventually, actually, save money.”

Eydt added, “The other thing is, we have this project where we want to bring the other water line in, so we have a second water line coming into the Village of Lewiston – because, right now, we only have one. Coming across from behind Tops, underneath the parkway, over to Walker Drive. We want to be able to bring a second line in from Ridge Road, underneath the parkway, in front of Tops, on Center Street.

“To do that, we’ve got some money set aside from the grant there, too. It's a matching type of grant, so we have to come up with some of the matching money. This is where it's going to come from. So, we’ve got to do that so that we're safe; so, the next time we have a big fire in the village, we're able to fight it. We’re not shutting down the entire system.

“A prime example … when the Brickyard burned (in 2020), that basically sucked every bit of water out of our system for about five hours while they were fighting that fire – and we cranked it up, because we didn't have a second source of water.

“That's why we're doing this.”

Welch added, “As Vic said, we received a state grant to do the water line. I think it's $959,000. A very costly project, so, it'll be over a million dollars. But like Vic said, we’ll need some of the village funding to offset it, too. But it is important.”

With regard to the water fee, “We need to raise our rates, because we are low in our water (account),” Welch said.

Treasurer Stephanie Longwell said, “Our auditor suggested to raise it to $4.50, because we have no fund balance in the water fund. Obviously, the board thought that was too high all at once, so we're going to try $4.25 and revisit it again, if need be.”

Trustee Nick Conde noted the village’s rate increase is a direct result of the county’s fee increase.