The latest attempt to bring public water to the Lamson Road area of the town of Lysander has failed. A petition carried by residents did not reach the 50 percent of the proposed district’s total assessed value required for the town board to consider a resolution to create the district.
“The petition is dead,” Supervisor John Salisbury said.
Residents turned their petitions over to the town July 27, and town assessor Theresa Golden spent much of last week verifying signatures, parcels and property assessments.
The petition contained a total of 136 signatures; three were disqualified because the signatories did not own the properties for which they signed, while three more were disqualified because they live outside the proposed district.
The remaining 130 signatories’ properties comprised $15,809,800 in assessed value, which is 39.3 percent of the proposed district’s $40,238,161 total assessed value.
Salisbury said Golden is planning to do some additional calculations this week that could lead to an attempt to create a smaller water district in the Lamson Road area. Salisbury said Golden will subtract the property assessments of homes west of Route 48 to see if the majority of residents in the rest of the proposed water district would be in favor of having public water.
“We have no idea,” Salisbury responded when asked if the town board would consider creating the smaller water district of its own accord through Article 12-A of town law.
Article 12-A allows a town board to make a resolution to create a special district, the approval of which is subject to permissive referendum. This means that any resident who is opposed to the resolution may start a petition within 30 days of the vote. If more than 10 percent of the town’s residents sign the petition, the town must hold a vote on the creation of the district.
