Town board announces changes to next two meeting dates
BY Jason Emerson
editor
The town of Cazenovia takeover of the Madison County Water Treatment plant is coming closer to fruition with recent municipal actions, and the project is expected to be completed by the first of the year.
The Cazenovia Town Board this week unanimously approved an intermunicipal agreement with the village of Cazenovia, the Town of Nelson and Madison County, regarding the transfer of management and authority, and Supervisor Bill Zupan said he expects the deal to be done by Jan. 1, 2018.
“This process is heading to a close,” said Town Attorney John Langey during the board’s Sept. 11 monthly meeting.
The transfer process has been in the works since early 2016, as the county has sought to divest itself from its 40-year responsibility and the town has worked to be the one to take it over and keep control of local sewer rates in local municipal hands.
Legislation to “dissolve the Madison County Sewer District and to transfer the physical, financial and all other property and assets, obligations and liabilities of the Madison County Sewer District, including the Madison County Sewage Treatment Facility, to the Town of Cazenovia” was passed by the state Assembly and Senate on June 14, 2016, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill on Nov. 14.
Since then, town and county officials have been working through governmental red tape to complete the project. Part of the process includes the necessity of all parties involved signing inter-municipal agreements about the change in management and ownership.
The Cazenovia Village Board approved the same IMA during its Sept. 5 meeting, the Madison County Board of Supervisors approved its IMA recently, Langey said, and the Nelson Town Board is expected to approve the IMA before the end of the year.
In addition to the IMAs, the town of Cazenovia has been busy collecting all the DEC permits, contracts and insurance policies, and getting those transferred to its authority and away from the county, Langey said. “All of this will be assigned to us as part of the overall closing,” he said.
Zupan said that once the transfer is completed, little will change about the management of the plant except its name. He said the town plans to keep Jim Cunningham as the superintendent, as long as Cunningham agrees to stay, and will also keep the current advisory board in place.
The treatment plant under the town’s auspices will be called the Town of Cazenovia Water Pollution Control Facility.
Also at the Sept. 11 meeting, the board announced that its next two monthly meetings will be the first Monday of the months of October and November, rather than the usual second Monday of the month, as it works through the annual budget process.
The board’s October meeting will occur at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at the New Woodstock Fire House, 2632 Mill St., New Woodstock, while the November meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6, at the Cazenovia town office in the Gothic Cottage.
The board also scheduled a budget work session for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the Cazenovia town office. The work session is open to the public.
