Former Madison County facility transferred to town control on Jan. 1

By Jason Emerson

editor

As of Jan. 1, the town of Cazenovia now owns and operates its own water treatment plant.

After two years of work, the management and authority over the Madison County Water Treatment plant, located at 4500 Route 13 in Cazenovia, was officially transferred over to the town at the beginning of the new year.

“I really think it’s going be a good thing for Caz because we have control now over the rate structure,” said Supervisor Bill Zupan. “Madison County wanted to get rid of it for years. If they had sold it to a private company we’d have lost any control we had over the rates. This way it keeps it in town of Cazenovia control.”

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, 2016.

Since then, town and county officials worked through governmental red tape to complete the project. Part of the process included the necessity of all parties involved signing inter-municipal agreements about the change in management and ownership. The village of Cazenovia, towns of Cazenovia and Nelson, and Madison County all approved intermunicipal agreements regarding the transfer of management and authority late last year.

In addition to the IMAs, the town of Cazenovia had to collect DEC permits, contracts and insurance policies, and get those transferred to its authority from the county.

The transfer officially occurred on Jan. 1, and little will change about the management of the plant except its name, Zupan said. The treatment plant under the town’s auspices will be called the Town of Cazenovia Water Pollution Control Facility.

Residents’ sewer bills, which will be received in February, will be the same except they will be from the town rather than from the county.

Zupan said he was recently told the plant has one of the lowest costs to customers in the state, thanks to its self-contained budgeting and the efficiency with which it is run.

Plant Superintendent Jim Cunningham remains in his position and, during its Jan. 8 regular monthly meeting, the Cazenovia Town Board approved the appointments of a sewer bill collector and a sewer advisory committee — all of whom are being retained from when the county ran the plant.

The town board approved an independent contractor agreement with Amy Will to be the sewer billing clerk, and approved the members of the Cazenovia Sewer Advisory Board to consist of Bill Zupan, Pat Race, David Vredenburgh, Bill Carr and Michael Costello, for terms of one year each.