The Salt Springs Road water district is officially dead, after a petition process showed that residents representing less than a quarter of the assessed value in the district favored the proposed $9.2 million project.
To form a new water district, residents representing at least 51 percent of the assessed value must sign the petition in favor of formation. Last week, town of Manlius Assessor Patrick Duffy tallied the signatures and calculated that supporters of the project only represented 24 percent of the assessed value along Salt Springs Road.
The project would have connected existing Onondaga County Water Authority infrastructure at the intersection of Salt Springs and North Eagle Village roads to OCWA lines in the village of Chittenango, bringing public water access to about 95 Manlius homes along the way as well as homes in Madison County.
Many residents balked at both the annual cost to pay for the project – nearly $1,200 – as well as the one-time cost to hook into the system, which ranged from a low end of $6,000 up to tens of thousands of dollars for residents with long setbacks from the road. If the project had passed, residents who opted not to hook into the public lines would still be liable for the annual cost.
“I believed all along that when the facts were explained to my neighbors that they would pretty soundly oppose it,” said Salt Springs Road resident Joe Messineo, who was one of the key organizers in opposition to the project. “What was just a road did come together as a neighborhood to speak relatively with a singular voice.”
This is the second time that a water project has been proposed and defeated in that area.
“We really don’t need the water, and hopefully we won’t have to go through this again in three years,” Messineo said.
It’s unclear how the defeat of the Salt Springs district will impact the residents of the Sky Ridge water district, which serves 29 homes around Horseshoe Lane near the eastern edge of the town of Manlius. If the Salt Springs project had passed, those residents could have tapped into the line and abandoned their aging well-based system, which has low water pressure and not enough flow for fire protection.
The committee working on the water districts is expected to meet on July 7 and will issue a formal statement following that meeting. The town board is also expected to address the projects at its July 14 meeting.
