Gov. Cuomo sings legislation to allow the transfer of authority
By Jason Emerson
Editor
After receiving legislative approval from both houses of the state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the town of Cazenovia soon will take over all management and financial responsibilities for the Madison County Sewer District, including the Madison County Sewage Treatment Facility in Cazenovia. The move has been in the works for nearly the entire year of 2016 as the county has sought to divest itself from the 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.
“We’re hoping it will be seamless transfer,” said Supervisor Bill Zupan. “People shouldn’t see any changes except for maybe what we call the plant and maybe where they send their payments to; service and rates shouldn’t change and we’re not looking to charge higher rates once we take over.”
The Madison County Sewer District was originally established in the early 1970s and at that time was comprised of the entire Village of Cazenovia and parts of the Town of Cazenovia, later adding parts of the Town of Nelson. In the mid-1970s, the Village of Cazenovia sold its main line interceptors to Madison County, to be operated and maintained by the Sewer District. The wastewater treatment facility was constructed in 1975 and began treatment for wastewater in 1977.
The idea to transfer the sewer district away from the county has been discussed for years, with many members of the Madison County Board of Supervisors unhappy that the county has the responsibility; every other sewer district in the county is run by a village or town.
Former Cazenovia Town Supervisor Ralph Monforte talked about moving sewer district control to town hands, and when Zupan became supervisor he made it one of his priorities, he said. “Because we get to control the rates – if it went to a private company we’d lose control,” Zupan said. “We tried to keep it municipally owned so we can control the rates .… We have some of lowest sewer rates in CNY and we’re going to try to keep it that way.”
As the transfer idea starting becoming more a reality, officials in the county, the town, the village of Cazenovia and the town of Nelson all got on board, with the latter three municipalities signing letters of support. Those letters were sent to the state legislature because, since it took special state legislation to form the district in the 1970s, it needed state legislation to transfer it, Zupan said.
State representatives for the Cazenovia area Assemblyman Bill Magee and Sen. David Valesky sponsored legislation in their respective chambers 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.”
The bills passed the Assembly and Senate on June 14, although Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not sign the bill until Nov. 14.
Under the legislation, the transfer cannot occur until the completion and execution of inter-municipal agreements between every local government in the Madison County Sewer District, namely the village and town of Cazenovia and the town of Nelson. Those agreements, as well as some state government red tape, need to be worked through before the transfer is finalized, Zupan said, so he is unsure when the take-over will be official.
“The wheels of government turn slow; I would hope be done in six months, but I’m not holding my breath,” he said.
