By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

After months of negotiations, the town of Lysander and the village of Baldwinsville have finalized a 40-year lease agreement for the operation of six town water districts. The Baldwinsville Village Board of Trustees approved the agreement Dec. 1, 2016, and the Lysander Town Board approved it Dec. 29, 2016.

“We’re following through on a commitment when we ran that we would be reaching out to other municipalities to bring costs down,” Lysander Town Supervisor Joe Saraceni said. “It took some time — six, seven, eight months — but now we have an agreement that benefits both.”

Here’s what you need to know about the agreement:

Which water districts does the agreement cover?

• Clinton Heights
• West Genesee
• Emerick Heights
• Seneca Estates
• River Mist
• Oswego Road

Why was this lease agreement created?

The village already supplies water for the six districts above, so there will be no change in the volume, according to village attorney Bob Baldwin. The new agreement streamlines maintenance of the water districts and takes the town of Lysander out of the water business.

“This is going to put an agency in the village in charge of a system they’ve already been responsible for for decades,” Saraceni said.

Saraceni said the municipalities pursued the agreement because the six water districts’ reserves were beginning to dry up, which would lead to increased costs for water district residents. Under the new agreement, most residents in the affected water districts will see their water bills decrease in 2017.

“Instead of being outside users [of the village water system], they will be treated the same way as a village user in terms of water rate increases,” Saraceni said.

By diffusing the cost of capital improvements throughout village water users, all water customers will have less of a burden when it comes to paying for upgrades to the system. In turn, Baldwinsville will benefit from the added revenue from customers in these six water districts.

Also, the village of Baldwinsville can provide better maintenance for water district infrastructure than the town can.

“Our lack of a water department … resulted in a lack of good maintenance practices,” said town engineer Al Yager.

Yager added that having the village perform maintenance is “exponentially cheaper” than bringing in a third-party contractor.

What is the village’s role?

For a nominal lease fee of $1, the village of Baldwinsville will lease the water districts’ infrastructure from the town of Lysander. The agreement lasts 40 years.

The village will operate, maintain and repair the water district infrastructure. The village also will read residents’ water meters four times per year, complete annual water quality testing, handle billing and supply general liability and property casualty insurance.

Saraceni said the agreement is modeled after similar water district agreements between Lysander and the Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA).

Both municipalities will discuss and agree upon necessary capital improvements and Baldwinsville will gradually take over responsibility of the cost of capital improvements over the first five years of the agreement. In year 20 of the agreement, Baldwinsville will replace the districts’ water meters.

What is the town’s role?

As stated above, the town of Lysander will help the village identify necessary capital improvements to the six water districts’ infrastructure.

Over the first five years, the town will provide funding for capital improvements in a step-down schedule:

• Year 1: Lysander will pay for 100 percent of capital improvement costs.
• Year 2: Lysander will pay for 80 percent and Baldwinsville will pay 20 percent of capital improvement costs.
• Year 3: Lysander will pay 60 percent and Baldwinsville will pay 40 percent.
• Year 4: Lysander will pay 40 percent and Baldwinsville will pay 60 percent.
• Year 5: Lysander will pay 20 percent and Baldwinsville will pay 80 percent.

The town will furnish maps and records of the water districts and inform the village of any changes to district boundaries.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Saraceni said. “There’s no way this would have been able to work if there weren’t a level of trust between the municipalities.”

Saraceni said the town has sent letters to affected residents and water customers informing them of the agreement. The full lease agreement can be found at bit.ly/LBwater.