Community News

Water authority votes against public takeover

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After more than five years of deliberations and a $90,000 feasibility study, the Water Authority of Southeast Nassau County’s board of directors voted Feb. 2 against a local public takeover of New York American Water, effectively dissolving the WASENC.

The authority was charged in 2010 with investigating whether the towns of Hempstead and Oyster Bay could — and should — assume control of American Water. The body was impaneled by the towns after a number of residents, particularly in Merrick-Bellmore, complained that the private company was charging significantly higher rates for the same water that the towns provide to residents in surrounding communities such as East Meadow.

Former Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, who served prison time in 2015 for fraud, led the charge in 2009 and 2010. Joining him in the fight to bring public water to Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford and Massapequa Park was Claudia Borecky, president of the North and Central Merrick Civic Association.

In the end, the water authority board voted against a public takeover because there was no evidence to suggest that it would save ratepayers money, according to John Reinhardt, of Merrick, WASENC’s secretary and the Town of Hempstead’s water commissioner since 2008. In fact, he noted, it would likely cost them $73, or 11.6 percent, more per year over the first three decades of the takeover. After that, he said, rates could fall by $75 a year, meaning, he said, “It would take nearly another 30 years to break even.”

“After reviewing all of the information available to me,” Reinhardt said, “it would have been a dereliction of my duty as a member of this board to continue on towards an acquisition, knowing that the overall costs would definitely increase for the members of the community that I call home.”

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