Mayors from Williston Park and East Williston working to resolve water fight

The mayors of East Williston and Williston Park plan to meet Jan. 15 to try again to resolve the long-standing dispute between the villages over water rates.

East Williston Mayor David Tanner has invited Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar to a private meeting between village boards at East Williston Village Hall to address Tanner's assertion that his village pays too much to Williston Park for water. Among the issues to be discussed are rate reductions and stabilization, and the formation of a joint water district.

"Both of our communities have a lot to gain for coming up with a permanent solution so future administrations won't have to address the problems we have to address now," Tanner said.

"We've been trying to resolve this for over 10 years," Ehrbar said. "Hopefully, we'll meet . . . and have a resolution shortly thereafter so both villages can move forward with other issues. We've reached out to East Williston in the past with little success, and we're appreciative now that hopefully we're moving forward."

The conflict has resulted in two lawsuits; and last month, Tanner said he was considering creating a $7 million independent water supply system for East Williston to end the fight.

The 70-by-50-foot water system would be in Devlin Park, north of East Williston Avenue in East Williston. It would include two wells, a 100,000-gallon container, and granulated activated carbon filtration to remove organic contaminants. There would be no overhead or elevated storage tank.

Tanner said a private company -- which he declined to identify -- is interested in building and operating the water system. "A private company can build the system at a lower cost, operate such a system more cost effectively and finance it independently," Tanner said. East Williston got the permits needed for the project in September, he said.

If East Williston had its own well, it would stop using an average of 137 million gallons of water per year from Williston Park, which Tanner said would increase rates for Williston Park customers by at least 33 percent.

"Plan A is to negotiate [with Williston Park]; a well is Plan B," Tanner said. He said both village boards will be in attendance, but the meeting is not open to the public.

"I think we're both paying too much," Tanner said, confident a solution could be reached. "We'll just have to see. We're optimistic."

Ehrbar said both sides are "interested in price reduction if that's possible, but operating a water district requires certain costs. When we meet, all options are on the table. We'll meet together as a group and see how it plays out. We'll review what they present to us, and they can review what we present to them."

Last summer, Williston Park billed East Williston about $600,000 for nonpayment and penalties after winning a three-year legal battle over rate hikes.

In July, the state Appellate Court denied East Williston's bid to block a 13 percent hike.

Some money has been paid, but East Williston has held out on fees and penalties, prompting Williston Park to threaten to sue over the unpaid funds.