Middletown constituents express concern for proposed water cooperative with New Holland

 

[August 18, 2023] 

On Monday, August 14th, an informational meeting, and question/answer session was held at New Holland-Middletown School hosted by the Middletown Village Board. The purpose of the meeting was to address the concerns of the community about the possible collaboration between the villages of New Holland and Middletown for water delivery system upgrades.

There were over 65 people in attendance. In addition to many village residents, Village of New Holland President Annie Coers, Village of Middletown interim President Amanda Lawrence, Middletown Fire Department Chief Josh Gasparini, and a representative from Milano and Grunich Engineers, Seth Flach was on hand.

The meeting began with Lawrence addressing the residents, saying first and foremost, no decisions have been made. She addressed the age of the current system, put in in 1940.

She introduced Flach, who would explain the process of how the two villages would benefit from merging their water systems.

New Holland has already begun its system upgrades and would house the new water tower of the system. Middletown would house the system pump house. It was noted that the existing pump house in Middletown is already being upgraded as part of an unrelated to this project. A pipeline would be put underground between the two villages.

Several questions were asked about this. Some constituents felt that the answers to the questions were vague and not satisfying.

Flach provided paperwork for the village residents with construction numbers; no blueprints or sketches showing an outline of the plan was included.

Many of the residents in attendance expressed concerns regarding the water bills. It was explained that current bills will raise roughly $20 but that is not guaranteed due to inflation, costs of materials throughout the two-year project, and water usage.

One resident asked, “Can you tell me that my bill won’t go up to $150?” Flach said “it will not.” Then he was asked, “Will you put that in writing” and Flach replied, “no I can’t.”

Several residents mentioned that they want the cooperative brought to a vote by the village and not left just to the five people on the village board.

One resident brought four pages of signatures by village members petitioning against this project. She also noted that many residents did not even know this was happening until they were told about the petition or about the meeting taking place.

Lawrence said this has been a topic of discussion at village meetings which are always open to the public and the decision will be by the village board that the voters elected. She noted a low voter turnout in the last election.

Resident Shelly Klinger asked about the rules of a co-op. Lawrence said if it is decided to move forward, each village will hire an attorney and would together decide those rules.

The cost for Middletown’s portion of the co-op would be $1.5 million, not including a grant the village has for $550,000. New Holland’s grant is $2 million. Flach mentioned that there would be opportunities for future grants for Middletown, but the current grant would have to be used first before applying for more. He said it is his firm's job to research and acquire those grants. He also said that his firm would bid out the work for this large project. When asked if he would keep the work local, he said those decisions would ultimately fall on the Village of Middletown Board.

Many concerns were raised by residents such as what if the pipe between the villages were to break; a desire to keep the Middletown water tower rather than New Holland having the water tower, or the possibility of two water towers, water rates, and there are too many open ended, unanswered questions to be addressed before the project should move forward.

The main question that was asked multiple times was when this decision would take place. There was no solid answer other than “as soon as possible” so that New Holland can move forward with their side of the project. When asked if the board would be willing to hold a few more public forums before deciding. The response was “village meetings have always been open.” They noted the day and time for the next village meeting, September 6 at 7 p.m., with a possible location change to be determined for the large number of citizens to be able to attend.

Following the meeting, LDN reached out and spoke with Seth Flach. He stated he would email more information on the plans for the co-op to include in the story. LDN did not hear anything further.

[Heather Gaule]