The purpose of this review is to try to understand the Town’s position. We have attempted to get the Town involved with the village project since January 2022 and we will continue to do so. We are not trying to build a case here but we hope providing a separate opinion may promote discussion.

 

Below is section (3b) of the Selectboard’s letter. The Town’s statements are in italic and underlined. Bulleted points are our responses to their statement. We have broken it into specific sections to be able to discuss each part. If you have not seen the full opinion letter from the Town, contact Gayle Pezzo for a copy.

 

Town’s Position:

3b. If Westbury were to become a village, the Town would oppose Westbury obtaining wholesale water rates from Champlain Water District (CWD).

Our Position:

• This statement seems to us to be somewhat punitive as we believe the points below are inaccurate.

 

Town’s Position:

 This approach would serve to unwind CWD’s approach of providing wholesale water to vast areas through a distribution system to a town-wide local retail system. If CWD granted Westbury wholesale water rates, it would cause a shift (increase) in distribution costs and water rates to other residents in Colchester and/or other communities.

Our Position:

• We disagree.

• To date, CWD has isolated income and expenses for specific public water systems that it runs. If Westbury’s water system was run by a village it would only remove it as a consecutive system to the VT 5060 public water system, which it has never been physically attached to.

• There would be no change to the CWD system except the Westbury Park meter that is read 4 times a year by CWD Retail would be read 12 times a year by CWD Wholesale. CWD could read the meter when it reads its FD3 meter eliminating ay additional trips and actually reducing 4 trips by CWD retail.

• At the July 26th Selectboard meeting, CWD indicated they would like to see Colchester take ownership of the CWD Retail systems in Colchester. Does Colchester benefit if the current situation is not addressed – to say, does Colchester then receive a water system with an additional $50,000 / year from Westbury who is not connected to their new system?

• At the July 26th Selectboard meeting, CWD also indicated they were planning on merging the Retail water systems they have in Colchester and establish a single rate for customers in all four systems. During this process, will not some users see rate increases for the benefit of this merger?

 

Town’s Position:

 Additionally, if Westbury did become a village and managed to obtain wholesale water rates, what would prevent other associations from becoming villages, obtaining wholesale water rates and further shifting costs to those who were not villages?

 

Our Position:

 

• Associations cannot become villages.

• Is it the Town’s position that any village that receives water from its town-wide local retail system would somehow not be subjected to rates and contracts defined by that Town? Of the 117 water systems listed within the CWD jurisdiction, Westbury is the only one that does not connect through the jurisdiction of another municipality.

• Additionally, there are other functional factors that would prevent any HOA from doing this conversion. Is that why the town has formed this as a question and not as a statement?

 

 

Town’s Position:

 In the end, we could wind up with a more complicated and costly water system vs. one operated and owned by three entities (CWD, CFD#2 and the Town of Essex).

Our Position:

• Please define how moving the Westbury Park meter reading from CWD Retail to CWD Wholesale will result in a more complicated system.

 

 

Reviewing the information above we should ask our three questions:

 

• Why would the village project be good for Westbury?

• Does the project hurt our neighbors outside of Westbury?

• Why wouldn’t the Town want to help its residents living in Westbury?

 

The next post will be the beginning of what we are calling the Village Plan. It will consist of:

1. Pros & Cons – A list of issues that could have positive or negative results. We are still accepting questions and topics for this segment (as well as FAQs)

2. Budget – A budget built off information from other village budgets. The purpose of this segment is to allow discussion on the accuracy of financial projections.

3. FAQs – A list of questions and answers specifically about the model we are proposing - a village that owns and operates a water system. The purpose of this is to get away from all the hypothetical questions and look directly and simply at this proposal.

4. Steps - A list of actions necessary to form a village and to transfer the water system. The purpose of this segment is to allow discussion on the amount of work involved.

 

Feel free to weigh in with comments or questions.

Hope all is well,

- The Village Project Team