Village of Fishkill Public Hearing Water Rate Hike

On 2/4/2013, the Village of Fishkill held a Public Hearing in regards to raising water rates 10%. The increase includes the village and town residents in Glenham, Beacon Hills, Blodgett, Round Hill, Osborne Hill and any other town water district that buys their water from the village.

A short discussion with myself and the board ensued. Over a previous blog entry of mine claiming that this was "Taxation without Representation" for town residents. The village board stated that town residents were represented via a contract. I responded that the town never mentioned this increase at any town board meeting and that there were no town board members present at this Public Hearing.

This is a issue as Village residents are allowed to vote in Town elections, but Town residents are not allowed to vote in Village elections.

The Village Hall was also completing renovations and added larger bathrooms.

A engineer also talked about the Village Sewer plant. The village just paid off it's 40 year bond and the engineer stated that the life span is 40 years, but that the plant is in good shape, but at capacity. The board mentioned that they were in discussion with the town to maybe hook into the Rombout Sewer plant.

Water and Sewer crisscrosses the Village and Town of Fishkill along with the City of Beacon. Half of the town (Dutchess Park SD) and parts of the village send their sewer to the City of Beacon. The western half of Fishkill has it's own new $13 million sewer plant. Beacon while having capacity, has major problems with the pipes leading to their plant. If Fishkill town and village could combine, it could save Fishkill taxpayers in the long run.

Water also crisscrosses in the Town of Fishkill. At least 7 town communities buy water from the village, that draws it's water from well fields in the town. Parts of the 9D corridor in Fishkill also purchase water from Beacon.

A Village Board member mentioned that the water was Gold. That is a fact, we have very good water in Fishkill and we need to protect it. It's more valuable than Gold as you cannot live without clean healthy water.