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Resident disputes city tap-fee practice after high contractor estimates
Summary
A resident seeking new water and sewer service told the Glens Falls City Council he was quoted high contractor prices; council members and staff described a long-standing fee schedule and superintendent discretion for complex taps.
A Glens Falls resident who identified himself as James asked the City Council to revisit how the city processes water and sewer tap requests after contractors quoted him what he said were unaffordable prices to connect a property.
City officials told the council the municipal code and the water-and-sewer fee schedule together govern how connections are handled, and that the water superintendent may deem unusually deep or complex installations "complex" and charge cost-plus fees in those cases.
The resident said he submitted an application, paid a fee and attempted to obtain contractor bids to make the connection. He told the council several contractors would not return calls and that the bids he received were prohibitively expensive. Council members and staff repeated that the city's practice in recent years has been to require property owners to hire a contractor and then notify the city so staff can inspect the connection.
City staff pointed to language in the code that, in one section, states "the city shall" make a connection, while other sections assign costs to the property owner. Staff said that tension is resolved in the fee schedule, which allows the city to perform work when it has the resources or to require the customer to hire a contractor. For unusually deep or otherwise complex taps, the schedule calls for the city to charge on a cost-plus basis — labor, administration and expenses plus 15 percent — if the superintendent determines normal fees do not cover the work.
Officials said part of the higher cost for the property in question stems from the depth of the lateral near a pump station and the city’s limited in-house equipment for that type of excavation. Council members invited James to bring the matter back to the Water and Sewer Commission for further review and encouraged him to work with the superintendent and the commission to determine whether the tap qualifies as a complex installation and what the estimated cost would be.
Council members and staff emphasized that the code does not disappear; instead, they said, the code is implemented through the adopted rate and fee schedules. The council did not take a formal vote on the issue at the meeting and directed the resident to follow up with the Water and Sewer Commission for a case-by-case determination.
