The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to hire a consultant to assess the Hampton Bays Water District’s infrastructure needs and recommend a 10-year capital plan to modernize the system.
The Town Board members, who act as commissioners of the water district, have recently been debating whether to allow the district to remain under its current operation and staff or to allow the Suffolk County Water Authority to take over its management.
Talks began between the water authority and the town last August after dozens of water district customers complained about discolored water with little to no pressure.
D&B Engineers and Architects was hired by the town for $47,000 to compose a plan to address those complaints as well as examine the condition of the district’s water storage tanks and distribution system. The plan will also include the cost of installing a new iron and manganese filtration system at the district’s fourth well field—located along Bellows Pond Road near Sears Bellows County Park.
Under the water authority’s proposal, the improvements would cost approximately $14 million over a 10-year period and would be spread across the entity’s 1.2 million customer base, according to CEO Jeff Szabo.
Earlier this month, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman noted that the consultant’s assessment would help Hampton Bays residents make an informed decision on whether to keep operation of the municipal water system local or essentially hand it over to water authority.
In February, the Town Board held two public hearings at the Hampton Bays High School to discuss the merger, at which the public stressed that they were largely in favor of holding a public vote on the matter.
Mr. Schneiderman expects the consultant’s assessment to take several months to complete, having previously said that the examination will likely push off any public vote beyond 2019.
Greg Wehner on Mar 27, 2019