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From the Marion Supervisor Apparently, many of you in the proposed water district to the west of Route 21, have read the Town Board reports in the newspapers, and some of you even read the Legal Notices (which impressed me because I was never sure that anyone ever paid attention to them - they're not the most interesting part of the paper, in my opinion). It's obvious that an explanation is due as to why there is a legal for the Arbor Road Water District since most of the other roads in that area were scheduled to be done considerably before that area. Arbor Road residents have been asking Walworth to put in water since the 1980's. It has now become affordable because there have been enough additional homes built on Smith Hill Road and Arbor Road to share in the costs of the installation. However, Walworth cannot afford it without the inclusion of the Marion residents (the east side of the road belongs to Marion, while the homes on the west side are Walworth). So, Walworth's engineer has done all of the design for both Towns. We have to create a district and then turn it over to Walworth, and our people then become, Walworth's out-of-district users and will pay annual debt service payments to that Town. It is a short waterline, and the cost is such that it is well within the State Comptroller's recommended cost threshold of $525 per year, including the cost of the customer's water consumption. No federal or state assistance needs to be enlisted to make it affordable. It is also free of any territorial issues, because Marion and Walworth are both members of the Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority, and we all pay the same water usage rates to the same entity. Update on the Phase I of the western waterline extension: I spoke this week with the Rural Development office, which is the agency to which we have applied for grants and low-interest loans for our project, after HUD turned us down. The director has apologized for the delay, but there have been many applications submitted, and the agency was not able to proceed on schedule because they did not know how much money would be available to them. I was told that I would be notified within 2 months as to whether our proposal will be approved. Without financial assistance, we cannot proceed with this project because there are not enough homes to support the debt service, and currently the projected cost far exceeds the Comptroller's recommendations, so our application would be, rejected at the State level. I know it's frustrating to those of you who have been patiently waiting, and this year's drought has dramatically increased the requests by homeowners who are desperately in need of public water. All I can say is that we're doing the best we can by looking for funding. I would like to thank all of you who volunteered your time to make our Youth Soccer Program such a success. This includes Tom Verstraete, Hannah Byron, and Trish Boss who coordinated the program. Without your efforts, we would not have been able, to give our youth the opportunity to play soccer this summer. Many thanks also to our 78 coaches. Another dedicated volunteer is Kathy Baker, who took responsibility for the refreshment stand and made sure that it was well-stocked. (I don't have the final figures yet, but I know we netted more than $1000, which will be placed into the Park Improvement Fund for future projects.) This year, we had 340 soccer participants comprising 36 teams, who utilized 11 fields. In the past, we have had to send teams to the Elementary School in order to accommodate everyone, but this year we were able to schedule everyone at the Town Park, which worked out much better for all involved. Because of numbers like these, I always take exception to the, statement that "there's nothing outside of school for the kids to do in Marion." There are activities (baseball, summer rec, soccer, basketball) - you just have to take advantage of them. Copyright © 1999 |
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