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Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill told the Village Trustees Monday that the minimum charge by the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission (Bolton Point) will be halved, from 10,000 gallons to 5,000.  Hartill is a long-time Water Commissioner who has long argued for a lesser minimum charge, which he said subsidized large water users at the expense of water customers with low or fixed incomes.

"Small users have been subsidizing the big users by 15%," Hartill said.  "This gets it down to about 5%.  Some of us well see some savings.  Some of the big users will see modest increases in the rate per thousand gallons in the current plan for this year is $4.08.  With this new lower rate it will be $0.444 once you have exceeded the minimum."

The current minimum charge in the Village of Lansing is $54.30 for 10,000 gallons in the Village of Lansing, and an additional $0.543 for each additional 100 gallons.  Customers in the Town of Lansing Consolidated Water District pay a $49.50 minimum for 10,000 gallons and $0.54 per 100 additional gallons.

The towns of Dryden, Ithaca and Lansing and the Villages of Cayuga Heights and Lansing

Hartill says most people use four or five thousand gallons at most, and some only use around two thousand.  He had advocated his own plan to bring the minimum down, but says the new plan accomplishes the same goal.  He said Monday that the new rate plan will go into effect in 2017.

"It's been a long and tedious affair," he said.  "I got started on it about three years ago.  I was pleasantly surprised that it actually went forward."

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