Bath trustees refuse to back BEGWS bond
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Village board members Monday said no to a $9 million bond issue that would have financed a major upgrade of the electrical infrastructure of Bath Electric Gas and Water Systems.

The board's action came despite the urging of Matthew Benesh, director of utilities for BEGWS, and Barbara Scudder, chairman of the municipal utility commission that oversees BEGWS. Both Benesh and Scudder warned electricity consumption in the village is nearing the capacity of the utility and future economic development could be jeopardized without the upgrades.

Village trustees, however, appeared wary of the cost of the project, which has jumped from $5 million a year ago to its present $9 million price tag. Principal and interest payments on the bond would come from proposed electricity rate increases, which Trustee Michael Skelly warned would have "a major impact" on BEGWS's electricity customers.

"I'd just like to see another option," Skelly said. "Maybe not buy the Cadillac, go with a Nissan-type thing."

Benesh and Scudder said scaling back the project to its original $5 million cost would mean cutting out half of the proposed renovations.

According to Benesh, the bulk of the project involves replacing five aging substations with a single substation and installing about 2,000 new transformers around the village. The cost of the transformers has risen sharply in the last year and is largely to blame for the higher cost, he said.

Village officials have also said they are uneasy with Benesh's proposal to repay the bond with future electricity rate increases, which have to be approved by the New York Public Service Commission.

Even with BEGWS pledging to repay the bonds, the Village of Bath would be held accountable by investors if the PSC declined to approve a rate increase.

"Then what would we do?" asked Trustee Thomas Sears. "The state is rarely logical."

Scudder noted the utility already has applied for a rate increase that may take effect in February. It would be the first rate increase since 1999, she said.

According to Benesh, the increases will pay for rising health insurance, retirement and equipment costs. "Costs are out of sight," he said. "I don't like to raise rates; I'm a rate payer."

The debate between BEGWS representatives and village trustees ended when Mayor David Wallace asked for a vote on a resolution in support of the $9 million bond issue. Trustee Donna Simonson made a motion in support of the resolution, but no other trustee offered to second the motion.

"The resolution dies for lack of a second," Wallace declared.

Village officials will meet next month with BEGWS officials and their engineers to consider alternatives to the $9 million upgrade.