Village, BEGWS to review electric upgrade project
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Village officials and representatives of Bath Electric Gas and Water Systems will meet this week to review details of a possible $7 million upgrade of the public utility's electric infrastructure, Mayor David Wallace said last week.

"We need to explore all the options and all the possibilities and then make a decision," Wallace said. "It's basic established practice."

Wallace and village board members have expressed misgivings over the financial impact of the upgrade. BEGWS has proposed financing a bond issue with rate increases for electricity customers. Wallace, however, has argued rate increases must be approved by the New York Public Service Commission and therefore cannot be guaranteed. In the event the state does not approve a future rate increase, Wallace has warned, village taxpayers could get stuck repaying the bonds.

"The unanswered question," he said last week, "is how much do we spend now to keep the system current? Is it possible to do this over a period of time that would require a less significant rate increase?"

The upcoming meeting between BEGWS and village officials is part of a larger effort by the village board to oversee operations at the public utility. Village trustees last month voted to dissolve the 76-year-old Public Utility Commission, which historically had been responsible for supervising the utility.

The utility's engineering firm, PLM Electric Power, has warned the electric infrastructure is vulnerable to selective failures in the event any one of four substations collapses during peak electricity use. The proposed upgrade would eliminate three substations and build a new single substation along Fairview Avenue with two transformers to back up each other in the event of an emergency.