Saratoga County Transfers Funds for Water

By Leigh Hornbeck, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Jan. 25–BALLSTON SPA — The Water Committee of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to transfer $10 million to the county water authority, which is trying to sell potential users on the merits of a county water system.

The move is important in that it also transfers oversight for the project from the county to the Saratoga County Water Authority, which has the power to issue bonds should they be needed to fund the project.

The money is a grant delivered by state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick. Part of it will go into the Saratoga County coffers to pay back the $3.7 million the supervisors have already spent on the $67 million project. Another portion will pay outstanding bills totaling $780,000.

“This is the right project at the right time in the right county,” said Supervisor Ray Callanan, R-Ballston, the committee chairman.

But support for the project is waning. None of the towns have signed on to use the water, which would be piped from the Hudson River near Moreau south through the county to Malta. Last fall, the biggest potential user, the Clifton Park Water Authority, backed out of a plan to buy 1.5 million gallons a day from the county.

The Clifton Park Water Authority is scheduled to meet today with representatives of Veolia Water North America, an environmental water services company that provides water to Schenectady residents.

Waterford Supervisor Jack Lawler is chairman of the Saratoga County Water Authority.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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