The
people's choice in Livingston County... and beyond!
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The
people's choice in Livingston County... and beyond!
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By mid March, 1997 the Village of Avon had launched an intensive 'Vote Yes' campaign for its filtration project. Officials went door to door; signs were posted on lawns; advertising was purchased in the local newspapers.
On the eve of the referendum the Town of Avon's Larsen water study was released, and it predictably favored the Hemlock source. The report was immediately dismissed by the village as not objective and unduly influenced by the Town of Avon.
The March 25 permissive referendum was a landslide
526-to-287 vote to proceed with financing and construction of the village filtration
plant. Cullinan was quoted as saying the vote would not affect the town's pro-Hemlock
position.
An ill-fated "one-man campaign against the plant." had been conducted by Jeffrey Meredith, who had distributed hundreds of 'Vote No' flyers prior to the referendum.
On April 10 the village of Avon hired "more brains," that is, a second engineering consultant, to be assured that the plant design put together by MRB engineering was thoroughly critiqued.
At a dramatic June 24, 1997 GOP caucus, Town Councilman Cullinan's bid for the supervisor nomination was foiled by pro-Conesus village trustee Joe Daley.
On July 17 the Clarion reported that the town of Avon had signed a 40 year agreement with the Water Authority to supply water to the town, thus laying groundwork for separation of the Avon village and town systems. In retrospect, a critical public hearing for this agreement was never held. This oversight would turn out to be the town's fatal flaw-the basis for another village lawsuit which would block Hemlock construction.
On the town election front, Cullinan had meanwhile secured an independent ballot position for supervisor, while the Democrats were also fielding a pro-Hemlock candidate, Larry Crye.
The August 14, 1997 Clarion noted the "double challenge" being faced by the agreement between the town and Water Authority. The village, again utilizing Knauf, had filed its suit against the agreement. Secondly, pro-Conesus town residents were calling for a permissive referendum.
The September 11, 1997 Clarion headlined "LCS pulls plug." The school board had finally ceded to the demands of Supervisor Kosakowski and irate Conesus residents. The tax abatement on the plant was withdrawn. An angry Mayor Burke vowed to withdraw the village's participation from a planned Conesus Lake watershed management program.
Contention over voter eligibility was a hot item in the September 18 Clarion. The pro-Conesus faction charged that the Town of Avon was attempting to limit the electorate to a small geographic group of water district/East Avon property owners known to be pro-Hemlock.
The efforts of anti-Conesus citizen Jeff Meredith were again cited in the September 25 Clarion. Meredith was contending that village expenditure of taxpayer funds for the explicitly 'Vote Yes' filtration plant referendum of March 25 had been illegal. He was in contact with the State Auditor over the matter.
In September of 1997, the village accepted $2.6 million in filtration plant construction bids. The first of the Village of Avon's two currently running lawsuits against the Water Authority and Town of Avon were dismissed in a September 19 State Supreme Court decision. The judge determined that adequate environmental review had preceded planning of the water connection for the Town of Avon from Hemlock. (However, the second, and ultimately much more potent village lawsuit-regarding the legitimacy of the town and authority contract-was still pending.)
Meanwhile the Town of Avon was facing two significant elections in the autumn of 1997: the permissive referendum on the town-authority contract, slated for October 20, and the general election for supervisor and town board members, slated for November 4. Amidst this anticipation the village conducted its groundbreaking ceremony for the filtration plant, with current Mayor Burke and three former mayors handling shovel duties.
Like their village counterparts in March, Avon Town Board members were campaigning door to door for the Hemlock option in the week prior to the referendum.
The October 20 permissive referendum mirrored its analog which
had been conducted in the village in March, except that it favored the alternate
Hemlock source! Town electors voted 248-to-126 to uphold the contract with the
Water Authority and proceed with the connection from Hemlock.
The November 4 supervisor election produced a victory for Daley over opponents Cullinan and Crye. The council election saw incumbent pro-Hemlock candidate Sandi Irish and newcomer pro-Conesus candidate Kelly Cole triumphing. The Daley-Cole-Irish team ran as an allied Republican ticket, in spite of Irish's difference with Daley and Cole on the water issue.
As reported December 18, the lame duck town administration under outgoing Supervisor Steele bonded $1.4 million for a Hemlock water connection, with a plan which would parallel the village waterline down Route 15.
The new 1998 year opened with a series of very contentious meetings of the new Avon Town Board, well attended by the public. The 3-to-2 split (Richard Coyne, George Cullinan and Sandi Irish versus Supervisor Joe Daley and Kelly Cole) seemed to manifest itself in other areas of town business, besides the water issue, from medical insurance to meeting location. After Town Attorney David Rasmussen resigned, the veteran members installed Randy Meyer, Jim Steele's son-in-law, over the objection of Daley and Cole.
Meanwhile, the village had qualified for a special 'hardship' low interest rate for its filtration plant debt service. The February 12 Clarion announced that the Village of Avon was being audited by the state, apparently as a result of Meredith's criticisms. The village maintained its uncooperative position towards the Conesus Lake Watershed Plan, in the wake of the school tax abatement withdrawal. The Town of Livonia slapped a $1 million assessment on the Village of Avon pumphouse, which subsequently was determined to be a "state error."
But then, surprisingly, opposing camp councilmembers Cole and Irish got together and produced some agreed upon cost projections. Their proposal included an innovative dual source option which actually would be cheapest of any.
The village offered to drop its lawsuit if the town agreed to the new dual source option. The town would effectively reject the offer when it refused to participate in the cost of a properly sized new storage tank at the Route 256 filtration plant property.
New Town Attorney Meyer succeeded in getting Knauf dismissed as the village's counsel in the lawsuit, as reported March 12. The dismissal related to Knauf's village connections with Daley, who was now town supervisor. The Village of Avon would hire attorney Jim Coniglio to take over the arguments, which had largely been already complied by Knauf.
The village's lawsuit suffered what appeared to be yet another setback when Town Attorney Meyer was able to get the village eliminated as a plaintiff. However, the suit persisted, because three citizens, Dick Steen, Joe Tuchrello and David LeFeber, remained as individual plaintiffs against the town.
The winds of fortune in the Water War seemed to have shifted even further in
the town's direction when the April 9, 1998 Clarion announced a preliminary
EFC hardship grant of $550,000 and zero interest loan of $1.6 million bestowed
upon the Town of Avon for construction of the Hemlock connection. But the winds
suddenly reversed themselves.
Back to Chapter 4: Village Goes it Alone
Forward to Chapter 6: Village Victory?
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