1. 1
Allegany County Water Efficiency Report
Jed Fiato
Houghton College, Houghton NY
February 17, 2015

2. 2
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to attempt to identify any inefficiency that exists
in the production and delivery of water throughout Allegany County. The report
analyzes 17 different water services and examines a wide variety of factors that
affect how the service is organized in the county’s towns and villages. Indicators
such as: rates, number of operators, retirement issues, debt service, linkages,
number of customers and whether or not the operators are multifunctional, all
affect the status of a particular system.
 Table 1 displays and includes all of the indicators listed above. Each of these
indicators are important because they help determine the identity of each
water system. They also determine how each system is different and how
each contrast with each other.
 Column 1 numbers each row.
 Column 2 lists the name of each particular village and Town.
 Column 3 lists the number of operators for each particular water service
provider.
 Column 4 indicates whether or not each respective water service provider is
dealing with a retirement issue. Those water service providers that are
dealing with a retirement issue are those service providers that have water
operators retiring within the next 10 years.
 Column 5 lists the number of customers in each town or village that are
receiving water service from the particular provider within a town or village.
 Column 6 indicates whether a water service provider is servicing any type of
debt in the water department or sewage department of its respective district.
Those service providers that are dealing with debt issues are those that have
a portion of its budget dedicated to servicing a debt burden.
 Column 7 lists the water rates charged for water service that each provider
charges its customers.
 Column 8 indicates whether a water service provider is linked with other
towns or villages. A water service provider that tests positive for linkage, is
one that provides water service for multiple towns and villages, not just one.
 Column 9 indicates whether the water operators are performing tasks that
go beyond the typical tasks of a water operator. An operator that is
multifunctional is one that had duties outside of the duties of a water
operator.

3. 3
Analysis
 Table 1 indicates that there only 6 systems that potentially have retirement
concerns involving their water operators. Almond, Belfast, Belmont, Cuba,
Friendship and Scio all have retirement issues, with Belfast, Belmont and
Friendship being in the most dangerous situation, whose operators plan on
retiring within the next 2-5 years.
 Table 1 indicates that rates tend to increase inversely with the amount of
customers, where systems charge a higher rate than other systems with
larger customer base.
 Systems that have debt issues also tend to have a higher rate for service.
Those systems that have high rates, have debt issues, have a small customer
base, and have retirement issues are candidates for County assistance.
 The town of Friendship and the village of Belmont fit the criteria for county
assistance. Belmont’s water department has no debt service, but the sewage
department has over $3,000,000 worth of debt servicing. Both Friendship
and Belmont have high rates, have debt issues and have retirement issues.
 All of the cases, with the exception of 4 cases, have operators that are
multifunctional. The multifunctional identity of these operators makes them
a vital and important part of the respective water system provider that they
belong too.
 The overall health of water servicing throughout the County is, for the
majority of towns and villages, stable and secure for the future. A few
exceptions make this stability weaker than it needs to be, but overall, the
County appears to be healthy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, every individual case varies in many respects from all other
cases present in the report. There are a total of 5 cases that have retirement
problems, but there are other systems that are dealing with different issues of equal
importance, such as debt load. There are 7 cases of debt issues with 2 having
retirement issues as well. In those cases, the County might have more success
offering a plan of assistance than it will in healthy cases like Wellsville and Alfred.
Many of the systems have higher labor expectations for their operators than simply
the labor attached to water service work. This means that any county wide response
to water systems with retirement issues will have to take into account the wider
obligations of water operators in those respective towns or villages.

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Table 1: Characteristics of Allegany County Water Systems
# Village/
Town
#
Operators
Retirement
Issue?
#
Customers
Debt-
Service
Rates Linkage? Multifunctional
1 Alfred 3 W /2 S No 661+5,000 No $3.21/
1000G
Yes Yes
2 Almond 1 W+S Yes 310 No $45.00//
5000G
Yes Yes
3 Andover Not
Available
NA NA NA NA NA NA
4 Angelica 2 No 900 Yes $27.00//
$5.75/
1000G
Yes Yes
5 Belfast 2 Yes 864 No $55.00//
4000G
No Yes
6 Belmont 1 Yes 550 No $25.00//
6700G
No Yes
7 Bolivar 1 No 518 Yes $81.00//
5000G
Yes Yes
8 Canaseraga 1 No 253 Yes $50.00//
Unlimited
No Yes
9 Cuba 3 Yes 800 No $34.00//
5000G
Yes Yes
10 Caneadea 1 No 2,000 Yes $2.79/
1000G
Yes Yes
11 Friendship 1 Yes 573 Yes $33.00/
75000G
Yes Yes
12 Hume 0 No NA Yes $51.50//$
3.42/
1000G
Yes No
13 Independence 1 No 200 Yes $25.00//
6600G
Yes No
14 Richburg 1 No 212 No $98.00//U
nlimited
Yes No
15 Standards 1 No NA No $75.00//
7000G
No No
16 Scio 1 Yes 400 No $24.00//
$2.40/
750G
No Yes
17 Wellsville 2 No 2,200 No $14.00//
Rates vary
Yes No
Totals 22 6 Y/10N/1 13,641 8Y/8N 11Y/5N 11Y/5N/1NA

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In the chart above one would expect the number of water operators to increase with
the population in a direct positive relationship. This is certainly the case with some
of the cases, but the expected correlation between customers and operators is not
consistent. Those plots under 1000 customers range between 1-3 operators, while
some plots that are over the 1000 customer mark also have between 1-3 operators.
This means that some plots have more operators than is needed, while other plots
don’t have enough operators for the number of customers that they have.
Particularly, case 4 (Angelica) and case 5 (Belfast) are outliers, for both are under
the 1000 mark but have 2 operators. Case 10 (Caneadea) has the opposite problem,
for while most of the plots that have 1 operator are also under the 1000 customer
marker, case 10 (Caneadea) has 2000 customers and only has 1 operator. Another
possible outlier is plot 9 (Cuba), which has 3 operators and is under the 1000
customer mark. When examining the chart, there are only 4 (Angelica) possible
outliers. The rest of the plots seem to follow the pattern of having 1 operator if they
are under the 1000 customer marker and having 2 operators if they are over the
1000 customer mark. The outliers can be explained within the context of
understanding the multifunctional identity of the water operators. Water operators
that have a multifunctional identity are given tasks beyond what a typical water
operator is expected to do. A village or town that has more operators than what
would be expected from them based on the customer base that it services.

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In the chart above, as the number of customers increases it becomes more likely
that the rates will decrease. The cases that are under 500 customers are more likely
to have higher rates than the cases that are over 500 customers. The cases that are
over 500 customers are expected to have lower rates. Those cases that are over 500
customers and have rates that seem higher than expected are those cases that are
also dealing with debt issues and thus charge higher rates in order to service that
debt. Possible outliers are cases 4 (Angelica), 7 (Bolivar), and 8(Canaseraga) which
have a customer base that is over 500 customers but charge a rate that is much
higher than what is consistent with the average plots that have customers over 500.
Those outliers can be explained when considering the debt load of those cases.
Those cases that have a higher debt load are going to be more likely to have a higher
rate for water service in order to fund the debt service.

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Appendix
Village of Alfred
● Water department has 3 licensed operators.
● Sewage department has 2 licensed operators
● None of the operators are holders of dual licenses
● The village has an operator that is 65 years old and is set to retire soon. The
village also has an operator who is 26 years old and is capable of replacing
any retiring operators. As far as being concerned about the lack of manpower
in the operator position, the village is not very concerned because they have
a young operator who will be sticking around for awhile.
● All of the operators are multifunctional and accomplish a wide range of tasks
outside of their specific department. This means that the operator of water
may be called upon to assist in a project that the sewage department is
dealing with. The same goes with the highway department. Put simply, the
individuals who make up each department of public works are all utility men,
meaning that they are required to help in any area where they can regardless
of what department they work in. They may specialize in one area, like water
repair and meter reading, but they are called upon to work and help in the
sewage department and highway department.
● The water department, and the sewage department handle all of their own
repairs and fix everything with the Public Work employees of the village.
There is no sub contracting that occurs, but only in rare cases there might be
a need for a few extra hands.
● The water department is not dealing with any debt and therefore has no
money devoted to servicing debt premiums and payments.
● The village provides water for 661 customers who are residents of Alfred.
The village also provides water for both schools, Alfred College and Alfred
University, which is approximately 5,000 people.
● As far as water rates go, residents pay a rate of $3.21 per 1000 gallons for
inside water use. They pay $3.54 per 1000 gallons for water outside. The
college, like all other commercial user pays a different rate of $4.43 per 1000
gallons.
● It is important to point out here that Alfred does not charge a quarterly base
fee. Because of the lack of debt and the many customers (between the village
residents and the two schools) the village is capable of tapping into some
economies of scale when producing more water for more people. This is an
advantage that most towns and villages don't have because of how small
their customer base is. Alfred’s water rate is significantly less when

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compared to other village’s and town’s in Allegany County. With less debt
and a large source of payments coming from a relatively larger customer
base, Alfred can afford to charge less because of the economies of scale it taps
into.
● The village provides water to the town of Alfred residents as well.
Town of Almond
● The water department has 1 operator who oversees both the service of water
and possible sewage problems.
● The town operator is 53 and is probably not going to retire for another 10
years. It is important to note that there is no one under the town operator
who is being trained to replace him when he retires. When the operator
retires within the next 10 years a potential problem could possibly arise.
● It is important to note, that the water operator and all the other public works
employees are multifunctional. The town is very small and therefore cannot
afford to have many public employees who perform specialized tasks for
individual services. Instead. all of the public works employees support each
other and help each other with specific tasks which require more workers to
accomplish.
● The town provides water for 310 Almond residential customers. The town
also provides water for 19 households within the village of Hornellsville
● The town charges a $45.00 base fee every quarter for Almond residents. The
$45.00 fee provides a guaranteed 5,000 gallons of water. Whenever a
customer uses more water than the 5,000 gallons initially provided, the
customer is charged $2.00 for each additional 1000 gallons used.
● The residents of Hornellsville pay a base rate of $90.00 for 5,000 gallons and
than pay an additional $3.00 for every 1000 gallons used after the 5,000
gallons used.
● It is important to note that the town of Almond has a much higher rate than
most of the larger villages, like Alfred. With the town of Almond’s customer
base being so small, the cost per unit is much higher because of the lack of
customers who contribute to the payment of water service provided by the
town of Almond. With this being the case, the town of Almond is possibly in a
position to be looking for other economies of scale to tap into in order to cut
back on the capital intensity which consumes its water budget.

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Town of Andover
No Information Available
Village of Angelica
● The village of Angelica has 2 licensed water operators.
● Both of the licensed operators are in their late 40’s and are set to retire in the
next 10 years.
● The village has foreseen the potential problem that might arise when both
operators retire in the next 10 years, and have gone ahead and hired another
operator who is in the process of getting licensed. The village clerk has
informed me that he will be licensed in the next 6 months and will be an
employee for a long time. The village has avoided a problem for the future by
guaranteeing that it will have a licensed operator to replace the ones set to
retire.
● Like most of the villages and towns, the village of Angelica’s department of
public works shares functions with the different departments within it. All of
the employees who work in the department of public works are
multifunctional and are all expected to assist with projects which its
department is not necessarily in charge of overseeing. Water employees
assist highway employees and vice versus. All of the repairs are handled in
house and sub contracting is an option that is rarely ever selected.
● The village provides water to 900 customers within the village limits.
● The village has a base rate of $27.00 with each 1000 gallons of water costing
$5.75. The village bills quarterly.
● The village currently spends about $60,000 on debt service each year.
● It should be noted that Angelica’s water rate is relatively high when
compared to other water districts and this is mostly due to its high debt
service.
Town of Belfast
● Dave Jennings is the water superintendent and he is retiring in the next 2
years. Also, Dave told me that he expects both of the licensed water operators
to be retiring within the next 3-5 years.
● Dave was extremely concerned about the problem of replacing the water
operators with a licensed operator, and told me that the village was not doing
anything to prepare for the situation. The town of Belfast is apparently not
ready to replace the operators and does not have a plan of action or anyone
that is trying to get licensed.

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● The town has a department of public works which multifunctional and its
employees are all multifunctional meaning they are all expected to perform
the duties of their department plus be ready to be called to help other
projects within the department.
● The town has 864 residential customers who are receiving water from the
town.
● The town bills quarterly and charges a base rate of $55.00 for the first 4000
gallons used and than an additional $5.00 for 1000 gallons used after the
initial 4,000 gallons.
● With high rates such as these and with a lack of man power and no plan
moving forward, Belfast could potentially serve as a perfect candidate for
experimenting with County assistance when it comes to water service.
Village of Belmont
● The village of Belmont has only one licensed water operator
● The operator is age 60 and will be retiring within the next 3-5 years, possibly
even sooner.
● The one licensed waste water operator is age 55 and will be retiring within
the next 10 years.
● All of the operators and employees of the department of public works are
multifunctional and no distinct line exists between the different departments
within the public works department. Many of the functions are shared and
spread throughout the department.
● Belmont has 550 customers receiving water
● Belmont has 500 customers receiving waste water service
● Belmont charges $25.00 for the first 6700 gallons of water used
● Belmont charges $86.00 for 6700 gallons for wastewater
● The water budget does not service any debt
● But the waste water department has $3,000,000 worth of debt and is having
a hard time adjusting to U.B. Disinfectant regulations which has a costly
burden on the plant. This explains why the waste water rates are much
higher than the water rates. With less customers and heavy debt load,
Belmont has to increase the price in order to address the increased costs of
providing the service. With high rates, an unstable debt situation, and with
water and wastewater operators retiring soon, Belmont is in a serious
predicament and is a possible candidate for Country assistance.

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Village of Bolivar
● The village of Bolivar has one licensed operator.
● The village of Bolivar has 4 employees who work in the department of public
works.
● The one licensed operator that the village has is retiring within the next 2
years.
● Foreseeing the potential problem of not having the proper personnel to
replace their retiring licensed operator, have gone ahead and hired someone
to replace him. The replacement has gone through the 2 years of training and
has met all of the requirements for becoming licensed. Their situation is
solid.
● With being such a small village with limited access to revenue, the
department of public works service departments are all multifunctional. All
repairs are handled in house.
● The village services water to 483 village customer residents and 35 outside
village customers.
● The village bills quarterly with a flat rate of $81.00 for 5,000 gallons of water.
Any water used in excess to the initial 5,000 gallons is billed at a rate of $0.10
per 100 gallons of water. The village also attaches a $20.00 debt service fee.
The sewer rate is much less expensive with a rate of $80.00 for unlimited use
per quarter.
● The village is dealing with major debt problems in the water department and
therefore must charge high rates to its customers and charge a $20.00 debt
service fee.
Village of Canaseraga
● The village of Canaseraga has just one water operator, named Dwiane Gates.
He has a class C water license and also has a sewage license.
● Dwiane Gates has traditionally been strictly in charge of the sewage
department, but has also been required of over seeing the water department
as well since 2006. He is going to be retiring within the next 5 years.
Therefore the village is in need of another water operator.
● The village has gone ahead and hired another operator and he is currently
going through all of the requirements of becoming a licensed water operator.
● It is important to note that Canaseraga’s water operator, Dwiane Gates, is
multifunctional with serving a variety of services both in the water
department and the sewage department, and therefore has a position of
value that goes far beyond simply serving in one department.
● The village has 253 households which are receiving water from the village.

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● The village charges a flat rate of $50.00 per quarter for unlimited water.
● The village also charges another flat debt service fee of $27.00 per quarter.
● The village is burdened by a pretty heavy debt load. The debt is largely due to
the fact that Canaseraga just installed a new water system at the demand of
state regulators. The system was paid partly through federal government
grants, but was also paid through 0% interest federal government loans.
From what I gathered from village officials, Canaseraga will try to pay off the
loans within the next 10 years. It is important to note that the village is also
reconstructing new water rates for its new water system and therefore will
be dismissing the current water rates that it is using right now.
Village of Cuba
● The village has a department of public works with a total of 8 employees. The
department oversees road repair, water servicing and sewage servicing.
● The village relies very heavily upon the department of public works, and all
service branches within the department all depend on each other. Therefore
services are shared and each service is dependent upon each other.
● All employees, including the water operators, are multi-functional.
● There are a total of 3 licensed operators.
● All three are expected to retire within the next 10 years.
● The village has over 800 customers within, and outside the village receiving
water.
● Cuba charges a metered rate of $34 for the first 5 thousand gallons used and
than any additional water used after is charged at a higher fee. There are
about 4 districts outside the village limits that use Cuba water and they are
charged a rate that is 25 percent more than the rate charged to Cuba village
residents.
● The village bills quarterly.
● There are no debt service fees that are charged, and no significant debt load.
● The village provides water for the town of Cuba
Town of Caneadea
● The town’s water department has a significant debt load of over $130,00.
● The town charges a meter rate for multiple sizes.
● The district of Houghton charges a rate of $2.79 per 1000 gallons.
● The Town of Hume does not have a water operator and receives all of its
water from the Town of Caneadea.

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● Also, Hume has a water plant, but because it does not meet health
department standards, it will need to completely repair and redesign its
system before becoming independent.
● The rate that Caneadea charges Hume per customer is $51.50 base meter
charge and $3.42 for every 1000 gallons used. This is a quarterly rate.
● The Town of Caneadea has two separate departments for water and sewage,
but only has 2 employees.
● The Town has 1 water operator who is retiring within the next 5 years. The
town has someone else working on getting licensed to replace its current
operator.
● Over 2,000 customers receive water from Caneadea, and because their are
only 2 licensed water and sewage operators, the two departments share
services and are multi-functional.
Town of Friendship
 The town of friendship has a highway department that services highways
and roads. They also have a department of public works that services water
and sewage. The departments share services and help each other when there
are needs that are overwhelming for the individual man power at the specific
departments.
 The department of public works has 3 employees and has only one licensed
operator.
 The one licensed operator that they do have (Bob Cousins) is going to be
retiring within the next few years. There is no one to replace him and there is
much concern that the town will be in alot of trouble.
 The town has alot of debt from a loan that was taken out to put in a new
water and sewage system. The loan will not be paid off for another 30 years.
 573 customers receiving water services.
 450 customers receiving sewage services.
 The town charges a fee of $33.00 to every customer for repayment of a loan
the town took out to put in the water and sewage system.
 Another $30.00 is charged to the customer for a base rate of 1000 cubic feet
of water. Any water used after is charged as $0.79 for each additional gallon
of water used.

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Town of Hume
 The Town of Hume does not have a water operator and receives all of its
water from the Town of Caneadea.
 Also, Hume has a water plant, but because it does not meet health
department standards, it will need to completely repair and redesign its
system before becoming independent.
 The rate that Caneadea charges Hume per customer is $51.50 base meter
charge and $3.42 for every 1000 gallons used. This is a quarterly rate.
Town of Independence
● The town receives water from the Whitesville water district.
● The town has one licensed water operator and one assistant that simply
helps the water operator with tasks.
● The town’s operator is retiring within the next few years, but the current
assistant is being trained to replace him and is going through the proper
procedures to becoming licensed. The town, therefore is doing what it needs
to do to properly prepare for the future.
● From what I gathered, the town’s water operator is not multifunctional. He
used to also be the dog control officer but found that performing both tasks
was too demanding and therefore strictly performs the tasks of being the
water operator.
● The town has no sewage.
● The town has 200 households receiving water.
● Independence charges a debt service fee of $30.00 per quarter.
● The town also charges a flat fee of $25.00 for 6600 gallons of water per
quarter and than charges a rate of $3.60 per 1000 gallons for any additional
water used after the initial 6600 gallons charged.
● From what I gathered from the officials, the town has a significant amount of
debt that it is servicing because of a few water projects that needed funding
and therefore it charges a debt service fee in order to pay off some of the
debt that it is dealing with.
Village of Richburg
● The village currently has one Class C water operator, but is working on
getting another individual licensed and hired as a second water operator.
● Both of the men who are working in the water department are in their 30’s
and therefore will be working for the village for a long time. None of them
will be retiring for a awhile.

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● The water department is run and operated independently of the village and
therefore does not perform tasks under the department of public works. The
water operators are not multifunctional and are performing tasks strictly for
the water department.
● Currently, the village of Richburg is working on combining systems with the
village of Bolivar in order to save per unit on a larger scale. This project has
been extremely expensive, but the village has remained debt free because of
its receiving a series of federal grants for the consolidation project.
● The village currently has a total of 212 households receiving water inside the
village and also services water to 22 households outside the village.
● Richburg charges a flat rate of $98.00 per quarter for unlimited water.
Standards Water Association
 Standards has one operator (Dana Harris) who does all of the inspections
and reads the meters. But there is a board of directors that does most of the
daily work that is required to maintain the system properly. The board
consists of 6 people with Dale Deede as the president of the board.
 The Standards water system is not a municipality but is an association
privately organized and run.
 Each customer is a member of the association and his payment for water
every quarter is his or her member fee.
 The metered fee for water is $75 for the first 7000 gallons of water and than
an additional fee for every 1000 gallons used after that. The fee includes a
reserve fund fee which is basically a separate fund for addressing future
problems or issues that may arise for the future.
 There is no sewage department or highway department and most of their
water service is conducted and maintained by those using it, with a hired out
operator over seeing its operations every few day.
Town of Scio
● The town has about 400 customers receiving water.
● Last year the town had 2 licensed water operators, but 1 retired at the end of
the year, and not the town only has 1 licensed water operator who is 59
years of age and set to retire within the next 2 years.
● The town has no current plans to replace him and therefore will be in a lot of
trouble within the next 2 years because it will be without a licensed operator.
● Scio bill every 2 months (100 cubic feet in one unit = 750 gallons of water)
● The average person uses between 2-4 units every 2 months
● The base charge for meter inspection is $24 every month with a charge of
$2.40 per unit used.

16. 16
● The town has a water department and a highway department, but it does not
have a sewage department, as every household within the hamlet uses a
private septic system.
● Because the departments are so small, the employees of both are multi-
functional and shares services with each other.
● The town does not charge a debt service fee and is not burdened by a
significant debt load at this time.
Village of Wellsville
● The village currently produces 700,000 gallons per day serving 2,200
customers.
● The village has 2 full time operators that treat water Monday through Friday
and 1 swing operator that fills in when needed. The average age of all three
operators is 52 years. They all possess a Class IIA operator’s license.
● The village’s water operators are set to retire within the next 10 years.
● The village has a department of public works which has a maintenance crew
that handles all repairs with the department. The smaller villages obviously
do not have this luxury.
● The village does not depend very much upon shared services and is very
independent. Because the village has a maintenance crew, much of the
repairs are handled in house and many of the separate departments within
the public works division remain autonomous and do not rely very much on
each other.
● $ 14.00 and than a tiered rate base on units of consumption. Rates are
strictly based on operational costs and consumption.
● The $ 14 is basically a fixed charge each month, which covers meter costs.
The tier rate is basically rates based on consumption, 0-3 units get charged $
.54 per unit, 4-50 units get charged $ 3.68 per unit, 51-100 units get charged
$ 2.54 per unit, 100-150 units get charged 2.27 per unit, and over 150 units
get charged $ 1.32 per unit.
● The village does not charge a debt service fee like the other villages, and is
not under any significant debt load at this time.

17. 17