NEW PALTZ- Many residents were shocked last week after receiving bills of up to $10,000 for the heating oil delivered through their drinking water over the last several months due to contamination at one of the community’s reservoirs.
“After we discovered and fixed the problem, we immediately began considering how we were going to pay for the response and the lost heating oil at the treatment plant,” said Town Supervisor Nells Bennett. “As in the past, we decided billing customers was better than eating the cost. All taxpayers didn’t receive complementary heating oil via their tap, just the water customers did, so why should everyone else subsidize free fossil fuels for a subset of the community?”
Bennett added that, in a gesture of good will and compromise, late fees for the delivery of the heating oil, which has been happening for several months without remuneration, will be waived.
“It’s really the least we could do,” he said.