Fresh out of his first reelection as Goshen supervisor, Joseph Betro has moved quickly to advance his water vision for the growing town.
On the one hand, he wants to deliver cleaner, portable water to town residents. A key move is consolidating four water districts for better efficiency and leverage of grant money.
On the other hand, he wants to bring municipal water and sewer to the largest business corridor in town to encourage desired growth and alleviate taxpayer burden.
“Look up on the web, ‘What is the next gold?’—water,” Mr. Betro told The Epoch Times as he explained why he had zoned in on water as a top priority.
“If you have water, you have gold,” he said.
His action plan has raised its fair share of eyebrows, and Mr. Betro said he would try addressing concerns with science and a focus on the big picture.
For example, when combining water districts, users of lower-rate districts will take on others’ costs, but townwide efficiency and savings will be boosted over time, the supervisor said.
Around 600 families live in the town’s four water districts.
Following the town board approval of consolidation in February, the townwide average minimum water rate per quarter has dropped by a few cents, according to a presentation of new water rates starting this month at a recent town board meeting.
Moreover, the consolidation will open the door to a larger pool of water infrastructure grants, potentially allowing the town to invest more money in pipes and filters, Mr. Betro said.
“Each year, we allocate a certain amount of money to fix issues in the water districts—the residents just can’t pay any more money, and I don’t expect them to pay any more money,” he added.
A long-existing issue is that the town water, which has iron and manganese in it, turns brown after the addition of chlorine, a problem that Mr. Betro hopes to solve, not by mixing in more chemicals, but through natural mechanisms such as a greensand filtration system.
The town is buying its first greensand system, with an estimated cost of $1.8 million.
“My overall goal is to have one water district and, over time, get everything in that district to conform to a non-chemical cleansing process,” he said.
New Commercial Water District
A prime commercial corridor that Mr. Betro wants to develop further is along a section of State Route 17M that stretches from the edge of the town all the way down to River Road.And they must be the right kind of business, such as manufacturing companies that will bring more jobs and less traffic, as opposed to the mushrooming warehouses, he said.
“Water and sewer are going to be a necessity to get the right business,” he said. “They also help keep the existing business, as some want to leave for the lack of ability to grow.
“When I brought the idea of a new water district to the board, that was the mindset behind it,” he added.
With the development of Amy’s Kitchen as a catalyst, Mr. Betro plans to take over the food company’s private water lines to draw water from Middletown to feed the new water district.
Both Amy’s Kitchen and the City of Middletown agree with the above proposal, he said.
To satisfy Middletown’s request for the ability to draw water from Goshen when needed, Mr. Betro wants to amend the town law accordingly, a move that has drawn concerns over water security from some town councilmen and residents.
“First and foremost, it is the people of the Town of Goshen that are our responsibility,” Mr. Betro said, adding that any outside sale would only come when there was excessive water.
He has also considered purchasing two lots with wells from Amy’s Kitchen as another potential water source for the proposed new district.
Since the wells are close to inactive landfills, there have been concerns about water quality and safety, which Mr. Betro hopes to address through scientific water testing.
As for sewer, he is looking into buying Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center’s soon-to-be-retired wastewater plant and repurposing it into a municipal facility to serve the new district.
Regional Water Loop
And Mr. Betro’s water vision doesn’t just stop in Goshen.He is open to the idea of a future regional water loop where several nearby municipalities share water resources through an interconnected system.
And that isn’t a new idea. County officials had thought about a countywide water loop or regional mini-water loops in the past, but the vision failed to come to fruition.
“If I can connect Middletown to us, Wallkill to us, and maybe Chester to us, then we have created this little loop where we all share what we have,” he said.
“We are supplying a product that is a necessity to people,” he said. “Water is the next gold.”
