SCHENECTADY – The city has given permission to a property owner who has no running water to temporarily run a hose from a neighbor’s outside connection.
Gangadai Surooj, owner of the two-family house at 216 Edwards Street near the Mohawk River, has been without water for a month due to broken lead drinking water pipes in residential buildings, an expensive repair.
The allowance for the neighbour’s water applies until the onset of cold weather, said a city official.
Meanwhile, Surooj said a plumber gave her an estimate of $ 18,000 to $ 20,000 to replace the pipe.
The city used to have grant funds to help owners replace their senior service lines, but the money ran out last year, according to city general services commissioner Paul LaFond.
An untold number of houses in the city have lead sides. The city has not carried out an inventory of the approximately 16,000 buildings in the city.
However, according to LaFond, about 80 property owners benefited from a government grant to exchange lead service lines that spent $ 516,000 on city residents.
The funding program announced in November 2017 as part of the State Water Infrastructure Act remained active for over a year after it actually expired. The money finally ran out last year, LaFond said.
The city is responsible for the water pipes, while the homeowner is responsible for the house connection pipes, the supply pipes laid in a certain property.
Although the city code dictates the latter, Surooj said she believed the city should pay for her line replacement.
Surooj said she should be considered because she pays about $ 6,000 in property tax annually, which she believes is more than her neighbors as she has the only two-family on the block.
She also noticed that her older parents live in the building. She said her father was a dialysis and heart patient.
Surooj said city officials had told her that the county health department would eventually issue an evacuation notice because it has no running water, making it uninhabitable.
But LaFond said the city did everything it could for Surooj, which LaFond has been working with since early last week.
He said the city told the owner that there are programs to help them through Better Community Neighborhoods if they qualify, or the County Department of Social Services, which provides emergency assistance to adults receiving extra safety income and in emergency situations advised who are at risk to their health, safety or welfare.
LaFond said he went to social services, returned applications for the property owner and told her to contact social services as the request has to come from the homeowner. The premiums are based on income.
LaFond said he had also suggested that she check with local banks to see if she qualified for home improvement or equity loans.
The landlord next door, who shares water from his hose connector, had the lead pipes on his property replaced last year.
Occasionally a city dweller will mistakenly think that it is the city’s job to replace house connections.
“It happens a couple of times,” Lafond said, “but when we give them the section of the Code that shows responsibility, a lot of them just aren’t aware of it. Not everyone goes in and reads the city code when buying a property here.
“But some are aware of it,” he said. “They get their offers from the plumbers, and we usually notify them by letter that they have a service leak. We have a list of over 100 licensed and bonded plumbers that we share with them. They receive their offers and there is something between the property owner and his contractor. “
At least one other local community has money to help owners replace lead lines. the Albany The Department of Water recently launched a program to help homeowners swap lead services to have lead-free service tubing Albany through 2040. It offers a refund of up to $ 2,000 to support the full replacement of a leading service line.
Tenants or homeowners unable to exchange can get free water filters to any household with a water sample that has a high lead content of over 10 parts per billion.
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Categories: News, Schenectady County
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