By Steve Mosco
Residents in Middle Village brought two specific concerns to the floor at a monthly community meeting this week.
Recycling pickups and sewer repairs took over the topic of discussion at the Property Owners & Resident Association meeting Monday night at St. Margaret’s Parish Hall, at 66-05 79th Place.
Karen Ellis, a city Department of Environmental Protection representative, outlined an optional program meant to shield homeowners from the unexpected and expensive cost of repairs to private water and sewer lines. She explained that homeowners might enroll in the citywide water and sewer service program and pay a monthly fee to cover potential service line issues.
“The cost to repair your service line can be anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 and for your sewer line it can be $10,000 to $15,000,” Ellis said. “Property owners are responsible for those repairs and this program can help alleviate the cost.”
The program is run by American Water Resources, a service line protection company that has offered similar programs to homeowners in Long Island and other parts of New York for more than a decade.
Customers who opt into the program pay a monthly fee to American Water Resources, who will be the homeowner’s exclusive plumber service. Charges will be applied to DEP water and sewer bills and directed by the city toward American Water Resources, which will manage the programs.
Ellis said monthly costs of enrollment are $3.99 for water service line protection, $7.99 for sewer service line protection or $11.98 for both. Costs will increase as of July 1.
Included in the cost are unlimited protection for repairs caused by normal wear and usage, a four-hour response time in case of emergencies, a one-year warranty on repairs and a 24-hour customer service line.
“On average, 85 percent of calls are complaints about leaks. When we go out there and conduct the investigation, we find that the service line leaks are the homeowner’s property,” said Ellis, adding that residents who would like to enroll in the program should call 1-888-300-3570.
Prior to the DEP’s presentation, city Sanitation Department Community Affairs Officer Iggy Terranova addressed the crowd and their concerns about recycling pickups.
Residents’ main concern was that when collection falls on a holiday, they sometimes have to wait an extra week for the truck to come around and take the recyclables.
Terranova assured the audience that Sanitation should be coming around the day after the holiday to collect their recycling, and if they are not, he would look into it.
The Sanitation official did have some good news for the crowd, telling them that soon the department would be collecting all plastics and that the residents would no longer have to shift through bottles and plastic bottle caps that Sanitation previously did not collect.
While there is no specific date set for that change, Terranova said it would probably take effect sometime in April.
Reach reporter Steve Mosco by e-mail at smosco@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
