Reader says Time to privatize Ridgewood Water
It is time to privatize this or make into a public-private partnership, and let the other towns it serves have a stake in owning it (if they want to) as well as in sharing in all of the costs of running it if they become co-owners. There’s a lot of murk in Ridgewood Water, it sure does seem, and it’s been going on for ages, getting murkier all the time.
I bet that either United Water or Aqua America would have great interest in something like that. United currently charges much more than Rwd Water per m/gallons, but so does HHK for that matter. I don’t know Aqua’s current rates in the NJ markets it serves, but I think they are less than United’s.
Point is that it’s time to make the water utility fully supported only by its customers – the ratepayers – and nothing else. Village finances, bonding, and many other things should not be so intertwined with Rwd Water, since fact is the utility has always served many customers outside of the Village anyway.
If other towns it serves want to own a stake, they can put up the money and do so under such an arrangement. If not, they could continue to be just customers -but of a new entity that is fully financed, administered etc etc on its own – based totally on its ratepayers, just like many other utilities work.
Aren’t we already doing pub/priv partnership on wastewater? So why not on the water utility?