Greenport Village Notes: Sewer Rate Hike, Third Street Basketball Court Needs Facelift

utilities director Jack Naylor proposed at Monday's Greenport Village work session a 5 percent hike to the village’s sewer rate next year to offset costs to debt service and needed upgrades to the pump and system-wide improvements.

Village rates for unmetered accounts will increase from $50.19 to $52.70 per month, while metered accounts will see an increase from $33.37 to $35.04 a month. Outside rates on unmetered accounts would rise from $60.67 to $63.70 per month and metered accounts would see a jump from $50.08 to $52.58.

Naylor said projects' additional increases would be necessary to cover the costs of the district over the coming years.

The village will hold a public hearing next month to get feedback on the proposed rate hike.

Basketball Court Repairs to Go Out to Bid

Trustee David Murray would like to see the Third Street basketball court resurfaced, widened and improved and said he hopes to find community members willing to oversee the court.

Murray said he has inspected the court and noted about 20 feet of a bad parking area that could be used to extend the court to give the kids a full court experience. He also said there were drainage issues that needed to be addressed. Most of the existing fencing can be reused and Murray estimated bids to resurface the court and move the baskets would come in around $25,000.

Mayor David Nyce said they village has performed a major park improvement each year and believes there is no reason why the basketball court could not be the next park improved.

“The first thing we need is to get the community involved. The people who live around there need to take pride in it and keep it up,” said Nyce.

Nyce also suggested looking into plantings to screen the noise and believes once the court is fixed the kids using the court will seek to maintain it.

Murray suggested putting the project out to bid.

American Sail Training Association to Sail into Village in 2012

Nyce has met with the American Sail Training Association in an effort to bring tall ships into the village over Memorial Day 2012.

At this point, Nyce said they are ready to sign a contract and the group has submitted a potential list of Class A and Class B ships to the village for review. The village will look to bring in four to six ships into the harbor for a three- to five-day period, depending on what the village can afford, said Nyce.

Each ship has an appearance fee of $20,000 to $40,000 and Nyce said the village needs to defray the costs using private sponsorships and public sources. The mayor feels the ships would bring a huge influx of people into the village over Memorial Day.