location TBD (library had no space) 5/11/2016 7:00 pm
For those who don't know the story, the Richmond Creamery was once the town's largest employer but it was finally shuttered for good about 15 years ago. The Creamery property behind the cemetery in the middle of Richmond village has stood vacant ever since. When the Creamery left, the property was purchased by Craig Caswell of Florida and it has decayed into a public safety hazard, an eyesore, and an economic blight on the town.
Richmond' infrastructure was shaped by the Creamery. Richmond's water and sewer system was installed in the 1970s, and was sized to accommodate it. Now that the Creamery is gone, the system has excess capacity and there aren't enough water and sewer customers left to spread the maintenance costs around. In 2013-2014 water and sewer rates in Richmond village rose 40% as aged pipes had to be replaced.
I am not running for office. I have no commercial interest in whether or not the Creamery property gets developed. However I did serve for four years on the Richmond Water & Sewer Commission and (with Ashley Lucht) was largely responsible for writing the higher rates. At that time I talked to a lot of very unhappy village residents and have always felt a responsibility to do what I could to help make things better.
Really the only way to lower water and sewer rates in Richmond is to add more paying users onto the existing system in the village. It doesn't cost much to add new users there and that allows the costs to be spread over more people. The Creamery parcel is about the only sizable piece of undeveloped land in the village.
Now Richmond is about to forfeit a $500,000 grant the town had been awarded to clean up the Creamery property, and eventually help lower water and sewer rates for village residents. Why? Join us to find out.
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