The Town of Webb Town Board held a public hearing on Tuesday, April 12 to consider a resolution to extend the Town of Webb Water District No. 1, also known as “KOA Water District,” which is located just north of the Old Forge hamlet and comprises the Old Forge Camping Resort.
The district was established in conjunction with the development of the original KOA Kampground in 1972.
The public hearing was opened at 7 p.m., and closed after all in attendance had the opportunity to ask questions and speak for or against the resolution.
During the Town Board’s regular meeting which convened immediately after the hearing, the board voted to approve the resolution with a unanimous vote by those attending—Councilmen J.B. Herron and Mike Ross, and Supervisor Robert Moore.
Board members Kate Russell and Richard Risley had been unable to attend the meeting.
The board effectively determined that all legal requirements of the resolution had been met.
Also that all property and property owners within the proposed district would be benefitted by the resolution, and that all that benefitted were included within the limits of the proposed district.
And it determined that the action taken in extending the district was in the public’s interest.
The resolution, having been approved by the board, is now subject to a permissive referendum, according to Town Attorney Richard Frye.
The expansion issue came about when Old Forge Camping Resort was working with state agencies on a development project, according to Frye.
It was during that process that a clear error was discovered, which had the water district boundary drawn incorrectly, he said.
The action to extend the water district is less an “extension” than a “redrawing” of the district to make it reflect the way it always should have been, according to Frye.
Effectively a mistake had been made early on and not recognized until years later, he said.
Land acquired by John Hanford when he bought the KOA in 1973, had not been included in the water district maps and description as it should have been, according to Frye.
During the public hearing former Supervisor George Hilte-brant, who is familiar with the KOA district, asked the town board for details about the Camping Resort’s water usage and payment arrangement.
Attorney Frye confirmed that the campground pays according to actual water usage and not the property’s assessed value.
Supervisor Robert Moore explained that the purpose of the resolution is to make the legal paperwork reflect what had been taking place in actual practice in the water district for years, and what had previously been assumed to be the situation.
In essence, certain land, that had been part of the KOA property since 1973, and had been intended to be part of the water district, had been excluded by oversight.
“The purpose of the proposed extension is to incorporate all lands currently served by the district into the legal description of said district,” Moore said.
And this involves no cost to the town or others in the water district, he added.
“All costs associated with this proposed district extension are the responsibility of Old Forge Campgrounds, LLC,” he said.
