CB 11 Members Complain of Water Bill Increases

Northeast Queens leaders told Community Board 11 during a meeting last night that their water bills have been significantly higher during the past few months.

Residents from Douglaston and Little Neck recently complained that their rates had doubled or tripled following a switchover from traditional to electronic water usage meters.

Jerry Iannece, CB 11’s chairman, said he has complained to the city’s Water Board about the issue.

“My bill has doubled and, in some cases, tripled,” Iannece told the board at its monthly meeting. “I’ve been told there’s nothing wrong. They said maybe there’s a leak or I was flushing the toilets too much. But, I’m not going around filling up swimming pools or watering gardens. I don’t know how I could have consumed so much water.”

Iannece said his previous bills were an average $250 per month, but that recent bills had been as high as $500.

Bob Friedrich, president of Glen Oaks Village, said the Water Board had installed the new meters at his co-op and that they had caused ongoing problems.

“We had more than 150 meters put in,” he said. “There were a lot of problems and they had to come back several times to fix them.”

Bayside’s Frank Skala, a Community Board 11, said he managed to avoid having the new meter installed at his home.

“I did not let them put the meter in,” he said. “I told them to get lost. They didn’t come back and my bill did not go up.”

City Council members Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, and James Gennaro, D-Fresh Meadows, will hold a town hall meeting on the water meters on Feb. 16 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Holliswood’s P.S. 178.

Contractors working for the city completed installation of new electronic 4-inch by 3-inch boxes in northeast Queens last fall, CB 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld said.

The boxes, which provide almost up-to-the-minute information on water usage via radio transmissions to a city control tower, replaced older technology that required equipment to be plugged into an outlet outside homes to read meters.

Iannece also told CB 11 members at last night’s meeting that they had to reapply to Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, for their positions on the board.

The board will cast votes for its chairman and executive board during an election at the group's March meeting.