Resident urges review of new $2,000 tap fee for reactivating water service

At the Sept. 21 meeting, Diana Leu Blackar asked the council who voted for a newly applied $2,000 tap fee for properties with water meters that have been disconnected for two or more years. "This is a new a new 2K fee for your water that was created this year," she said, and asked which council members approved it.

Blackar said it was unfair to single out homeowners for costs tied to aging infrastructure and estimated the actual cost for excavating and patching could be about $2,500. Council members responded that the fee corresponds to required work to bring abandoned services up to current standards, including tap work, installation of service pipe, stopcocks and meter installation, and that the city adopted standards this year tied to lead service replacement and related requirements. One council member said, "The ordinance reflects the new tap fee," while other speakers clarified that while the standards set procedures, the ordinance language does not always display the dollar amount verbatim.

Council discussion noted that historically the city covered service from the main to the meter and that the new approach reflects updated standards; members also compared Princeton's policy with neighboring communities where homeowners shoulder more of the responsibility. Blackar pressed whether the fee would remain or be removed, calling it "unjust" to single out a few properties; the council did not announce any change and indicated the matter stems from recently implemented standards rather than an isolated vote to charge homeowners retroactively.