OWASCO - The town's ongoing water billing saga may be nearing its conclusion, town officials said at Thursday's council meeting.

“This water thing is becoming under control,” Deputy Supervisor Doug Buchanan said. “It's coming along, that's all I can say.

“And I hope it's something that's going to be done by summer's end,” he said.

The board has been under fire for inconsistent and inaccurate water billing for several months.

Town employees have taken fresh readings from about 64 percent of the system's 1,500 meters.

“What we're going to do for districts B and C is send out the meter cards as we have in the past and hopefully all of them will send the cards back,” said Richard Knaul, the town's Planning Board chairman and head of a committee formed to look at water issues.

Software provider Williamson Law Book Co. has been on site creating a formula that can be applied to fix the bills for accounts that essentially haven't been billed since late last year and early January.

The town's water customers are separated into three lettered groups of about 500 households each for bookkeeping purposes. Those included in the A book should get their first bills by the end of the month.

Buchanan said the town will work with those who end up with a large total so that it can be paid in manageable increments.

In other news:

* The town's attorney is working with the city of Auburn and Cayuga County to draft an agreement for an Owasco Lake watershed inspector. The lake steward would be a county Soil and Water District employee and work from a county office at Emerson Park.

The town and city will pay 15 and 85 percent of the inspector's anticipated $60,000 salary, respectively.

* The board voted 3-0 to renew a summer contract with the Cayuga County Sheriff's Department. The department will receive $52 per hour of community policing.

Town Councilman Arthur Richardson was absent.

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net