By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA — The outgoing town supervisor says he believes the Town Council should pursue taking ownership of a water facility at the former Alcoa East plant, but a town councilman says he thinks the plant is too much of a task.

Outgoing Town Supervisor Joe Gray, who presided over his final meeting on Wednesday, said he believes there will be a tenant at the plant, which would give the town a large customer to which they could sell the water service.

“I think you’ll see a tenant at the Alcoa East plant within a year,” Gray said. “I think it’s an opportunity you shouldn’t walk away from.”

When asked, he said he hasn’t heard any specific plans for a tenant to buy or lease the property, but said Alcoa and the county IDA are marketing it.

“Alcoa has been marketed it for quite a whilte,” he said. “There are a lot of prosepectice tenants, it’ s just are they a fit and can a deal be struck?”

Gray said they could also find another tenant at the nearby Rooseveltown border station, and a third if the RACER trust successfully sells the former GM site.

He said the border station is about to spend $700,000 to drill wells to avoid having to buy more water from Alcoa.

“They’re building as a last resort to get off paying Alcoa $100,000 per year for the water they’re getting from them,” Gray said. “Could we convicne them to pay [$50,000]? It’s half of what they’re paying from Alcoa.

“I’m not ready to dismiss it offhand. But I’ve only got 10 or 12 days left.”

Councilman Sam Carbone said he toured the building and thinks it could be too much to be worthwhile for the town.

“First of all we’re not in the water business now and to step into that, it’s quite a large step,” Carbone said. “You need a chief water operator to run the thing.”

He said the water facility buildings on the site are uninsulated aluminum, which could be costly to heat in the cold months.

He said government regulation of chlorinated water systems could result in fines if they don’t exactly conform to legal standards.

“You’ve got operators, you’ve got chlorine, you’ve got maintenance … It’s quite a complicated system, really,” Carbone said.

“If there are issues with having water that’s not to the chlorine standards … you may actually have fines if you have too many of those incidences. It is a large liability. And wihtoiut a customer base, it may end up costing the taxpayers money to maintain that system,” said Councilman Steve O’Shaughnessy, who is also town supervisor-elect.