NIAGARA FALLS — The Water Board has backed off a controversial proposal to make residents pay for water service line repairs in the street in front of their homes.

The water and sewer agency also has scaled back a plan to cut 18 jobs, including 11 layoffs, and will instead keep eight vacant positions open.

Both cost-cutting measures were included in a proposed 2010 budget released last month that sought to keep water and sewer rates flat, but the agency’s board members have since decided against both proposals.

Water Board Chairman Michael McNally said board members did not think it was the right time to shift the cost of repairing the lines between the curb and the water main to homeowners.

“The board didn’t feel comfortable at this time taking that out of the budget,” McNally said Friday.

More than three dozen residents— many members of the city’s block clubs — attended a budget hearing Thursday night, and several expressed concern about the plan to make homeowners responsible for the cost of additional service line repairs.

The Water Board employs a team of workers to repair service lines that extend between the curb and the water main in the street in front of most residential properties. An earlier version of the proposed 2010 water and sewer budget eliminated those workers and would have instead put the burden of paying for those repairs on homeowners.

Similar policies already are on the books in Buffalo, North Tonawanda and the City of Lockport, said Water Board Executive Director Gerry Grose.

Grose has estimated that between 40 and 60 customers in Niagara Falls each year experience a service line break of that type. Those repairs can cost between $2,500 and $4,000, he said.

Board members also have eliminated layoffs from the proposed $24 million spending plan.

Grose said Friday that the Water Board has made several budget changes to offset the cost of keeping the service line repairs and to avoid cutting employees.

The Water Board likely will finalize the budget at a meeting at 5:30 p. m. Dec. 17 at the Water Treatment Plant, 5815 Buffalo Ave.