MANSFIELD ─ The cities of Mansfield and Ontario signed a new wastewater treatment contract on Monday.
The new contract, starting April 1, can last up to 30 years and will continue Mansfield’s current treatment service for Ontario.
Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson said the city could opt-out after the first 10 years if it so chooses.
Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker said the two cities have been negotiating the issue for about three years.
“We’ve been trying to come up with a win-win situation,” he said. “And I think that this is going to be very, very beneficial to the community as a whole.”
Ontario has discussed building its own wastewater treatment plant before announcing it would enter a new contract with Mansfield last week. Hutchinson said the city has looked at the cost of building the plant and staying in a contract. Officials have concluded that signing a new contract with Mansfield is more cost-feasible, especially over the long term for citizens.
But the city could not elaborate how much Ontario will save with the new contract when comparing with building its plant. Hutchinson said the number depends on multiple factors, including the grants and interest rates the city would receive.
Ontario residents will see up to a 3-percent annual increase in sewer service under the new agreement. Hutchinson said the benefit is it locks in the rate of maximum growth. Even if Ontario built its plant, it will likely face a sewer rate increase every year.
He also said Ontario has committed “quite a bit of money” each year under the new contract to keep working on its inflow and infiltration in the systems.
Some Ontario residents expressed concerns about the wastewater treatment plant when the city was moving forward with the project. They questioned whether owning the plant would indeed save residents money and worried about the potential hygiene issues.
When asked if the pushback played a role in the decision process, Hutchinson said the comments came out recently and the two cities have worked on the issue for three years. They both knew they had to do what is best for the citizens.
Mansfield City Council authorized Theaker to sign pact last week and held an executive session for related “imminent litigation.” Theaker did not elaborate on the discussion Monday but said no immediate legal actions will be taken.
Ontario has seen multiple increases in wastewater treatment service fees before getting the new contract, including an 18-percent rise in 2018 and a 10-percent increase in 2019.
The growth got to a point where city officials and council members agreed it was time for Ontario to build its plant. The idea had been discussed for years.
A cost analysis done by Poggemeyer Design Group of Bowling Green found Ontario would save between $305,602 and $841,241 per year by 2026 if it processed the wastewater by itself.
The city eyed different locations over the past three years.
It had planned to buy a 70-acre land on West Fourth St. in 2019 before the car dealer next door purchased the property.
Recently, Ontario chose a city-owned land at the west end of Nussbaum Parkway, part of the industrial park, as the tentative site. All these plans have come to an end after it decided to keep using Mansfield’s service.
