City And Water Department Grow Partnership

Members of the Oskaloosa City Council and the Oskaloosa Water Department talked about further cooperation between the two entities in a meeting last week.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The dust has settled between the Oskaloosa Water Department and the City of Oskaloosa after last year’s legal battle involving the removal of a board member from the water department by the Oskaloosa City Council.

With the waste-water plant being short staffed and without a manager since Dave Neubert stepped down over a year ago, the City of Oskaloosa has approached the Oskaloosa Water Department to help fill that role, which the Water Department has agreed to do.

With a staff member from the water department contracted to waste-water, the bill is being passed along to the city for reimbursement. “That has been a successful partnership to date,” says Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock.

That initial pilot-program has lead to the city asking the water department to now hire two more employees to help fill vacant positions at waste-water, with the same agreement in mind.

In a joint meeting between city council and water board members this past week, that process took a big step forward.

This co-mingling of employees could be a first step in a future merger of the two departments, and possibly a new board that would oversee the combined services.

With the new cooperation between the two entities, the discussion of using private contractors to run the waste-water department has since disappeared, as the city looks to utilize local talent and resources within the two departments.

This goes back to the shared services study from nearly 2 years ago that outlined ways that the two entities could work together to save ratepayers and tax payers money.  “It’s just trying to figure out how we can provide the best service to the residents,” says Schrock.

“This committee was tasked with figuring out how to make it work,” said Schrock.

The joint committee will draft the contract whichwill then be presented to the Oskaloosa City Council for discussion and debate, and then potentially act on the contract.