After a decade of battling in federal courts, the city of Eudora and Douglas County Rural Water District No. 4 have started back-and-forth negotiations to resolve a dispute about the delivery of water service in the southern parts of the city.

On Wednesday, the Eudora City Commission accepted a proposal from the board of RWD No. 4 that would establish a $12,000-per-meter price for the city to buy the service rights for the homes within the city limits that are receiving service from the water district and create a boundary line to separate the two services.

In addition to stating a per-meter price to purchase water service rights, the RWD No. 4 proposal acknowledges the city will grow with a concession to surrender future water service areas as the city annexes land to the south.

Commissioners agreed a counter-proposal would be presented to the water district, stating the city’s proposed price for the meters and its suggested future boundary line.

Eudora City Manager Barack Matite said there were about 100 homes in the disputed area, but not all were now within the city limits. The city would not purchase meters for the homes outside the city limits until those areas were annexed, he said.

The city’s proposed boundary would differ from that suggested by RWD No. 4, but the city is ready to make a concession, too, that would guarantee the continued existence and viability of the water district, Matite said. Under the city’s counter-proposal, the boundary established in the negotiations would stay in place should Eudora annex beyond that line because of future growth, he said. That would allow RWD No. 4 to benefit from providing water service to larger neighborhoods than would be allowed should the areas remain in the unincorporated part of the county.

It was a positive sign that serious negotiations had started to end the long dispute, Eudora Mayor Tim Reazin said.

“It’s always good when you can be a good neighbor,” he said. “I want to resolve something that began before I was elected in a way that is good for everyone.”

The water service dispute traces to a time before the Great Recession when both the boundaries of the water district and the city were expanding. The city, which regularly added 100 homes a year in the early 2000s, annexed south of Kansas Highway 10 along the County Road 1061 corridor. But as the city grew to the south, it found the water district was already in the corridor.

The issue landed in federal courts in 2007 when negotiations failed to resolve which entity would provide service within the city. The water district’s early success in court was eventually reversed, and more recent court rulings have favored the city. In September 2016, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued a summary judgment in favor of Eudora, stating the city could go forward with efforts to secure service rights to customers within the city.