The Taylorville City and the Taylorville Sanitary District have a new five year intergovernmental cooperation contract through 2023. But the deal came after a series of lengthy and intense discussion at Monday night’s Taylorville City Council meeting.

Mayor Bruce Barry was a major proponent of the deal, noting that as a former President of the Sanitary District, he thinks the current agreement, which sees the District pay the city 60,000 dollars a year for billing purposes is fair to both sides.

While some, including alderman Martin Vota wanted to have the city to have the leverage to review the contract after each year to see if the costs of the billing were rising beyond the 60,000 dollar payments. Barry sees the billing as an easy step that leads to government cooperation since the two organizations bill nearly all the same residents.

The new contract agreement passed 6-1 with only Vota voting against the measure at Monday’s City Council meeting.