Crooked Lake Park Area to be affected by New Interlocal Agreement

A new agreement being struck between the City of Lake Wales may result in fairer bills for sewer service. The plan comes after complaints from area residents after the county took over the operations of the sewer system in 2001, and the city purchased the water system. Those purchases came about after the original operator fell into default and was unable to operate the system, which had caused a spill of raw sewage into Crooked Lake, which is rated as Outstanding Florida Waters.

Under the current arrangement all county sewer customers are being billed a flat rate, while the city bills for water based upon metered consumption. The new arrangement will allow the city to bill the county sewer customers based upon water usage rates as well.

The county will continue to maintain the sewer system, and the city will collect a small fee for the service they will provide in billing and collections on behalf of the county.