St. Petersburg and Gulfport to renegotiate sewage treatment agreement

It has been nearly 30 years since the City of St. Petersburg took on water and sewage treatment services for neighboring Gulfport.

Now, with the agreement between the two set to expire in 2018, a new one needs to be hammered out.

Gulfport City Manager Jim O’Reilly anticipates a cost hike of about $720,000 a year. While it isn’t clear yet how that cost will be passed on to customers, O’Reilly said the city will try to keep it to a minimum.

“The city council hasn’t addressed that yet so we’re working out types of mechanisms to make it as least painful to the customer and residents as possible,” O’Reilly said.

“We anticipate utilizing any increased revenue from our agreement with the City of Gulfport to bolster our CIP dollars. This money will be used for continued maintenance of our sewer system as well as for ongoing improvements to our system, and will also allow us to better serve Gulfport’s wastewater treatment and disposal needs,” said Ben Kirby, spokesperson for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.