Royal, IA (KICD)– The City of Royal voted on Wednesday to enter into an agreement to have Iowa Lakes Regional Water take over the community’s water system.

The discussion began several months ago when city officials were looking at the water tower and some needed maintenance and were told there as option that could ultimately save the city several million dollars to keep receiving water when the current contract expires in three to four years.

Mayor Josh Toft and the city council were then faced by a number of concerns from residents during last month’s meeting worried about the fact that water rates would nearly double with this switch but said the initial discussion took into account that the city council is made up of a very diverse group representing a good cross section of the community.

Now that the initial agreement has passed, the next step suggested by legal council is to update city code to eliminate language eluding to specific water rates since that will now be handled by Iowa Lakes Regional Water and will make it so code does not have to be changed everytime those rates are updated in the future. Since this includes an ordinance change, it would require three readings to be official, but there was some discussion on Wednesday to have the initial reading in June and potentially waive the final two readings for time sake.