In their first face-to-face meeting on the issue, Warrenton city officials and county commissioners squared off Tuesday evening on whether or not the city has the right to require pretreatment of its sewer system. After over an hour of spirited and sometimes contentious debate, county officials walked out of the meeting after both sides were unable to reach an agreement on the latest issue in what has become a long, simmering feud between the city and the county. The issue stems from an incident at the county jail that occurred in February when an inmate flushed a jumpsuit and other garbage down the toilet which caused a blockage in the city’s sewer system. After the incident, the city requested the county to install a specific type of grinder equipment to prevent a similar occurrence. County officials have balked at installing a grinder system because they believe they can alleviate the problem with a cheaper basket screen pretreatment solution. Last month, the city threatened to cut off water and sewer service to the Warren County Courthouse if the county, which operates the jail, doesn’t install a grinder type of pretreatment solution by Oct. 12. At Tuesday’s meeting, Warrenton Mayor Greg Costello said negotiations with county commissioners were pointless unless they acknowledged that the city reserved the right to impose pretreatment to its sewer system. “You said time and time again that we don’t have the responsibility,” he told commissioners. “We’ve worked with Truesdale, Coke and Pepsi before that and we have pretreatment programs with all of them and they all work together. You’re not cooperating because you haven’t acknowledged that we have the right to require pretreatment. “This is a multi-million dollar system we operate and the fines aren’t minor,” Costello added. Alderman Phil Tallo said the city’s ordinance states the city is responsible for the sewer system. “I agree with the mayor,” he said. “It’s black and white. Why have an ordinance if you’re not going to follow it?” Commissioners maintained that negotiations could take place without acknowledging the city has the right to require pretreatment solutions. “I think we all have the same goal and I think we can accomplish that, but we want to save the taxpayers money,” Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage said. Costello said he wanted to come to an agreement, but was adamant that the commissioners acknowledge the city’s responsibility for the water system.   “We have the authority and the responsibility and we’re not going to take the risk that the county is responsible because the commissioners won’t be penalized for it,” he said. Alderman Dan Dieckmann, who called the meeting, said the dispute could become troublesome if some resolution is not reached. “If the Department of Natural Resources comes in here with more violations, this facility is going to be in jeopardy,” he said. The commissioners, Engelage, Southern District Commissioner Hubie Kluesner and Northern District Commissioner Dan Hampson, said they brought plans for the basket screen solution they hoped to discuss with city officials. Those plans were never discussed as the parties couldn’t agree on the city’s right to impose its preferred pretreatment solution for the county. Kluesner said that he and the other commissioners were “being set up” into purchasing a grinder pump to alleviate any future water system issues. “Show me otherwise,” he said to city officials. Kluesner felt the lack of sewer system issues from the county did not warrant spending an excessive amount of money on a grinder pump. “We’ve had one issue in the last 13 years,” he said. “If we had a way to not grind it, we can trace it back to who (flushed it). The grinder pump is high dollar.” Engelage agreed. “We can try the grinder later if our plan doesn’t work,” he said. “You’re all stuck on the grinder pump and we don’t feel our taxpayers need to pay that extra money.” He also said the Oct. 12 deadline set for commissioners to take action on the issue will not be met. Costello said he “didn’t believe the last six months were used very wisely.” Seeing discussions were going nowhere, the commissioners thanked city officials for taking time to meet, before abruptly leaving.