Judge Ed Black of Alpena County’s 26th Circuit Court said he couldn’t fully end the decade-long dispute over how much Alpena Township should pay Alpena for water and sewer services.

Instead, Black this week sent the two governments back to the bargaining table with some new rules to guide negotiations toward the establishment of new rates, News staff writer Steve Schulwitz reported recently.

Black called the rates Alpena charged Alpena Township between 2014 and 2017 unreasonable and excessive, though he said the city is entitled to a higher rate than the township paid prior to 2014. He specified the city should only charge the township for operational and maintenance costs and should not charge the township for projects that improved Alpena’s water and sewer system but did not benefit the township or its water and sewer customers.

Black said he wants a progress report from the two governments by July 9.

We want a deal by then, if not sooner.

Alpena Township buys water and sewer services from Alpena and passes on those services to many township residents.

The current court battle began a decade ago when the city raised rates on all of its customers, including the township, and the township balked at the higher prices. The township has long argued the city should treat the township as a wholesale customer because of the large volume of water it purchases from the city.

While the two sides have repeatedly appeared close to a deal, most recently announcing negotiations toward the creation of a water and sewer authority that would oversee operations for both governments, those near-successes have always fallen apart.

Hence the roughly weeklong trial that ended with Black’s rulings this week.

Negotiations between the two governments have happened behind closed doors, as state law allows, so there’s no way of knowing how many of Black’s new directions will smooth over sticking points that have prevented the two governments from reaching a deal for a decade.

But we hope the judge’s directions provide big enough guardrails that they guide the two sides to a resolution that works for both the city and the township and, most importantly, the water and sewer customers in both communities.

But that is largely dependent on the people sitting at the negotiating table.

They have to want a deal. They have to be willing to give a little to get a little. They have to recognize that the millions the two sides have spent on attorneys and consultants would be better spent on serving their constituents. They have to want this to end.

Let it be so.