The off and on again discussions concerning Minatare receiving water from the city of Scottsbluff are back on again. Minatare and Scottsbluff have had off and on discussions about the possibility of Scottsbluff distributing water to Minatare for nearly three years, and in late 2007 Scottsbluff offered to provde the water for $1.15 per thousand gallons. Since then Minatare has conducted an engineering study which looked at getting water from an independent source other than Scottsbluff and also determined Minatare should only pay 65 cents per thousand gallons if it decided to get its water from Scottsbluff.

Scottsbluff City manager Rick Kuckkahn says while the city's well field has ample capacity to provide Minatare and Bayard, who has also expressed an interest in getting water, with 200 million gallons of water annually, the question is whether 65 cents a gallon is enough of a charge for the service.

Kuckkahn says staff will review the engineering study and determine whether additional negotiations between the two communities are necessary. The plan is for Minatare to extend a line to connect with Scottsbluff water system, with Bayard then hooking onto the Minatare extension.