Vicksburg’s water treatment plant on Haining Road is under new management.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved a 10-year contract with Georgia-based ESG Operations to manage and operate the water plant for $726,500 a year, or $60,541.66 a month, plus an annual maintenance fee of $100,000, or $8,333 a month.

The city’s fiscal 2016 budget for the water treatment plant is $5.072 million. As of April, the city had spent $690,000 on salaries and benefits, minor repairs and other costs.

“This is something we’ve been working on for more than a year, when our certified water operator decided to take another job somewhere else and Vicksburg didn’t have anyone available,” City Attorney Nancy Thomas said. “And because of the stringent requirements necessary for operating the plant, we decided it would be beneficial to seek proposals.

“Hopefully, they will make it (the plant) better. It looks like a good contract.”

She said ESG has hired the city employees who were working at the plant.

“All of our employees have accepted employment with ESG and seem very happy with their situation,” she said.

Thompson said after the meeting any money remaining from the $100,000 maintenance fund at the end of the year will be reimbursed to the city.

“I think this is a win for the citizens of Vicksburg, because we now have a professional organization managing (and) operating our water plant; a win for the city, because we could not do it under the criteria of the state Department of Health, and a win for the company,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

ESG, which operates 20 water and wastewater treatment plants in the southeast, has been operating the plant since July, when water plant operator Pat McGuffie left the city to go work for the Culkin Water District, leaving the city without a certified operator, which is required by state law. After city officials were unable to find a certified operator, they hired ESG to provide one.

The company was one of three submitting proposals to operate the plant. The other companies were Veolia Water North America, a subsidiary of Veolia, an international environmental company based in France with offices in several cities in the U.S., and Severn Trent, another international company based in Coventry, England, with an office in Houston, Texas.

All three bids were line item bids covering several areas. The proposals were reviewed by a committee appointed by Flaggs, and recommended hiring ESG in April.