Arvin wants to take action to repair the wastewater treatment plant and the ordinance regulating the use of sewers. The City of Arvin has a wastewater treatment facility near the intersection of El Camino Real and Rancho Road.

The wastewater treatment plant needs a replacement of both an oxidation ditch and an orbal aeration basin. The oxidation ditch was constructed in 1984 and the orbal was constructed in 2000. Both work through a process of a treatment train where sewer water enters the treatment train and it removes contaminants. The water is then used for agriculture purposes.

“The understanding is that a lot of our business ordinances are antiquated,” said Jeff Jones, finance director. “What happens is that, unintentionally, this type of ordinance begins inhibiting the opportunity for business development in this town because we have so many things to consider.”

Jones suggests that the solution should be to have a sub committee review the ordinances and compare those to other local cities. He suggests that the City of Arvin updates their ordinances to become more business friendly.  

“For those of you that have been on council long enough. I want to remind everyone that we did a version of this last year,” said Adam Ojeda, city engineer. “We adopted the central business district ordinance in October of 2020, and that was a combination of a couple years of frustration not just among business owners but actually a lot of frustration from the community development department.”

Ojeda explains that it takes a lot of effort to create a brand-new awareness. He wants everyone to recognize that a lot of ordinances are old and antiquated and they definitely need some changes to be made to improve the city.