After trying and failing to kill itself off once before, the Manila Water Company is organizing its own funeral for a second time, hoping to make its shareholders, or water users, happy.

"It was born and lived and provided a great service and now it is time for it to pass away," said Neil Flinders, the new board president for the company.

Last week -- much to the relief of Pleasant Grove officials -- Flinders and others reluctantly met to reorganize the company's board, which had essentially become defunct.

"I don't want the job," Flinders said.

The goal now is to work with state officials as well as representatives of Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills to plan what he called "the right kind of funeral" for the company.

"A lot was discussed that I felt very good about," said Pleasant Grove Councilwoman Cindy Boyd, noting she was pleased to hear board members would work to legally end the company.

All the joy over killing the company is easier to understand with some history.

Decades ago, the water company was organized to provide service to farmers in the Manila area of what is now Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills. Today most of those farms and orchards are history, and for years the water company has been at the center of a tug of war between the two cities. A previous attempt to divide its assets ended in acrimony.

"When all the orchards are turned to asphalt and a bunch of people move in, you have new kinds of challenges," said Flinders. "The two municipalities got to arguing with each other over what they thought was fair and just and it sort of dead-ended. We are hoping to avoid that kind of thing this time."

Frustration over the fate of the company came to a head this summer after Pleasant Grove, which had been subsidizing the company for years, decided the residents needed to pay their own way. Some users saw their water bills spike up to 1,150 percent compared to a year ago. Their outrage caused the city to hold a special meeting, and the price spike was temporarily put on hold.

The problem was compounded because the company's board of directors had essentially ceased to exist. Everyone involved agreed the company needed to disband so Pleasant Grove could own the system, but any momentum toward that goal was stymied by long-standing disputes with Cedar Hills about how to divide company assets.

The new board "will work to get enough factual information squared away so we can talk about what is an equitable way to divide assets," Flinders said, noting those would include water storage tanks and service lines. "The only question is how do you get it to pass away in a manner that pleases two competing entities" -- Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills. "They ought to be flexible in light of the gift they are being given."

Flinders said that he believes the atmosphere today between the two cities is more "harmonious" and city officials are prepared to cooperate to divide water company assets among themselves using "common sense."

The shareholders, or water users, though, won't see a rate decrease. The rates for Manila residents in Pleasant Grove will have to increase to cover costs, even with the company being disbanded.