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For the second time in as many years, Fairfield will hire a new senior manager.

Public Utilities Director Dwight Culbertson will leave to be the assistant director of treatment and collection for Clermont County.

City Manager Art Pizzano said Culbertson leaves behind a department that has boasted one of the lowest combined utility cost (water and wastewater) in Southwest Ohio.

He also has been on the forefront in incorporating environmentally sound and energy-efficient practices.

"We have been able to keep up with the myriad of environmental mandates that have been thrust upon us by the federal and state government," Pizzano said.

"We've been able to keep up with demand; we've been able to keep up with environmental regulations and we've been able to keep our plant modernized at an affordable cost. I think Dwight, in his tenure here, was one reason for that continuing," he said.

Culbertson starts his new position on Dec. 1, and said he accepted it a little more than a week ago.

"It's a position that will have more direct involvement in the operations and maintenance of the treatment plants and the collection system," said Culbertson, who started as the Fairfield public utilities director 18 years ago. "It sounded like a good opportunity for me."

And just as the Clermont County job sounds like a good opportunity, he said Fairfield had been "a great opportunity."

"Fairfield's a growing community and it's been a pleasure to be a part of," Culbertson said.

The public utilities director is the second department head the city will look to replace.

In 2008, Dave Butsch was hired to replace exiting Public Works Director Dave Boch.

"It's one of our seven major departments, and encompasses a service that people use every day, which is basically water purity and supply and wastewater services," Pizzano said about the public utilities post.

"Obviously it touches everybody several times in the course of a day, and we've been very proud in our track record in clean water at a very affordable price," he said.

For 2006 and 2007, Fairfield had the lowest combined water and sewer rates in Southwest Ohio, according to the annual city of Oakwood study.

According to the 2008 study, Fairfield fell to the second spot behind Miamisburg, likely in part to the city's first water and wastewater utilities increase in more than two decades that was enacted at the beginning of the year.

Pizzano said he anticipates naming an interim director next week.

Assistant City Manager Dennis Stuckey said applications will be accepted through the end of the month and the position will be filled after the first of the year.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.