Residents apparently feared putting too much power in one department.

Should a single agency run both the city pressurized irrigation water system and the culinary water department? No, said a big majority of this city's voters.

In the final but unofficial tally of Tuesday's voting, Highland residents opposed the merger, 753 to 355.Combining would end duplication, argued those in favor. Those against said it would concentrate too much discretion in one agency.

A second part of the nonbinding referendum concerned the control of the new entity. The vote was 228 in favor of the city water company controlling a combined entity, while 122 thought a metropolitan water district should run it.

Since voters did not favor combining the two in the first place, the results of second question carry little weight.