Over a year later a similar situation arose with the Jayhawk Improvement District, which had been organized in 1955 near 51st South and Hydraulic. On December 17, 1959, the district board of directors petitioned the MAPC for a permit to install a water tower and a chlorination plant. MAPC denied the petition, urging the district to tie into the city system.

Hess worked out the plan for extending Wichita water services to the district at the request of Mayor Justus H. Fugate. A 16-inch water main would be extended from 31st Street South to 50th Street South to tie into the Jayhawk District. The total cost would be $140,000, with the district paying $38,000 and the city paying the rest. Wichita hoped to provide the service in order to continue its planned expansion program. Mayor Fugate said, "This is an excellent example of the possibility of extending services to areas which eventually may be annexed." (Eagle, 12/30/59). The city was studying the area for annexation and did not want to inherit another water system. Also, the quality and quantity would be improved for the district's residents.

The issue over the water tower permit came to the County Commission again on January 28, but it was sent back to MAPC for further consideration. In the meantime, on February 23, the Wichita City Commission unanimously offered city water service to the district. The plan was basically the same one prepared by Hess a month earlier. Ninety-six dollars for each new connection would be deducted from the deposit owed by the district. With an estimated 235 services, the amount to be paid would be close to $31,000, after reducing the original deposit of $54,510. The deposit would be repaid by the city from water revenues over a ten-year period. Once the system was in operation, the customers would pay the out-of-city rates, about 40 percent higher than inside the city.

With the city offer, the decision rested with the Jayhawk District. An election for the Board of Directors was scheduled on March 1, 1960, along with votes on the water supply. The three incumbents ran for re-election favoring the water tower, and three challengers ran favoring the city's system. The key issue in the campaign was the water supply. MAPC was scheduled to hear the petition on March 3, but its decision would depend on the election.

In a tight election, the challengers won the three seats earning 217, 216, and 214 votes to 198, 193, and 181 for the incumbents. The proposal to erect a water tower at 51st Street South and Hydraulic was defeated 150 to 145, and the alternative to obtain Wichita water was approved 198 to 141. With the results showing defeat for the water tower proposal, the petition to MAPC was dropped. For a time, the matter remained in question, when the three incumbents initiated a law suit to contest the March 1 election, claiming 23 people voted illegally. A Probate Court hearing was set for April 18, threatening to further delay the decision, but finally the defeated directors chose to drop the case as too costly and time consuming.

Finally the door was opened for the contract between Wichita and the district to be settled. On April 25, the Jayhawk Improvement District officially applied for Wichita water service. The district planned on floating a ten-year bond issue to cover its share of the cost. Bids were taken for the project on June 6, with the contract eventually awarded to Mid-States Construction Company, and the first signatures were affixed to the contract between the city and the district on June 8. Work on the project commenced soon after the final contract was signed on June 17, and the district deposited $35,000 with the city as its share. The work was completed and Mayor Rymph officially turned the valve to begin supplying city water in a brief ceremony on August 22, 1960.

The action made Jayhawk the second and largest extension of water services to a community outside of Wichita since the city took over full operation in 1957. Hess endorsed the type of service as best for both the city and the district, "I think this type of extension best serves the purpose of the improvement district and the entire area. It is an approach to the metropolitan area that can best serve residents at the best cost." (Eagle, 6/9/60).

Wichita continued with its basic policy of extending services into areas of future annexation in the 1960's. In the latter 1960's, problems surfaced as additional areas required water.

With the construction of Cheney Reservoir, the concept of metropolitan water distribution received more consideration as well. That was a goal which would influence much of the city's actions with regard to out-of-city water sales. A Beacon editorial on September 12, 1967, expressed how the philosophy was involved in the decision to go with Cheney, "When city officials were planning for Cheney Reservoir it was contemplated that this vast reserve would make it possible for Wichita to satisfy the water needs of the metropolitan area, allowing for its probable growth, until the year 2000. Some members of the city planning staff, at that time, insisted that water supply should be area-wide, rather than a patch work in which each small community attempted to meet its own needs. Some of this philosophy doubtless influenced the federal decision to construct Cheney." The aim of developing an area water distribution system slowly was implemented through city expansion into improvement districts, rural water districts, and nearby cities.

Such improvement districts were in the Sunview and Oaklawn developments southeast of Wichita. Fred A. Russell, of S.J. Properties, Inc., owned more than 70 percent of the 1,221 properties in the developments in mid-1967, and he urged that the city annex, claiming the residents suffered from water shortages among other problems. Residents in the area were divided on the question with most of the property owners