The Buckeye Water District Board of Trustees held a special meeting this past Monday, January 10, at the Water Treatment Plant. Present at the meeting was Board Prsident Mike Ryan, Trustees Rick Williams, Bob Wines, Tim O'Hara, Jack Call and Cal Carney. Also attending was Legal Adviser Fred Emmerling, District Manager Al DeAngelis and Office Manager Greg Stanley. Representing East Liverpool was Mayor Jim Swogger, Board of Public Utilities Director Bob Disch and Councilman Brian Kerr.
After opening the meeting the Board retired into an 18 minute Executive Session for pending litigation. Upon reopening the meeting the Board voted to approve a proposal to be presented to CC Common Pleas Court setting forth a payment plan for the amount awarded the City of East Liverpool in a breach of contract lawsuit. Attorney Emmerling was to file the proposal with the court later Monday.
The lawsuit goes back nearly six years ago after BWD backed out of contract to purchase water from East Liverpool claiming that the city could not furnish the agreed amount of water to the district or meet the quality standards. East Liverpool filed suit stating BWD failed to purchase the agreed amount of water. In 2008 Common Pleas Judge Ashley Pike ruled that BWD did breach the contract and awarded EL $9.7 million. The 7th District Court of Appeals agreed with Judge Pike but reduced the amount of the award to $4.8 million. Late last year the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear one final appeal. After that East Liverpool's legal representatives filed motion to lift the stay imposed by the court and garnish BWD assets. A court hearing was set for January 21 on that.
If the court accepts it, East Liverpool will be given a chance to review the proposal and either accept or reject it. In the proposal to be presented to the court BWD agrees to pay EL $1 million cash within 10 days of acceptance. Beginning March 1, 2011, the district will pay $11,000 a month for 22 months. In the meantime BWD will “use its best efforts to secure additional financing to resolve the judgment”.
“The parties will agree that as long as said payments are made, a stay as to any further collection of said judgment as to BWD and Columbiana County will remain in effect and no execution , garnishment or other proceeding on the judgment shall issue, which stay will remain in effect until January 1, 2013.”
In the newspaper accounts on the meeting it was reported the cash is from a reserve fund required by the USDA. BWD officials got USDA approval to use the cash toward the amount awarded EL. District Manager DeAngelis was quoted as saying the amounts named in the proposal is affordable by the district. Any more than that will hurt the BWD's efforts to provide service to their customers. Board President Mike Ryan was quoted as saying they are not looking at increasing water rates.
In other BWD news, Liverpool Township resident Roy Dray was selected as one of three township representatives on the Board of Trustees. Mr. Dray was selected to replace Charles Bibbee who's term expired at the end of December. Dray has some history with the water district. He tells us he was the first District Manager when BWD was formed and later served on the Board of Trustees. Bob Wines and Cal Carney are the other two trustees representating the townships.
The other bit of BWD news we learned is that long time employee Greg Stanley has accepted the position of District Office Manager. Stanley replaces Tracy Allen who resigned at the end of December.
The next regular scheduled meeting for the Board of Trustees is Thursday, January 20. 2011 at 9 AM at Wellsville Village Hall.
ole nib
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment