County, FCR lawsuit postponed

The Wright County Board was prepared to begin its legal battle with Superior FCR Landfill Monday, April 9, as both sides had broken off attempts to negotiate a settlement and a court fight seemed like the only recourse. The commissioners had gone as far as to keep at least one county board meeting in limbo, since it may have been forced to be cancelled as commissioners would be called to testify in the trial.
Instead, it was announced at the Tuesday, April 3, meeting that the court date has been pushed back to June 4, not because of a request from Superior or the county, but because of the judge hearing the case.
“There was a problem with the judge’s schedule, so the trial will not start when it was supposed to,” Commissioner Pat Sawatzke said. “No official date has been set, but the one we’ve heard floated out is June 4 as the start-up date.”
The reason for the schedule conflict is that the federal judge involved in the trial is expected to visit Kosovo for the next month or so – setting the trial date back to fit his schedule.
While the delay will give both sides an opportunity to re-open talks to try to settle the lawsuit before it gets to federal court, neither side has initiated negotiation plans and no new talks are scheduled.
In other items on the April 3 agenda, the board:
– Authorized Board Chair Ken Jude to testify in front of the State Senate as the county seeks to get a revision to the state’s gravel tax law. Jude earlier testified in front of the State House, which approved the change on its end. Gravel mined in Wright County is taxed by the county to which the gravel comes to, leaving Wright County without untold thousands of dollars in potential revenue.
– Heard a contentious exchange between Jude and Commissioner Dick Mattson concerning a recommended alignment of CSAH 6 for future road construction near Howard Lake. It was said that there was a concern that the county’s decision to potentially use 70th street as a realignment route could be seen as politicized, since it would make one proposed site for a proposed new school site in the city look more attractive thanks to the county. The problem came, however, when Commissioner Elmer Eichelberg asked about the progress on a different issue with the city.
Eichelberg brought up that the status of an agreement with the city over construction of a water tower on county land still hasn’t been cleared up. The city and the county had a handshake agreement on the water tower construction, but, when the county sent its signed agreement to the city, changes had been made and signatures applied to the contract without the county’s consent. The matter has been fought over since, but nothing has come of it – although the water tower has already been built.
Mattson said the water tower issue wasn’t on the board agenda and that it has nothing to do with the CSAH 6 issue, but Jude said the county shouldn’t be making deals with the city until the water tower issue is completed.
“Commissioner Mattson has accused me of acting on my own in representing the county board, but he’s doing exactly what he accused me of,” Jude said. “He’s been in charge of the water tower issue –it’s in his district – and things have gone on without any of the rest of us knowing about it.”
The board approved the use of 70th Street as an alternate for CSAH 6, but took no action on the water tower matter.
– Authorized Highway Engineer Wayne Fingalson to meet with officials from Hennepin County, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and affected cities and townships to discuss the formation of a Highway 55 Expansion Coalition using services of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance. The Highway 55 construction covers two different state districts of MnDOT and it is felt that a joint effort will get more accomplished, since Highway 55 is the highest volume two-lane roadway in the state. The kick-off meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, April 20.
– Laid over for one week a proposal to change the funding for rural intersection lighting. Fingalson said the current law requires the state to pick up most of the cost, but it now is trying to push that burden onto counties.
– Referred to the building committee a request for improvements of the Public Works Building, a series of requests which range from funding of $125,000 to $1.25 million.
– Tabled a decision on a bond sponsoring issue from 180 Degrees, Inc. – a halfway house and home monitoring facility based in Minneapolis. Steve Fenlon, who represented the company through Midwest Healthcare Capital, Inc., said that Wright County is the largest user of 180 Degrees services, but the commissioners had some major reservations about sponsoring the funding.
A county is only allowed to sponsor $10 million in bank-financed funding in a calendar year and the county has already allocated $2 million. With a big-ticket financing expected for the Charlotte-Martha sewer system project, money may get tighter later in the year and the county likely won’t want to turn away a local request because it’s money has been allocated in part to a company that isn’t based in Wright County and has no members on its board of directors that represent Wright County.