Lawsuit concerned significant settling of portions of 2nd, 5th and 6th Avenues reconstructed in 2012
Kuechle had claimed the cost of repairing that damage was $457,087.56, and brought suit against the City of Mountain Lake in order to recover those costs.
The trial was scheduled to begin later this month.
The out-of-court settlement was reached following a June 28, 2016 mediation session in which Kuechle; the city’s engineer for the project, Bolton & Menk Inc. (Bolton); the City of Mountain Lake and League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT) were present.
The city was represented by Shelly Ryan, Hoff Barry, P. A., an attorney provided to the city by the LMCIT.
On Monday, July 18, the Mountain Lake City Council approved the agreement at its meeting.
As part of the agreement, the city can only disclose that it contributed $62,500.
Any contribution from the other participants in the mediation remains confidential.
Bolton had billed the city $28,317 through October 23, 2014 for their engineering time supervising the repair of the settlement. That bill was waived as part of the agreement. Additionally, Bolton agreed not to seek payment from the city for any billed or unbilled fees for any work in assisting the city prepare for the trial or mediaton session.
The agreement further acknowledges that the remediation work to some extent benefitted the city because the depth of the asphalt on the affected streets now exceeds specifications.
“To the citizens of Mountain Lake,” says Mayor Mike Nelson, “this probably seems like an open-and-shut case, but after listening to some of the legal arguments, it’s not that simple. Plus, Bolton agreed to withdraw their bill, and the asphalt is thicker than planned. It is unfortunate that the settlement occurred. There was a lot of complaining, and rightly so. While everybody had to deal with the inconveniences the problem caused, it really hit the people who had to live in the middle of it; the residents on 2nd, 5th and 6th Avenues. The Council felt that a known cost was better than an unknown cost. If the matter had gone to trial, and Kuechle had won, the city would have been responsible for any award. The contract was between the City of Mountain Lake and Kuechle.”
