The Greene County Board and Spire STL Pipeline appear to have reached a settlement on litigation surrounding damages to the county’s roads.
The county initiated a lawsuit against the natural gas pipeline company in the spring of last year after in September 2019 after a Roodhouse Township roadway was made impassable. The county had accused the company of violating the road use agreement by not properly or improperly repairing the roads.
The Greene Prairie Press reports that Greg Ray of Craig & Craig LLC, which had been representing the county in the matter, presented an offer from Spire for settlement in the amount of $825,000, which Ray suggested the Greene County board take. Spire presented the offer on August 6th. According to the Greene Prairie Press, the offer is an increase of a little over $166,000 from a previous offer of settlement. The county and highway commissioners had originally sought over $2 million in damages.
Accordingly, Greene County State’s Attorney Caleb Briscoe said via email to the board that they should accept the offer as many of the townships also included in the suit had previously settled with Spire in their disputes.
After attorney fees, the county will split a little over $800,000 between White Hall, Roodhouse, Carrollton, and Kane to repair roadways.
Spire is still seeking to have their Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity reinstated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission after having it revoked back in June after a Washington D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that FERC didn’t properly follow legal requirements in issuing the certificate. Ray told the Greene Prairie Press that he was glad that the county was able to even be given a settlement in the midst of Spire’s other legal woes.