Town of Vegreville Settles Lawsuit
Michelle Pinon
News Advertiser
The Town of Vegreville has reached an out of court settlement and agreed to pay K&K Recycling Services $20,000.
Back in the Spring of 2017 council instructed its Infrastructure, Planning and Development Department to cancel its agreement with K & K Recycling Services which provided metal recycling services at the Vegreville Sanitary Landfill.
That summer the town received a letter from the company disputing the termination of the contract. On April 3, 2018, the town received notification from legal counsel representing K&K Recycling Services that the town was being sued. On March 11, 2020, the town’s legal counsel received a settlement offer from K& K Recycling Services.
Coun. Dave Berry, who made the motion to approve the settlement, stated, “I think that although it looks like an expenditure, it was somewhat anticipated and I believe that the bright side of the picture is the new contract actually derives revenue for us, where the old one did not. So in the long run we’ll be better off for making this decision.”
Mayor Tim MacPhee said the company which currently has a contract with the town had “exceeded our $20,000 that we’re paying to get out of this contract. Moving forward I think it’s the best result that could have happened.”
Coun. Taneen Rudyk took exception to the background information that stated that in the Spring of 2017 following the instruction of council, the Infrastructure, Planning and Development Department cancelled the agreement between the Town and K&K Recycling Services for the provision of metal recycling services at the Vegreville Sanitary Landfill.
Rudyk said it was not accurate because not everyone on council was a party to the original decision that was made. “I guess it’s semantics. I guess it’s a good reminder that as elected officials when we are making decisions with public dollars, our decision will be borne by future taxpayers as well as current ones.”
MacPhee responded by saying, “I totally respect your decision, and this is one of the best outcomes that could have come from a poor decision at the time.”
The motion was passed unanimously.
Because the settlement was an unbudgetted expense, a transfer of $20,000 from the general operating reserve was made to the operating fund to cover the expense.
