WEST BATH, Maine — West Bath officials on Thursday weighed in on a proposed settlement that could net the town $1.25 million from the city of Bath and the regional school district that the town overpaid by $1.9 million during the past four years.
On Monday, attorneys representing Bath, West Bath and Regional School Unit 1 told Sagadahoc County Superior Court Justice Andrew Horton that they tentatively reached a settlement, pending approval by the Bath City Council. The settlement would avoid a trial slated to begin Dec. 1.
In June, Horton ruled that the town of West Bath overpaid its share of the Regional School Unit 1 budget by $1.9 million over four years. As a result of West Bath’s overpayment to the district, Bath underpaid the district $1.6 million during the same four years.
Under the terms of the proposal, Bath would pay West Bath $1.2 million, and the insurance company for RSU 1 would pay the town of West Bath $50,000, Bath City Manager Bill Giroux confirmed.
Adam Garland, West Bath’s town administrator, declined to comment for a story on Wednesday, but he said Thursday in a release that the proposed cash settlement, if agreed to by the Bath City Council, would be paid in full within 30 days of the council’s Dec. 3 meeting.
According to the release, attorney Sally Daggett, who represented West Bath, said residents of West Bath would decide at future town meetings how to spend the settlement money.
Paula Nelson, chairwoman of the West Bath Board of Selectmen, said in the release that the board would likely recommend that the money be set aside for future educational costs.
Nelson said she was pleased with the amount of the proposed settlement and that the case seems to be over.
“Now we can all get back to what’s most important — providing the best, yet cost-effective, education for our children,” she said.
Garland noted in the release that West Bath voters will decide in a Jan. 13, 2015, referendum whether to formally withdraw from RSU 1 effective July 1, 2015.
Also on Thursday, RSU 1 Superintendent Patrick Manuel told the Bangor Daily News that the district’s insurance agent decided to pay $50,000 toward the settlement because that would likely cost less than additional litigation.
“If a decision is made on Dec. 3, I’m glad, from an RSU perspective, that this is behind us,” he said.