Cities compromise on thousands in sewage fees

For 30 years, Little Canada footed the sewer bill for some Vadnais Heights apartments. The cities have reached a $170,000 settlement.

By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune

Last update: July 1, 2008 - 11:55 PM

For more than 30 years, Little Canada erroneously paid sewage charges for several apartment buildings in Vadnais Heights -- flushing city coffers of an estimated $250,000.

City officials figured that the real cost of the error, discovered two years ago by Vadnais Heights, was more than $600,000 when interest was included. Last year, Little Canada sued.

The dispute came to an end last week, when the Little Canada City Council members voted to approve a $170,000 settlement with their neighbor.

While the settlement is considerably lower than Little Canada had thought it deserved, both sides called it a reasonable agreement.

"It's consumed a lot of time for both cities. We want to put this behind us," said Little Canada City Administrator Joel Hanson.

Gerry Urban, the city administrator in Vadnais Heights, said a statute of limitations would have required the city to pay only six years' back fees, or about $89,000.

"We're trying to be decent neighbors," said Urban, whose City Council approved the agreement June 17. "We've worked [well together] many years, and hopefully we'll continue that in the future."

The lawsuit had consumed hundreds of hours of staff time and other resources for the cities. All that's finally ended.

"There are more productive things for us to be working on," Hanson said.

Urban said a check would arrive promptly at Little Canada City Hall. The money is likely to be used to shore up the city's water and sewer fund, or possibly for capital improvements, Hanson said.

"We're somewhat disappointed we didn't at least recover the principal costs of the sewer billings we paid over the years," Hanson said. "But in the spirit of cooperation, both cities modified their positions to end up with this settlement."

Jean Hopfensperger • 651-298-1553