DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette The Executive Plaza sits at 330 Pine St., Williamsport.

Just over $2.9 million will enter county coffers following the approval by the Lycoming County commissioners of a mutual settlement agreement in the lawsuit against Lobar Inc. Construction Services concerning a leaky leachate tank at the landfill.

Although there was no admission of liability by the company, the settlement brings to a close an issue which has been ongoing since 2013 when Lobar was involved with installing the tank at the county’s landfill which the county then deemed unusable.

“It’s been a struggle that is over with a good result,” said county Solicitor J. Mike Wiley, who presented the agenda item to the commissioners at their weekly meeting.

Once the agreement is signed, within 30 days the county will receive $2.335 million with the remainder of the settlement coming on or before Jan. 15, Wiley noted.

Lobar was the general contractor for the construction of a 7.5 million gallon leachate tank at the landfill site. After it was constructed, the county contended that it did not work as it was intended to work.

The tank has a liner which is intended to prevent leachate, the water that comes through the landfill from seeping out into the environment.

“The way the tank is supposed to function is the liner is supposed to hold the leachate, that’s the primary containment system and the concrete tank is there as a secondary system. The issue in the lawsuit was the liner was not functioning as intended,” Wiley said.

“County went through the process of trying to find leaks to fix it, but ultimately came to the conclusion with the help of our experts that we weren’t going to be able to work with the liner that was installed and therefore another liner contractor was selected, a new liner was installed. That’s in the process of getting finally approved by the EPA and the tank should be functional here in the not too distant future,” he said.

The importance of having a functioning leachate tank for increasing the fields at the landfill were stressed by Wiley and the commissioners.

“To extend the landfill, to have new fields, to continue the operations of the landfill, you need a functioning leachate tank, which we’re going to have now being paid for by those who are not admitting responsibility,” Wiley said.

“We paid $5.7 million and we had serious problems with it to the point where the state said, ‘no, you’re not using it, therefore you can’t expand your landfill. You can’t open additional fields,'” said Commissioner Rick Mirabito.

“So obviously litigation was extremely important, not only to make sure the taxpayers were protected, but to make sure that we could move ahead with the landfill,” Mirabito added.

In other business, the commissioners approved the following: the remaining balance of the 2023 actuarial determined employer contribution in the amount of $568,692, which was a budgeted item; a grant and monitoring agreement with UPMC in the amount of $10,825 for their SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) program; the 911 statewide interconnectivity funding grant with the state’s emergency management agency in the amount of $100,371; an agreement with McClure Company for $325,000 for sanitary pipe installation in the Court House basement; an agreement with Cardio4dayz LLC which is used by the Juvenile Probation Office for various therapies; an agreement with Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Services Inc. for adolescent inpatient rehabilitation and independent living services; an amendment to a subrecipient agreement with Montoursville Borough granting a six-month extension; the purchase of HDPE pipe for the Resource Management Services department from Core & Main for $13,230; an agreement with Keystone Communications LLC in the amount $29,913 for the county’s backup radio system; an agreement with Keystone Communications LLC for $85,392 for the maintenance of the county’s current radio system until the new system is installed; a subrecipient monitoring agreement with STEP Inc. for $200,000 in Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) funds for their homes-in-need program; a subrecipient agreement with STEP for PHARE funds in the amount of $50,000 for their urgent needs program; and a professional and administrative services agreement with SEDA-COG in the amount of $67,500, which is Appalachian Regional Commission Area Development Grant funded.

Full-time replacement appointments were approved by the commissioners at the rates of pay listed were: Emmalynn Gillen, agricultural conservation technician at the Conservation District, $42,660 per year; Kurtis Weiland, office administrator in the District Attorney’s office, $18.73 per hour; Alexandria Hensler, trial clerk manager in the District Attorney’s office, $20.54 per hour; Kennedy Kitchen, telecommunicator trainee in the Department of Public Safety, $18.72 per hour; Bruce Musheno, technical analyst in Information Technology, $55,000 per year; and Ethan Newton, adult probation officer II, $23.82 per hour.

Part-time replacement appointments were: Katherine De Silva, clerk III, victim/witness clerk in the District Attorney’s office, $16.17 per hour; and Shayla Wyland, resident supervisor I at the Pre-Release Center, $18.10 per hour.

The next commissioners’ meeting will be at 10 a.m., Dec. 7 in the Commissioners’ Board Room, first floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.