Letter: no more intent to file suit

“Please be advised the City of Seneca (“Seneca”) hereby withdraws….” And with the start of a late October letter, an outside attorney for Seneca gave notification that a lawsuit threat that had been hanging over the city’s sewer partners is now considered withdrawn without prejudice.  In legal parlance, “without prejudice” allows for a new suit to be brought on the same cause of action.  However, the cause of action appears to have been negated as Seneca attorney Lane Davis considers recent progress among the parties.  Specifically, the attorney defined that progress this way:  “ (a) studying how to corporately reorganize OJRSA (or another successor entity); and (b) interim efforts to revamp OJRSA’s rate structures to make them more objective as impacting the charges incurred by the parties’ customers.”  Like a lot of things these days, you can chalk off a squabble between Seneca and the Joint Regional Sewer Authority and its municipal members Walhalla and Westminster to money.  Money has been a concern raised by Scott Moulder, Seneca city administrator, as to whether his city is being asked to unfairly shoulder too much of a financial burden of the costs required to operate the county’s sewer system.  One sore issue has been whether the smaller members – Walhalla and Westminster – should pay for sewer growth costs within the high-growth Seneca sewer territory.