Fort Ann to receive $3.48M in Hadlock Pond settlement [The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.]

Dec. 29--FORT ANN -- The town is expected to receive the $3.48 million it is owed from the settlement in the Hadlock Pond collapse.

Kubricky Construction Co., the builder of the Hadlock Pond dam -- which broke in 2005, just months after its completion -- has agreed to pay the town, nine months after forging an initial agreement on the terms of the settlement.

In 2010, a jury found the company had the largest degree of fault, and the town expected to receive $3.9 million from three parties: Kubricky; the dam's designer, HTE Engineering Northeast; and the dam's tester, Atlantic Testing Laboratories.

Kubricky was due to pay $3.48 million of that total, but the company's lawyers wanted to absolve the company from future litigation.

In November, lawyers for the company and town went to state Supreme Court Justice David Krogmann to seek a decision on a breach of contract claim that was holding up the settlement.

The town and company will now sign documents guaranteeing the $3.48 million will be paid, provided several conditions are met, town attorney John Aspland said Wednesday at a special board meeting.

Among those conditions, the town will discontinue legal claims in Albany County court against Kubricky, and Kubricky will stop a breach of contract action against the town.

The town will still be able to pursue a bad faith claim against Liberty Mutual insurance company in Albany County Court.

The announcement came after the board went into executive session for an ongoing legal matter.

Some 90 owners of properties upstream from the dam, who are seeking legal action because of access issues to the pond and declining property values, will retain their rights to continue legal action.

The settlement money will allow the town to pay off debts from bonds used to repair roads after the dam burst.

Aspland said after the meeting he could close the terms of the settlement in court Friday.

In other matters before the board, Town Board members Duane Vaughn and Inez Mattison said they disagreed with recent comments in The Post-Star regarding a Sept. 18 driving while intoxicated charge for town highway employee Duane A. Burch.

Vaughn said the matter was a personal and family matter.

"I think people who serve the town are getting beat up" unnecessarily, Vaughn said.

The board did not hold a public comment period before adjourning the meeting, which 22 residents attended.

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