City and water district remain split on water feud

With back-and-forth battling between the City of Guthrie and Logan County Rural Water District No. 1,  it appears the end is not in sight and will continue to remain in the court system.

After an executive meeting with their attorney on Tuesday’s city council meeting, Guthrie council members had a prepared statement that was read by councilman Trey Ayers and signed by attorney Jim Milton.

“Guthrie is disappointed with the final documents provided by Logan-1 on July 18, and by its resolution on August 9. Logan-1 has continued to backtrack on key issues, while at the same time accusing us of inability to perform. We have worked hard, tried to find common ground, but have reached a point where we can no longer see a path to finalizing this settlement. I move to instruct our attorneys to notify the federal court that we wish to proceed to trial, and the state appeals court that we wish to move forward with Logan-1’s appeal of the judgment determining we do not have to sell them water and awarding us a $300,000 attorney fee.”

The city prevailed in the state case brought forth by the water district in which the water district sought to compel the City of Guthrie to sell them water. The federal case is still pending and deals with encroachment.

Judge Phillip C. Corley awarded the city’s insurance company a little more than $286,000 in legal fees that was spent defending the city in the state case versus the water district. The fees were required to be paid back to the city’s insurance company, OMAG, who paid the law firm to represent them.