At long last, the lawsuit filed by local resident, Renee Stringer, against the Town of Jonesboro looks to be resolved. Well maybe. At least the parameters of the settlement payment that Stringer accepted has been agreed to and approved by the Board of Aldermen at their regular monthly meeting held at the Charles H Garrett Community Center on Tuesday, September 13th.
Following the mediation of a $192,000.00 settlement, the town council agreed to liquidate a CD on deposit so that the amount can be paid.
According to the information provided by Town of Jonesboro Attorney Douglas Stokes, the plaintiff, Stringer will receive two payments in the amount of $50,000.00 with $87,000.00 going toward legal fees and $5,000.00 being placed into a saving account.
As part of the agreement and in consideration of one of the two $50K payment amounts, the Town of Jonesboro agreed to purchase Stringers home and property located at 824 6th Street in Jonesboro with Stringer maintaining all mineral rights to the property. Stringer also agreed to payoff the final balance due on the loan on the property provided by the Hodge Bank and Trust Company.
There is one possible glitch to the proceedings though as explained by Stokes during his presentation to the Town Council. For the settlement to be officially ratified the DEQ and Dept of Health have to sign off on the provisions as well as the administration officials from the federal government. According to Stokes each of the entities has up to 45 days to provide their consent and if just one deny approval the agreement is for naught.
The session opened with Town Engineer Brad Graff requesint the Board of Aldermen make a Resolution that would give approval to move forward with a couple of projects at the Town of Jonesboro Airport.
One project involves work on the apron and runway while the other is for the construction of a new terminal building. Fire Department Chief Brandon Brown gave a report and the council reviewed the Jonesboro Police Department report before voting to approve both. No report was submitted by Public Works Director Calvin Wortham, who was not in attendance.
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