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Nonprofit denies lawsuits over dam as New Albany mayor continues to withhold legal costs

Nonprofit denies lawsuits over dam as New Albany mayor continues to withhold legal costs

NEW ALBANY, Va. (WAVE) – As New Albany’s mayor continues to refuse to release the cost of the Providence Mill Dam lawsuit, one of his plaintiffs is refusing.

A southern Indiana nonprofit, the River Heritage Conservancy and the Ecosystems Connections Institute have received a permit from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to dismantle the Providence Mill Dam in 2021. New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahn continues to refuse to tell the City Council how much money has been spent on a legal battle with a nonprofit to block the dam’s removal.

The nonprofit said the dam removal was a “pilot project in addition” to the Origin Park they are already building.

“Our vision is to create a park, a community park that will bring together the communities of Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany and southern Indiana, and frankly, it will reach Louisville when it’s all said and done,” Dennis said. Shnurbush , general director of RHC.

But one community is pushing back at every turn, the city of New Albany.

In a recent letter to City Council members, Mayor Jeff Gahan describes his reasons for refusing to release the cost of a three-year legal battle to block the River Heritage Conservancy from removing a dam on Silver Creek.

Among the main reasons is Origin Park, a project that the mayor claims involves the privatization of public lands.

“I think what worries me the most about this statement is that it introduces misinformation as a deliberate fear tactic about what we’re doing,” Schnurbusch said.

RHC leaders say the park has nothing to do with their lawsuit with the city. Only the dismantling of the dam, a separate project, is the subject of litigation.

However, Mayor Gahan primarily referred to Origin Park and how he believed it would negatively impact New Albany in an attempt to defend his position on not disclosing the total cost of the litigation with RHC. A majority of the New Albany City Council in September approved a resolution asking the mayor to waive legal fees before voting on the budget.

“Premature release of these costs could potentially jeopardize the city’s legal position and hinder its ability to negotiate or litigate effectively. I therefore respectfully urge the Council to delay any action on the disclosure of legal costs until this matter is fully resolved.”

In his letter, Gaan made several claims about the project, along with claims that it would result in the privatization of public land, saying it would be a “disservice to the people of New Albany.”

A letter from Mayor Jeff Gahan
A letter from Mayor Jeff Gahan(Mayor Jeff Gahan)
A letter from Mayor Jeff Gahan
A letter from Mayor Jeff Gahan(Mayor Jeff Gahan)

“Either way, the city of New Albany and other cities in the region will benefit from this project,” Schnurbusch said. “I mean, we’re estimating about $2 million in annual visitors to the park. This will mean work, visitors and hotel accommodation. I don’t know how you look at that and say it’s going to hurt the residents of this area.”

He called RHC a “private corporation outside of the county,” to which RHC responded that they are a non-profit with board members who live in Floyd and Clark counties.

Gaan also argued that if the park is built, access fees would be charged to public lands and Silver Creek. RHC also denied this. They said the park consists of land they have purchased or have a memorandum of understanding with a property owner to manage and maintain without a park entrance fee. The fees will only apply to additional “feasible” parts of the park that they say will help the park sustain itself.

“This is state land. We have an agreement with the city of Clarksville on how it will operate,” Schnurbusch said. “There was never any intention to charge for Silver Creek. It was always something that was free. It doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to the community.”

RHC leaders said any attempt to include New Albany in their plans had failed. Now, as the lawsuit continues, the courts will decide what happens to the dam.

“We are at a moment when we are diametrically opposed. Either stays or leaves. We say yes,” Lanum said. “Assuming everything goes as we plan, whether we destroy the dam or if it remains for whatever reason. The original park will still take place. I mean, it’s 430 acres on two miles of the Ohio River with no commercial traffic. We build it no matter what.”

IDNR and US Army Corps of Engineers also involved in litigation with the city after Gaan ordered urgent work to be done at the levee earlier this month after multiple incidents in the area, including the Memorial Day drowning of 14-year-old AJ Edwards Jr. In early August, the mayor filled the base of the dam with rocks, an action officials said was illegal. The legal backlog with IDNR continues in court in February.

While the mayor declined to release the cost of the lawsuit, the nonprofit released their cost: $592,741.14 over three years. They estimate the cost to the city to be between $1 million and $2 million.

“We know that number is pretty high (for the city),” said RHC Board Chairman Kent Lanum. “They have three law firms, four lawyers over the years that have billed them. This is not counting the engineers and everyone else involved in the project. As for me, if I were a citizen of New Albany, I would be upset because transparency is the key to effective government, and once you stop doing that, you start to lose your legitimacy as a community leader.”

Gaan claims that all the costs of the dam litigation “were allocated within the current budget” and that the administration “did not overspend any of the budget.”

Even so, several city council members signed a letter expressing their disappointment that the mayor did not respond to their request for information before the budget vote. The letter states that while legal privilege prevents the release of such information, “it has never been communicated or explained – formally or informally – to the council as a whole”.