The legal dispute between the city of Dover and the Dover Chemical Corporation is coming to an end more than five years after it started.
Dover Chemical on Monday filed a notice to dismiss its lawsuit against the city. That night Dover City Council approved a settlement agreement with the company.
Mayor Shane Gunnoe said he was not at liberty to discuss details of the settlement yet, but it will become public when it’s filed with the court.
Dover Chemical sued Dover in February 2021 after the city levied what would amount to about 1.1 million dollars in punitive electric surcharges against the company. Dover countersued. The case went through multiple appeals, including to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Dover Chemical won the main argument when Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court Judge Elizabeth Thomakos ruled the company didn’t have to pay the surcharges and allowed it to pursue additional claims against the city, leading to the settlement.
Dover racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs. Gunnoe disputed a claim that it reached 1 million dollars. He says the goal was always to protect Dover taxpayers.
As a result of the dispute, Dover Chemical no longer gets electricity from the city-owned Dover Light and Power plant.
Gunnoe says that has not had a negative impact on the rest of the city’s power customers. He says rates are lower now than they were three years ago.
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