By Kelly Doran
Sun staff

Cincinnati Bell Telephone and the village of Batavia have reached a settlement over the complaint that the company filed in September.

Cincinnati Bell Telephone filed an objection to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio on Sept. 10, 2014 over a bill for $513,329 the village of Batavia sent to the company for costs related to the Main Street renovation, according to documents on the commission’s website.

The village agreed that half of the $513,329 was replacement of existing facilities and half was upgrades, said Dennis Nichols, village administrator.

Nichols did not expect to collect the entire $513,329. Cincinnati Bell will pay the village $130,000, which is about a quarter of the total costs.

“The mayor and I and village council for the most part are satisfied. Not pleased, just satisfied, content,” Nichols said.

“We’ve reached an agreeable settlement,” said Josh Pichler, senior manager of communications and media relations at Cincinnati Bell. Pichler declined to comment further because the case is not closed yet.

When the village did the redesign of Main Street, Cincinnati Bell was asked to move their lines off the sidewalks either to alleyways or underground, said Nichols in January. Cincinnati Bell said it wanted to move its lines underground.

However, Cincinnati Bell, in its complaint to the commission, states that Batavia wanted the lines to be moved for aesthetic reasons and not interference with public way. Thus, Bell refused to move its lines underground unless the village paid.

Cincinnati Bell sent the village an invoice for $217,355 and said that it would not begin preparations or do any construction work until paid. So, “under the gun,” the village paid Bell, Nichols said in January.

“By all evidence of which Batavia is aware, CBT would not have relocated aerial lines underground voluntarily,” responses of Batavia on Dec. 12 to the commission state.

“Cincinnati Bell is a vitally important utility provider in Batavia and we need and want to accommodate their needs,” Nichols said.

The village will continue to provide Cincinnati Bell with free access to the right of way and the use of conduit, Nichols said.

The settlement is certainly better than if the village had not taken up the issue. The village probably could have gotten more if they had taken the issue to Columbus but it would not have been worth the legal costs, Nichols said.

Once legal fees are paid for this dispute, the village will still have over $100,000, which will go into the capital improvement fund, Nichols said.