Mark Webber | The Republic Bartholomew County Commissioners Tony London, left-right, Larry Kleinhenz and Carl Lienhoop are shown during a recent meeting.
The Bartholomew County Council has designated an additional $200,000 to go toward legal fees as the ongoing litigation continues over the county’s biosolids ordinance and legal work involving a dispute with the IRS.
Biocycle LLC filed a lawsuit in February challenging the county’s ordinance that bars the import, storage or application of biosolids originating outside of Bartholomew county unless it is processed by the Columbus City Utilities’ wastewater treatment plant.
Biocycle alleges that the ordinance unfairly restricts its business, caused potential partners to back out of deals and gives unjust preferential treatment to local biosolids, according to a copy of the complaint. The company is seeking, among other things, an injunction barring the county from enforcing the ordinance.
Biocycle received a permit in July 2024 from state environmental regulators to accept biosolids and industrial waste at a facility southeast of Columbus and apply them to agricultural land in Bartholomew, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson and Shelby counties.
Biosolids are organic materials produced during the treatment of human sewage at wastewater treatment plants, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The commissioners have already spent about $100,000 in legal expensesin the biosolids lawsuit, said County Commissioner Tony London, R-District 3. They expect to go over $250,000 before the lawsuit is over.
“We will run out of consultant fund (professional services fund) money, I think we only have maybe $4,000 left,” London added. “We’ll probably spend all of this by the end of the year or very close to it.”
The money will also be used for legal fees in a dispute the county commissioners had with the IRS when the organization was claiming that the Bartholomew County government owed $300,000.
All three county commissioners denied the allegations, with the Indiana State Board of Accounts and the Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners agreeing with them.
Both the Indiana State Board of Accounts and the Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners understood that this was a mistake on behalf of the IRS, but the commissioners felt that they needed lawyers to work on these specialized tax matters.
The commissioners signed a letter of engagement with Ice Miller LLP of Indianapolis to represent them for the dispute.
Claims made in filing a lawsuit represent only one side of the case and may be contested in later court action.
