Riverside to reply to county petition

The Riverside council met in closed session Monday with its special counsel Dean Spina to discuss a reply to the petition for declaratory judgement filed by Washington County October 5. The county is asking that Riverside pay the annual $175,000 that is part of the Infrastructure Finance and Development Agreement made between the county and city December 26, 2005. In March, Riverside, calling the agreement “unconstitutional” and there “void and unenforcable,” said it would no longer pay the county the $175,000 for a possible eight to ten years. The agreement was to offset the loss of TIF revenues used to repay the $9.4 million in revenue bonds the county sold (and is repaying) for the city.
Riverside had 20 days from the county’s filing and indications are the reply will be filed this week.
The $175,000 is to be paid from the $1,750,000 annual revenue received by Riverside from the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort for eight years. Funds were to be in an escrow account and the ocunty also is seeking a temporary and permanent injunction to keep the funds in that account until the dispute is resolved.