Van der Linde agrees to pay $600,000 in settlement

Did Peter van der Linde fight the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority into a settlement stalemate of sorts, or vice versa? This much we know: Months after the RSWA filed an amended complaint against the recycling center director to the tune of a $30 million racketeering charge, the RSWA came to settlement terms last week with van der Linde, who agreed to pay the RSWA a sum of $600,000 over the next five years. 

 

“With an attempt of this nature, to reach a settlement, all parties involved have to look at things from their own interests,” says Tom Frederick, Executive Director of the RSWA. “It turned out that, through discussions, we were able to find mutual interests, and were able to agree on the terms of the settlement.”

 

The $600,000 price tag may ultimately be a less expensive bandage for van der Linde; City Councilor and RSWA Board member David Brown told C-VILLE that van der Linde was accused of “intentionally not paying as much as a million dollars in fees due to Rivanna.” The RSWA’s case against van der Linde was slated to go before Charlottesville Federal Court in June, when van der Linde’s payments will now begin.

 

Other terms of the settlement? For starters, private waste collection company BFI will pay RSWA $300,000. Additionally, RSWA and BFI are released from the 1997 contract that allowed RSWA to deposit waste at BFI’s Zion Crossroads transfer station, which led to a three-party dispute between the RSWA, BFI and van der Linde over application of a $16 service contribution fee. However, BFI must continue to receive solid waste from Charlottesville under the same terms until June 30, 2010, according to the terms of the settlement.

 

“That’s a much easier way of dealing with it than to try and bring the city into a  settlement agreement, because the city was not a party to the lawsuit,” says Frederick.