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Salt settlement claims abound
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning Valley jurisdictions have submitted claims for shares of Ohio’s $11.5 million settlement with two rock-salt suppliers ahead of Friday’s claims deadline.
Among the claimants are the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office; Boardman, Kinsman, Salem, Bazetta, Hubbard and Champion townships; the cities of Struthers and Columbiana and the villages of New Waterford and Lordstown.
They are among more than 550 local governments and other public agencies statewide that have filed claims under the agreement the Ohio Attorney General’s Office reached with Morton Salt Inc. and Cargill Inc.
In its lawsuit against Morton and Cargill, the state alleged the companies divided the market and agreed not to compete against each other and thereby inflated road-salt prices.
Ohio public agencies that bought salt from either company between 2008 and 2011 are eligible to file claims based on the amount they bought.
“We are expecting to provide every eligible entity with a settlement check,” said Kate Hanson, a public information officer with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
In making their claims, the jurisdictions reported their total salt purchases but did not ask for a specific amount of settlement money.
“The amount that each entity will receive will be proportional to the total amount of rock salt the entity purchased, but we also likely will set a floor amount that each eligible entity is guaranteed to receive,” Hanson explained.
From Morton, the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office bought $724,669 worth of salt for the 2008 season and $487,832 for the 2009 season.
From Cargill, it bought $604,322 worth of salt for the 2010 season.
However, county Engineer Patrick Ginnetti cautioned against high settlement expectations.
When the state announced the settlement in June, Ginnetti observed that if the settlement package were to be evenly divided among the state’s counties, villages and townships, each entity would get a mere $5,000.
From Cargill, Lordstown reported it bought $146,146 worth of salt in 2008, $106,982 in 2009 and $124,982 in 2010.
From Morton, Boardman bought $73,155 worth of salt in 2008 and $221,835 in 2009.
Boardman bought $209,191 worth of salt from Cargill in 2010.