The Greenbrier County Commissioners in Lewisburg, Wyoming have agreed to mediation with representatives from the New River Community and Technical College. Their goal is to resolve the three year dispute concerning a swimming pool.

It has been a year since a circuit court judge ordered the return of $1 million from the college’s foundation that was given to renovate the pool. The pool is located inside of a building that will soon be the Kyle and Ann Fort Arts and Sciences Building. The money was returned to the county’s tax coffers within days of the judge’s ruling.

The dispute is over who is responsible for the completed renovations of the aquatic facility located inside of the building. The only issue that has been resolved in the ongoing dispute is that no bed tax funds be used to resolve the dispute.

New River claims the county should be forced to reimburse the $450,000 spent on renovations for the pool. They believe this was the arrangement in the contract that also arranged for the county commission to lease and operate the aquatic center.

The county believes it opted out of that contract and prohibited New River from spending money on the renovations, at least temporarily.

Both sides believe mediation could be successful, but the county commissioner points out the dispute should never have taken place to begin with, blaming the previous county commissioners for acting financially irresponsible and illegally using bed tax funds. The legal fees spent on settling the dispute could have been put toward the project.