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City gets more time on lawsuit
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 10, 2014


A federal judge gave the City of West Branch another week to respond to a lawsuit filed by Acciona Windpower over cancelled tax rebates.
The city originally had until April 1 to respond to the lawsuit, but on March 31 Dorsey & Whitney attorneys William J. Miller and Brian A. Melhus of Des Moines told the U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids they had been retained to defend the city and asked for a seven-day extension.

Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles, finding that Acciona did not object to the extension, gave the city until April 8 to give their initial response.

Acciona in early March filed a lawsuit saying the city council violated an agreement that gave the wind energy company tax rebates for investments and job creation at their West Branch plant.

The city in May 2013 cancelled about $110,000 in potential rebates about two months after the turbine plant announced it was cutting 40 jobs and halting its assembly line.

However, Acciona argues that they were required by contract to maintain "approximately 110 employees" for five years, and that those five years ended in May 2012, several months before the layoffs.

They state that they employed 102 people at that time.