MARYSVILLE — The city will pay $25,000, legal fees and allow the operators of the Cedarcrest Golf Course restaurant to run their business rent-free for several months, according to a settlement reached in a dispute between the two sides.
Pat and Kathy Regan, who have run the restaurant for more than six years, also agreed as part of the deal to leave the premises by Nov. 6. The city tried earlier this year to evict the Regans from running the eatery.
The city will write a check for $30,000 to cover legal fees incurred by the Regans as they fought the city on the issue.
The agreement, approved July 6, requires each side to keep silent about the deal. The Herald obtained a copy of the agreement from Marysville through a public disclosure request.
The couple missed a deadline to renew their lease last fall. Afterward, city officials said they wanted to find new operators for the restaurant. The Regans said they inadvertently missed the deadline and wanted to stay.
The city ordered the Regans out by the end of March. The couple filed suit in Snohomish County Superior Court to force the city into arbitration.
Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Wynne upheld the Regans’ request and ordered the parties to go to arbitration, but the two sides reached an agreement first.
The Regans’ lease expired at the end of December 2008 but they have continued to run the restaurant as the legal proceedings have played out. Under the settlement, the Regans will run the restaurant rent-free from June through October.
City officials have said little about why they wanted to switch operators.
“The current restaurant arrangement is not paying the debt on the facility,” city administrator Mary Swenson said in a written statement in March. “Changing direction in the operation of the restaurant will allow the city to redirect its focus on retiring that debt.”
About seven years ago, the city built a new pro shop and a new restaurant and made improvements to the course, built in 1927.
The city expects to be nearly $255,000 in the red for 2009 on the golf course, Swenson said in March. When debt on the buildings is removed from the math, the golf course operates in the black, she said at the time.
Many of the Regans’ customers came to their defense during the dispute, saying they hoped the couple would be able to continue to run the restaurant.
In another part of the deal, Swenson wrote a letter of reference for the Regans, dated June 25. She said the couple always kept the restaurant open during the term of the lease and afterward.
“The Regans paid their rent and they had many happy and satisfied customers,” Swenson wrote.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.
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