By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The village Board of Trustees on Tuesday agreed to settle a lawsuit with the Wladis law firm, which represented the Local Government Task Force in negotiations with the New York Power Authority, for $450,000.

The money will come from an escrow account held by the county that contains money paid by NYPA as annual compensation for high water flows on the St. Lawrence River caused by the Moses-Saunders power dam, Mayor Tim Currier said.

The money goes to towns and school districts affected by the power project, which includes the county, Massena and Madrid-Waddington school districts, the towns of Waddington, Louisville and Massena and the villages of Waddington and Massena, Currier said.

Wladis in 2010 represented the task force members in negotiations with NYPA, and there was a dispute over how much they were owed, leading to the lawsuit the village agreed to settle on Tuesday.

“We only get 1.1 percent of that (escrow) money, so if we were to have any claim on that $450,000 it would be 1.1 percent of it, so we are settling it for essentially that amount,” Currier said.