REEDLEY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Fresno County and the City of Reedley have announced that a settlement has been reached with the property owner, of where the city’s illegal lab was discovered in December 2022.
They say the owner, named in their release as AY-NC, LP, will pay a combined $260,000 to Reedley and Fresno County to cover abatement costs.
“The County of Fresno had to front the cost, over $100,000 to clean up a lot of the contaminants that were there on site. And so, what this settlement agreement means is the landlord, the person who owned the building is stepping forward and they are offsetting a significant amount of those costs,” said Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig.
While the county and city initially sent an invoice for $310,000, they announced the settlement amount, reduced by $50,000.
As a result, Reedley, which had abatement costs totaling over $160,000, will instead receive $135,000.
The county, which carried costs of nearly $150,000, will get about $125,000 in the settlement.
“What that leaves us with is a warehouse with the illicit pregnancy tests and COVID tests. The State of California will come down and destroy those at their expense,” said Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba.
Zieba says after the illicit tests are destroyed, the property manager will have to decide whether to bring the building up to code or demolish it.
Fresno County, after all the bad news related to the lab, sees this settlement as the latest victory in this case.
“It was something we’ve been dealing with here at the county for a number of months. And so, to be able to come to this conclusion with the owner of the building itself, it’s a very positive outcome, it’s a win,” said Magsig.
Now, Magsig said they will continue to seek out new regulations to help crack down on illegal lab activity, and says that will be a major part in preventing the next dangerous situation.
“We’re looking forward to having Congress act, as well as the State of California act, rein in the abilities of private labs to ever be able to do something like this again.”
