The Bradley lawsuit alleging a breach of contract against the City of Kankakee has been dismissed in the Kankakee County Circuit Court.

The suit focused on Bradley’s assertion that Kankakee breached the intergovernmental agreement regarding the operations of the Kankakee River Metropolitan Authority, the body that oversees the operation of the regional wastewater treatment plant at West Brookmont Boulevard.

The court order, authored by Kankakee County Circuit Court Judge Lindsay Parkhurst, was issued last week.

The KRMA facility is operated through an intergovernmental agreement between Kankakee, Bradley, Bourbonnais and Aroma Park.

Kankakee controls the board majority with four of the seven voting members. The board chairman, who has for years been the mayor of Kankakee, is currently Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis.

Bradley had sought to take away what it’s described as Kankakee’s “supermajority” on the board, as well as its collection and retention of funds due and owing to KRMA, for what it described as Kankakee’s own financial benefit.

In the ruling, Parkhurst said, “Kankakee’s conduct falls within its lawful authority and is not expressly and explicitly prohibited by the IGA [intergovernmental agreement].”

Parkhurst dismissed the suit with prejudice, which means Bradley cannot bring the suit back to the Kankakee County courthouse. Bradley can appeal the Parkhurst ruling to a higher court.

The KRMA plant treats wastewater for much of the Kankakee County region. The plant also treats wastewater hauled into the plant.

The plant treats about 12 million gallons of water daily. Kankakee owns 55% of the treatment plant and pays upward of 60% of the plant expenses, Curtis said.

KRMA is currently in the early stages of an $8.5 million upgrade to the plant.

There has been discussion of increasing the plant’s operations, but those plans are only in the engineering phase. These potential upgrades could cost between $50 million and more than $100 million. Curtis said such upgrades would need to be funded through grants, as the costs would overwhelm customers if they were funded locally.

Curtis said it is his hope that the ruling puts an end to this challenge by Bradley and brings all parties together.

“We were thrilled to see the [court] decision in our favor,” Curtis said. “We hope we don’t need to spend any more money defending ourselves with this. It’s our hope we can all get on the same page with our neighbors and move our communities forward.”

Bradley’s administration had not yet seen the ruling and therefore withheld comment.