Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 1:24 pm
BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week
POTSDAM The Potsdam village board has voted to officially accept a settlement with the attorneys for toilet garden impresario Hank Robar, but the settlement amount will not be disclosed until the agreement is finalized.
The board held a special meeting Monday, May 24 and voted “yes” to the undisclosed amount.
One of Robar’s attorney’s, Jon Crain of the Albany firm Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, declined comment on the settlement amount, and estimated it would take about 30 days to finalize the agreement before details of the settlement could be revealed.
Federal lawsuit settled in Potsdam s toilet gardens case wwnytv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wwnytv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 1:15 pm
BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week
POTSDAM A local businessman and the village are finally coming to terms over a long legal battle over the Potsdam’s toilet gardens.
The lawyer for Hank Robar, owner of the gardens, told North Country This Week that the village and Robar had agreed to a “settlement in principle.”
Attorney Jon E. Crain of the Albany firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna LLP said terms have been agreed to but it would be a couple weeks for the paperwork to be finalized. He said until that time, he would not comment on specifics of the settlement.
POTSDAM — When Morgan D. Elliott was 8 years old, the village’s first toilet garden was seeded. Now 22 years later, Mr. Elliott is finalizing the details of a documentary
Hank Robar’s gardens, which are created with old toilets filled with artificial flowers.
Village trustees ordered them removed by September 1, 2020, and If not, they threatened to do it for him.
However, Robar fought back and hired a lawyer. They had already won a federal court order barring the village from doing anything about the toilets until his First Amendment case was settled.
Robar’s lawyers sought $7 million in damages if the village dared touch his toilets.
Some people agree with Robar and think toilets are art. Others think they’re just funny. But successive village boards have seen no humor in this situation.