COLUMBUS — A three-year-old federal lawsuit that threatened local control over the Eastern Gateway Community College campus in the heart of Steubenville has been dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Algernon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio signed off on a joint motion Monday to dismiss the lawsuit, filed in June 2022 by the Student Resource Center, the firm hired five years earlier to manage Eastern Gateway’s controversial Worker Benefit Program.

SRC claimed the now-defunct college had breached its 2017 collaboration agreement and that it was owed more than $20 million in unpaid operating expenses, profit sharing and interest.

Last year, SRC convinced the federal judge to attach liens to the campus as well as its Pugliese Building, a standalone parcel that had housed administrative offices, to prevent the debt-ridden college from selling off assets — raising concerns about its plans for the taxpayer-owned property, deeded to EGCC’s forerunner, Jefferson Technical Institute, in 1967 with the proviso that ownership would revert to the county if it was not used for educational purposes.

In December, Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller ruled that the reversionary clause in the deed of title was still enforceable. However, because the SRC litigation was pending in federal court at the time, Miller didn’t weigh in on whether the college had breached the reverter clause.

“It’s good news, it’s one step,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said Thursday. “But there’s still some things that have to be done before (anything happens with it). We need more information.”

Marbley’s order didn’t specify why SRC and EGCC had agreed to ask him to dismiss it days before a July 9 settlement conference, a precursor to the Aug. 25 trial date.

In addition to releasing the liens, Marbley said each side would be responsible for paying its own court costs and expenses.

Commissioners announced the case had been dismissed following a closed-door conference Thursday with Assistant County Prosecutor Shawn Blake that kicked off their weekly meeting.

During the meeting, Morelli referenced the reverter clause in the deed and said, “We’ve been working hard to make sure that reverter clause (is enforced) and that when they’re done it comes back to the Jefferson County commissioners.”

Commissioners Eric Timmons and Jake Kleineke welcomed the settlement, with Kleineke saying, “It’s exciting news.”

“It is good news,” Timmons agreed. “Everybody speculates and rumors start, but we’ve done everything we can do, and we’ll continue to do that. It’s encouraging, but we’ll see what the next steps hold.”

Timmons was referencing a rumor that had swept through the county recently that they’d already made plans to sell it the facility.

They’d labeled it patently untrue and have insisted they want it to continue to be used for educational purposes.