LAKE STATION | City Clerk-Treasurer Martha Kroledge received a public reprimand Wednesday for spending city money on the compost facility in 2006 that hadn't been appropriated.

In 2006, the council appropriated $50,000 for equipment rental fees for the compost facility but about $130,000 was spent on the rentals.

Councilman Keith Soderquist said Kroledge is bonded and the council was previously seeking her bond to recoup some of the funds. The council unanimously decided to publicly reprimand Kroledge instead of seeking her bond because it could have had a negative long-term impact on the city through an increase in the city's insurance premiums.

The reprimand said Kroledge was advised by the council not to spend funds on the compost facility that weren't appropriated, but she disregarded the warning.

Kroledge said she wasn't blatantly ignoring the advice of the council, and spent the money to avoid a possible lawsuit from James Busch, the outside contractor who runs the facility, for not paying the rental fees.

"I did what was best for the city," Kroledge said.

She said if the city didn't pay the rental fees, the contractor also could have stopped running the facility, which could have led to more problems. Kroledge said if Busch had stopped running the facility, the city wouldn't have been able to abide by contracts that provide the service to other communities, such as Hobart, and those communities could have sued Lake Station.

"That's the last thing the city needs," Kroledge said.