CREEDE — During a special meeting on Dec. 30, 2022, the City of Creede met in executive session and afterward in open session voted to approve Resolution 22-23 which agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit against Kip’s Grill. For the past three years, Kip’s Grill and the city have been struggling through lawsuits pertaining to different issues with the establishment.

In the summer of 2019, business owner Kip Nagy applied for a renewal of his liquor license for the upper portion of Kip’s Grill located on Main Street in Creede. In the fall of 2019, Nagy was denied the renewal of the license due to concerns of the upper bar’s safety and that there was only one fire exit from the upper level.

After over a year, the City of Creede in compliance with court orders issued the 2020/2021 retroactive liquor license to Kip’s Grill and has since continued to request work be finished on the building.

The main concern from the City of Creede was that the building was not up to code and that additional work needed to be done in order to ensure the safety of the building and its exits. Now, after three years, the City of Creede and Kip’s Grill have reached a settlement agreement on the disputes and repairs will also be done on the building to ensure the safety of guests.

The resolution states that the City of Creede Board of Trustees has considered the proposed Mutual Release and Settlement Agreement between the City and Kip’s Grill to resolve District Court Case 202CV3002.

In the provided document, both the city and Kip’s have active roles in the agreement to settle. The document states, “The parties for the following described consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, do hereby remise, release and forever discharge Kip’s Grill from any and all actions, claims and demands, which exist as of the date of this release.

“Kip’s Grill does hereby remise, release and forever discharge the city and it assigns all current and former employees, servants, agents, contractors, current and former elected and appointed officials, members, successors, predecessors from any and all actions, claims or demands which exist as of the date of this release.”

The document further states that Kip’s will receive $275,000 in two payments once remediation work is completed. At the time of the agreement, Kip’s had already completed two of the required tasks which included the installation of a code-compliant address marker on the exterior of the building and the installation of an appropriate system to secure CO2 cylinders in the restaurant.

The remaining remediation work that will need to be finished to adhere to the agreement approved by both parties will be to remove the outside patio, provide provision of all permits from the state for the upper-level plumbing system, upper electrical and state inspection kitchen systems as well as the installation of occupancy limit signs and exit signs.