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NorthWestern Energy has agreed to a settlement with the City of Bozeman over the March 5, 2009 downtown explosion.

Approval of the nearly $163,624 settlement awaits Bozeman City Commission approval on Monday. NorthWestern has offered to pay for the Bozeman's incremental costs for the blast. This includes all overtime pay and extra staff needed for the incident and its immediate cleanup. But City Manager Chris Kukulski does say there were other costs incurred by the city not covered by the settlement.

"The community lost. amongst many other thingsl all of our resources were dedicated to this one event over many days and weeks. We couldn't work on anything else," Kukulski said.

"Well, obviously that was the point of contention when we were looking at this settlement. First of all, we're doing so on a compromise basis, it's a gesture of goodwill, and to avoid litigation expense for both the company and the claimant going forward," NorthWestern Energy spokesperson Claudia Rapkoch said.

City staff initially sent invoices totaling $310,000 to NorthWestern. This agreement would forever release the utility from liability for the explosion.

See the full settlement agreement.