ISLE OF WIGHT— A lower court’s decision to award $45,000 from Isle of Wight County to a former county employee was upheld by the state’s highest court late last month.

Alan Nogiec, who served as the county’s director of parks and recreation for 28 years until retiring in 2007, sued the county and former Assistant County Administrator Patrick Small. He was awarded $45,000 from the county for breach of contract and $150,000 for defamation from Small in circuit court last March.

As director of parks and recreation, Nogiec was in charge of the Isle of Wight Museum.

The lawsuit against Small stemmed from comments made by Small during a Board of Supervisors meeting in May 2007. Small stated that neither the board nor the county administrator had been informed by staff about the museum’s potential for flooding even though, according to Small, the former director of parks and recreation had been informed of such by museum staff on more than one occasion.

Nogiec filed the lawsuit against the county for not removing negative memos regarding job performance from his personnel file, as it had agreed to do in March 2007.

Decisions in both lawsuits were appealed, and the Virginia Supreme Court denied the county’s appeal on Dec. 30. The high court hasn’t handed down a decision in the other case.

Small resigned his post as the county’s assistant county administrator last August.