BANGOR (AP) – Wild blueberry growers who filed claims to share in the $5 million settlement of a class-action case alleging that four Maine processors engaged in price-fixing will soon be getting their initial payments.

“We are in the final steps of getting the checks cut,” said Charles Tompkins, a Washington, D.C., attorney who handled the claims settlement process. He said they should be going in the mail within the week.

The checks, based on the number of pounds of blueberries sold to processors between 1996 and 1999, will range from $5.03 for Dennis Hatton of Charlotte to $126,392 for Guptill Farms of Machias.

A Superior Court civil jury in Rockland found that three of the processors – Allen’s Blueberry Freezer of Ellsworth, Cherryfield Foods of Cherryfield and Jasper Wyman & Son of Milbridge – had colluded to fix prices. The fourth defendant, Merill’s Blueberry Farms of Ellsworth, reached an out-of-court settlement shortly before the November 2003 trial.

Jurors awarded the growers a total of $18.6 million in damages, a figure that was automatically tripled because the case involved antitrust issues. After the case went to mediation, the damages were negotiated down to $5 million.

Nearly 400 growers have submitted claims to share in the settlement, which will be disbursed in four annual payments.

The industry caused sharp divisions in Maine’s blueberry industry. More than 100 growers stayed loyal to processors, even signing a petition that went to Gov. John Baldacci saying they didn’t agree with the jury’s decision.

Lead plaintiff Nathan Pease of Unity was happy that the checks were finally going out, but was miffed that several growers who opposed the legal battle will be collecting a share of the settlement.

“There is one couple who are part of the local co-op who are getting $6,500,” Pease said. “They were strictly against the whole thing, and now they turned around and put in a claim.”

Another plaintiff, Alan Johnson of Rockport, said the payments fall short of what the growers should be receiving.

“We are only getting what the blueberries were worth, it’s that simple,” he said. “The settlement was negotiated down to a ridiculous level.”

The plaintiffs in the class action represented the majority of Maine’s more than 800 growers between Washington, Hancock, Waldo, Knox and Lincoln counties.