On one hand, businessman James E. Winner Jr. offered an olive branch to the Mercer County Industrial Development Authority to settle their dispute over bills associated with Winner's aborted plan to use millions in state grants to redevelop Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s former plant in Sharon.

On the other hand, Winner indicated the agency's chairman had turned the quarrel personal -- an accusation that's strongly denied.

On Wednesday, the MCIDA board said it would give Winner, chairman of Sharon-based Winner Development LLC, 20 days to pay more than $31,000 in past-due fees or else he could face a lawsuit.

The fees are work the authority performed in attempting to prepare a $7 million state grant for Winner, who wants to develop the mostly abandoned site along Sharpsville Avenue.

MCIDA's chairman, Charles "Chuck'' Bestwick, said the agency board advanced Winner the fees and most of them were generated because Winner Development didn't supply information repeatedly requested to complete the application. Winner has said he's no longer seeking the grant but still wants to develop the site.

In a news release issued today, Winner suggested that since the quarrel is a contract dispute, it should be arbitrated to save everyone time and money.

He said his initial reaction to news reports of MCIDA's meeting was brief anger. Then, Winner said he turned to God.

"... last night when I took off my bracelet that says WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) it came to me very clearly, pray for your enemies!'' Winner wrote.

"So, in my morning prayer I asked God to remove the bitterness from Chuck Bestwick's heart toward me and my efforts that has created this adversarial attitude and further, asked for forgiveness if I have done something in the past that caused the bitterness.''

In response to Winner's comment, Bestwick said this morning he has no ill will toward the businessman.

"He's the one who considers me an adversary,'' Bestwick said. "I don't consider him an adversary. I don't consider the situation adversarial. I have nothing personally against Jim Winner.''

"This isn't between Jim Winner and myself. This concerns a contract between Jim Winner and MCIDA," Bestwick said.

He added, MCIDA had advanced Winner the fees, something it has never done before.

Bestwick said he is willing to take Winner up on his offer of arbitration. "I'd rather do that than have a costly lawsuit.''

However, Bestwick said, any decision must be made by the MCIDA board. The issue will probably be taken up by the board in the coming weeks, he said.

MCIDA has gone out of its way to help Winner and move the project forward, he said.

"Jim has a problem not getting his own way,'' Bestwick said. "He sees me as the problem in not getting his own way, and that's just not the case. We advanced him the fees because we wanted this project to work.''