DNR Director Defends Bridge Decision

Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers says his plan to let the Union Pacific Railroad have an old railroad bridge at Boonville is on firm legal ground, despite what the Attorney General thinks. Childers tells the Missourinet he’s ready for a lawsuit if Attorney General Jay Nixon carries out his threat to file one. Nixon says the bridge provides a link to the KATY Trail and abandoning it could undermine existence of the trail.Childers says he ran this action past his own agency legal experts and the governor’s legal counsel and he thinks DNR would win any suit Nixon files. Nixon says the state will not get any money for giving up the bridge. Childers says the state does not own the bridge and has only an easment on it, which the state does not need because the Boonville highway bridge already provides cross-river access. As far as not getting anything in return, Childers says the state will save millions of dollars by not having to maintain an old bridge it does not need.