Lawsuit aims to save relic

Attorney General Jay Nixon made a bold move Thursday by suing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and its director to stop plans to relinquish the state’s stake in the historic MKT lift bridge at Boonville.

Gov. Matt Blunt and the DNR want to give the bridge to Union Pacific Railroad, which intends to demolish it and reuse the parts to help refurbish a bridge over the Osage River.

Nixon said neither the DNR nor its director, Doyle Childers, have the right to “cede the state’s interest in the bridge to benefit a private company, and for no compensation.”

“This is a giveaway by the state to a private business that stands to receive $10 million in benefit from the proposal,” Nixon said Thursday at a news conference at the Forum Boulevard entrance to Columbia’s MKT Nature/Fitness Trail, which connects with the Katy Trail. “This is an unusual step for me to sue a state agency, but I have a constitutional duty to protect the assets of the state and the interests of the citizens of Missouri.”

Nixon’s suit says the 1987 agreement between the DNR and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. — the same pact that led to the development of the 225-mile Katy Trail State Park under the federal Rails to Trails Act — promised the bridge would remain available for transportation purposes. The lift bridge connects former MKT land on either side of the Missouri River.

Childers is disappointed that Nixon filed the suit, saying it threatens to force the state to “spend millions of dollars on a (dilapidated) bridge.”

“It was never meant to be used as a part of the trail and is years away from ever being able to carry a train,” Childers said in a statement. “The attorney general has acted against the state’s economic interests by opposing this department’s decision to allow the bridge’s rightful owner to use sections of it to improve rail transit in other parts of our state, benefiting both passengers and commerce at absolutely no cost to the state.”

Childers said Nixon has made an “unprecedented” move by suing his own client in a matter where there is no disagreement between the DNR and the governor’s office.

“The only logical conclusion is that the attorney general is taking this poorly reasoned action in the hopes of advancing his own political career on the backs of Missouri taxpayers,” Childers said. “This is disgraceful, and this department will do everything possible to fight this petty political power grab.”

Nixon spokesman Jim Gardner said the issue is not about politics; it’s about the law.

“(Nixon) was a supporter of the trail back when he was state senator, as John Ashcroft also was,” Gardner said. “It’s not a partisan issue. It’s about the law in the Missouri Constitution that says you can’t give away a state asset without just compensation, and it’s about the 1987 trail agreement.”

Cheryl Lixey, Boonville’s assistant economic development director, was among a handful of Save the Katy Bridge Committee members who attended the news conference. She said the historic bridge is special to her family, but she also worries about the city’s economic stability.

“Historical preservation is the biggest part of economic development in Boonville,” Lixey said.

Columbia resident Tim Schmidt also attended but said the bridge is a liability to the state.

“The bridge isn’t being destroyed; it’s being reused,” Schmidt said. “(The lawsuit) seems like a waste of time and money.”

The suit, filed in the Cooper County Circuit Court, asks the court to decide whether the DNR and Childers have constitutional authority to grant, convey, release or surrender the interest in the bridge, as stated in the 1987 agreement.

Nixon said the easement is a $10 million asset and that the state shouldn’t give up the easement to Union Pacific Railroad. “I don’t think we should do it,” he said.

Nixon said he is also concerned about creating a gap in the Katy Trail corridor.

“This park is a state treasure, drawing more than 300,000 hikers and bicyclists from around the world each year,” Nixon said.