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Judge rules attorney general can sue Department of Natural Resources

September 19, 2005
By: Jonathan Levin
State Capital Bureau

Missouri's attorney general has been given permission to sue the very state he represents. Jonathan Levin has more from the state Capitol.

A judge ruled Attorney General Jay Nixon can proceed with a lawsuit to block the Department of Natural Resources from allowing the Union Pacific Railroad Company to demolish the old Boonville Bridge.

The railroad company wants to use steel from the currently unuseable bridge for a new one over the Osage River.

The terms of a 1987 agreement under which the state purchased 200 miles of old railroad now known as the KATY trail gave the department of natural resources use, but not ownership of the bridge if the state assumed liability

Director of the DNR, Doyle Childers says, the bridge is not needed because the current route has already been paid for.

Actuality:
RunTime:
OutCue:
Contents: The taxpayers have already paid for an alternate route around the bridge, it would just be a second alternate route we would have for the Katy.

In order for the rail company to demolish it, the state would have to relinquish its use of the bridge, something the Attorney General says the state appointed Childers has no legal right to do.