Disputed bridge will fall without AED assistance.
The ownership and fate of the Bellaire Toll Bridge may finally have been settled with a court order issued by a federal judge this week.
According to Benwood Police Chief Frank Longwell, who has been active in trying to have the deteriorating bridge removed, a federal judge upheld an Idaho Circuit Court decision and awarded ownership of the bridge to KDC Investments.
“With this new development, I feel pretty confident that something will finally happen with this,” Longwell said. “A meeting has already been set for Aug. 8 with the Coast Guard to discuss the bridge’s removal.”
In May 2010, Advanced Explosives Demolition of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, purchased the bridge from its former owner, Bellaire businessman Roger Barack, for $1. AED sold the bridge a few days later to KDC Investments for $25,000, with what AED calls an agreement between the two companies that it would perform the demolition work.
However, by the end of that summer the relationship between the firms had deteriorated, with AED officials indicating they would not use KDC to take down the bridge. AED believed it would be used as a subcontractor as part of the purchase contract between the two companies. AED then filed suit against KDC in Kootenai County, Idaho, court, seeking to regain ownership. The court found KDC to be the owner of the bridge, and that decision was appealed by AED.
In the meantime, KDC is under a previous court order, issued Dec. 23, 2009, to demolish the bridge.
The new court order, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division by District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley, states that because AED did not respond to a KDC motion to continue with the demolition within 21 days, “KDC is in the best position to carry out the order of demolition.”
“It looks like KDC made a motion to tear the bridge down and AED didn’t respond,” Longwell said.
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