photo by: Jennifer Compston-Strough

The former Bellaire Bridge still stands above the Ohio River between Bellaire and Benwood. The span and portions of the village of Bellaire are shown here from the west side of the Ohio River.

Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of articles examining the status of the Bellaire Bridge, which formerly operated as a toll bridge between Bellaire and Benwood. The bridge has been closed for more than 30 years with no viable plan in place for its removal.

BELLAIRE — Just like everyone else who lived in Bellaire, Bob Ney woke up one morning to learn that the Bellaire Bridge had been purchased by the state of Ohio.

That was more than 30 years ago when the Republican Ney served in the Ohio Senate and was a member of its Finance Committee — long before his stint in Congress that ended with his resignation and guilty plea in a federal corruption case in 2006. Ney recently participated in a telephone interview to discuss the way the former toll bridge was closed, changed hands and, ultimately, was left to stand silently deteriorating above the Ohio River for more than three decades.

The Ohio Department of Transportation in 1991 was in the process of building the Ohio 7 bypass of downtown Bellaire, creating the four-lane highway local drivers are familiar with today. The ramp that allowed traffic to enter and exit the bridge on the Ohio side was an obstacle to that construction, so the state purchased the span from the privately held Interstate Bridge Co., removed the ramp and rendered the bridge unusable.

Ney said he was stunned by the news, because the Finance Committee, working with the Ohio Controlling Board, funded ODOT.

“All contracts had to come to us over a certain amount of money,” Ney recalled earlier this year.

Ney said the purchase was made under the administration of former Gov. Richard Celeste and cost $690,000. Ney said Celeste, a Democrat, declared the situation an emergency and moved forward without approval from the Senate Finance Committee or Ohio Controlling Board.

In addition to Ney, Eastern Ohio was represented at the Statehouse by then-Rep. Jack Cera, a Democrat and longtime Bellaire resident. Like Ney, he said he had no idea that a deal had been made to purchase and close the bridge. Although he was aware that the bridge ramp impeded the Ohio 7 construction project, he said “the idea was to build a new ramp to the bridge.”

“The next thing we know, the bridge company decided it didn’t want to remain open anymore so it got bought out by ODOT,” Cera said by phone Thursday, noting he believed that $2.5 million to $3.5 million already had been allocated to build a new ramp. “I’ve never been able to figure out the money side of it.

“There was also supposed to be money set aside to demolish the bridge,” Cera continued. “What ever happened with that money, I have no idea. I think it was $700,000, but I forget the exact amount. The next thing we knew, the deal was made and the bridge is still there. I don’t know who the stockholders were, but evidently they walked away with a nice sum of money.”

Upon learning of the closure, Ney said he immediately contacted an ODOT liaison and asked why the situation was an emergency. He told her that if he had knowledge of the plan, he would have tried to save the bridge – something he said she already knew. He maintains that the reason the bridge was not purchased through “normal channels” was “to bypass the legislature, specifically me from Bellaire who happened to control the purse strings.”

Ney said he still does not know who all the people involved in the transaction were, terming the Interstate Bridge Co. a “ghost group.” But whoever they were, he said, “somebody had the political juice to get to the governor and buy this thing.” Ney said the bridge was then turned over to Bellaire resident and business owner Roger Barack, who was given a certain period of time in which to demolish it.

“I never saw any paperwork, I never talked to Roger (Barack) about it. I was angry at the state for going behind our backs,” Ney said. “Jack and I should have had a say. The people of Bellaire went crazy. I couldn’t find anybody who wanted to dump the bridge.”

Cera also recalled ODOT’s legislative liaison at the time and said he had “conversations with her about it and how the heck this happened.” He said he believed that since the money already was appropriated as part of Phase 2 of Ohio 7 construction, ODOT opted to buy the bridge rather than build the ramp.

Cera said Barack approached him with plans to build a ramp, but they were not complete and wouldn’t have received federal approval. He said Barack’s plan would have constructed an earthen approach to the span.

“When I tried to convince ODOT to work with him, they said he needs to get plans done that would satisfy the Federal Highway Administration. It would have been a substantial amount of money just for plans. ODOT was expecting it to cost $2.5 million to $3.5 million to build the ramp.

“I could never find out how much money the bridge company got,” he added, saying it could have been all or a portion of the funding that was allocated. “The demolition money was separate from that money.”

Cera said there also was an effort by Bellaire, now a village but which at the time was a city, to determine whether the bridge could be a profitable operation. It created a bridge commission, which studied the matter and generated a report on the viability of the bridge.

“I think ODOT didn’t want the bridge to stay open because they didn’t think it was sustainable, that’s just my opinion,” Cera said. “The revenue wasn’t going to be enough to maintain it. It would be nice to know who made off with the money and didn’t tear the bridge down.”

Ney said when he eventually did have a conversation about the bridge with Barack, he and others asked Barack to give them time to come up with a plan to do something with the bridge. Ney said Barack agreed, but only under a lot of pressure.

“I brought, eventually, ODOT down. We walked the whole length (of the bridge) At that time, it was not super deteriorated,” Ney said. “It was salvageable with some money to upgrade.”

He said those who met and walked the bridge came up with a plan to construct a new ramp that would have involved a former car lot. The ramp would have come off the bridge and looped around to the car lot property. He said ODOT didn’t dispute the plan at first, but later said the project was too expensive to complete. Ney said after a considerable amount of time had passed, the uncertain fate of the bridge led to federal court action.

“At no point in time did Barack ask me to do anything with the bridge,” Ney insisted, noting that he faced criticism at the time because he was friends with Barack and rented office space in a building Barack owned. “At one point, I contacted him and told him to rip it down.”

By then, Ney had been elected to Congress and sat on the Transportation Committee. In that role, he said he was able to secure funding to demolish the span. He said concrete and debris were falling from it above the city of Benwood. Because it was a hazard, Ney said he nearly managed to secure a federal appropriation of about $1.7 million for the work.

Ney continued to face scrutiny over his relationship with Barack. He had appointed Barack’s son Cody to a military academy, and Barack and his family gave contributions to Ney’s campaign and supported him as a candidate. As a result, Ney said, other members of the Transportation Committee decided the matter had become too controversial and he lost the appropriation.

“The money vanished,” Ney said. “… Roger Barack was a friend of mine, but he never came to me and asked, ‘Can you do something?'”

Ney said the only way demolition of the bridge could have been successfully funded was through a federal appropriation, but negative publicity “killed it.”

“The government didn’t pay, but eventually the government is going to pay a lot more,” Ney added. “It’s going to fall down. Somebody is going to get killed.”

Today, Ney believes demolition of the bridge should be funded through a three-way split among the states of West Virginia and Ohio and the federal government.

“If we can give billions to foreign countries for wars, we could do federal money for the Bellaire Bridge,” he said. “I think the federal government has a legitimate ability to get into this.”

Cera agrees.

“I think the federal government has got to tear it down,” he said. “Ohio’s not going to pay to help tear it down now. They tore down the ramp. … Because it’s a threat to navigation … to me it’s going to take Congress. Neither state is going to do it. It’s what happens to properties all through the area – they are allowed to just deteriorate. …

“What would be ideal would be if West Virginia, Ohio and the feds would all come together and share the cost to tear it down,” Cera continued. “The feds should pick up most or all of the cost because we’re talking about commerce on the river. … I don’t know that it’s on anybody’s priority list.”

Cera noted that Eastern Ohio will soon have a new congressman in the wake of Republican Bill Johnson’s resignation to become president of Youngstown State University. Although that individual will not hail from Bellaire as Ney and Cera do, Cera hopes the bridge might get his attention.

“It would be helpful if it were a priority for both governors, then our senators and congressmen might pay attention. That’s pretty much what it’s going to take now.

“If this was in Columbus it would have been down 30 years ago – or Charleston,” Cera added. “Both states have failed in their responsibility, I think, to do something about it.”