Group Continues The Fight To Save Historic Joe Dice Swinging Bridge In Brumley

Efforts to restore a lake area historical structure and make it available for public use again continue with, arguably perhaps, one of the group’s more productive meetings in some time.

“We had both Don Mayhew and Lisa Thomas, who are representatives for the state of Missouri and for that area they were in attendance. We had presiding Commissioner Cardwell as well as Don Abbot from the commissioner’s office in attendance. And then we did have an engineer from Bartlett West in attendance as well.”

Marlena Hatmaker, from the “Save the Historical Brumley Swinging Bridge” group also says, despite one of the Miller County commissioners at the meeting calling the bridge a money pit, interest does seem to be gaining momentum to rehab the bridge.

It’s hoped that the bridge will initially be able to be re-opened with a five-ton limit and, eventually, a 15-ton limit with an additional 20-25 years of life.

As it stands, the closure of the bridge cuts off residents on the west side of the structure from reaching the Brumley area without a lengthy detour.

The next meeting for the bridge group is set for August 17^th in Brumley.