Suit over covered bridge settled

By Ed Runyan

The new county engineer said settling the suit avoids possible additional legal fees.

WARREN — The Trumbull County engineer’s office has settled a civil lawsuit filed by the company that had first tried to renovate the historic Newton Falls covered bridge.

The settlement, reached during mediation in common pleas court, calls for the county to pay BECDIR Construction of Berlin Center $300,000.

The $300,000 is the amount BECDIR had asked to be paid when it first filed suit against the county in 2006. President David DiRusso said the company had put about $500,000 in work and materials into the project and been paid about $200,000 at the time the project was halted.

County commissioners on Thursday approved paying BECDIR the $300,000 without interest in three $100,000 payments May 31, Jan, 31, 2010, and Jan. 31, 2011. Both parties will pay their own legal fees.

John Latell, who was county engineer at the time, stopped BECDIR from completing the project for a second time in August 2006, and commissioners canceled the contract with BECDIR later that month.

In May 2007, the Righter Co. of Columbus received the contract to complete the project. The bridge reopened in December of that year.

Current Engineer David DeChristofaro said in a press release that he is satisfied the settlement gives BECDIR the amount it is owed. “Taking this suit to trial would have cost the county more money in legal fees and would have left open the possibility of a jury award of even more than the amount that was owed,” DeChristofaro said.

The project was done to replace the bridge’s siding, roof, deck planking, floor beams and 18 of the 78 truss diagonals, or timbers, on the sides of the bridge.

A $1.06 million federal construction grant obtained in 2002 through the County Engineers Association of Ohio paid for the project.

The extra $300,000 for the settlement had to come out of the county engineer’s budget, said David Rouan, director of administration and government affairs for DeChristofaro.

The bridge, on Arlington Street, was built in 1831. It is the second-oldest covered bridge in Ohio and the last covered bridge in the state still being used in its original location.

runyan@vindy.com