First look inside Chattanooga's dilapidated river barge, amid threat of sinking

Threat of Casey barge sinking sparks a flurry of activity in Chattanooga

Barge
Barge

A lot of people want the dilapidated Casey barge gone from the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.

Yet news that it might be sinking prompted a flurry of activity to keep it from going down.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge held an emergency hearing Thursday related to the barge after concerns were raised that it might sink, as it did partially in 2011.

Electricity to the site where the vessel is moored apparently had been turned off earlier this week, stopping a pump that has been ridding water from the leaky barge.

While the power was turned back on Thursday, Judge Shelley D. Rucker ordered another hearing next month to try to ensure river safety and move along the bankruptcy case of the barge and the land across Ross's Landing to which it's docked.

"I don't want to wake up and learn that the [barge] has stopped navigation on the Tennessee River," she told attorneys.

The barge has been a flashpoint of criticism for years. Chattanooga businessman Allen Casey had it floated down from Pittsburgh to Chattanooga in 2009 to turn it into a restaurant that was never built. He filed for bankruptcy early last year, and in October, a deal to remove the barge collapsed after a possible buyer failed to move ahead.

Meanwhile, the barge has continued to deteriorate and has become a target of vandalism.

A man who said he has been living on the barge for the past week and a half had alerted the judge about the electricity issue.

Dave Eck said the electricity had been turned off the day before. He worried the vessel could sink to the bottom of the river within about 10 days and send the debris, glass and trash littering the barge into the river.

"If this barge sinks, everything ... is going right down the river," Eck told reporters.

He also worries that the barge could come loose from its mooring and cause potential problems to a propane storage facility next door.

Kim Swafford of the U.S. Trustees Office told Judge Rucker that she has talked with an expert who has concerns about the barge's structure. She said a "high-water event" could create problems related to the barge.

Eck, 63, said he cares for the Tennessee River, and that's why he has taken an interest in the barge, though he earlier offered a proposal to remove it along with an associate.

After money from his last job ran out, he said, he moved onto the barge, running off trespassers and overseeing the pump keeping the leaking vessel afloat.

Eck said he holds a civil engineering degree from Valparaiso University. Known as "Captain Dave," he said he has operated small paddle-wheel vessels and excursion boats in the past as well as cranes on construction sites.

Jackson Wingfield, a Chattanooga businessman who years ago bought some of the adjacent property from Casey, said he has personally paid Eck to "do a few things. He's keeping [the barge] from sinking and keeping people off."

Wingfield said he's tired of the delays in ridding the barge from the site.

"I'm surprised it has taken this long," he said. "There's a lot of liability that no one seems to recognize."

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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