A former restaurant barge, purchased by Allen Casey and docked at his property on the north shore of the Tennessee River for several years, is seen from the Olgiati Bridge.A potential new plan has surfaced to rid a rundown barge from Chattanooga’s downtown waterfront as attorneys try to engage a local scrap metal company.
David Fulton, a lawyer for a company connected with Chattanooga businessman Allen Casey, said talks are ongoing with PSC Metals about disposing of the vessel at its scrap metal site just down the Tennessee River from the barge.
“We’re working feverishly. I’m pushing as hard as I can,” he said about efforts to move the dilapidated barge that has drawn fire from both public officials and private citizens for its condition.
Fulton said attorneys are also talking with Serodino Inc., a local barge company, about floating the vessel to PSC Metals. He said that company may be interested in transporting the vessel to PSC, but he doesn’t want to take it past the Nickajack Dam nor to a so-called barge graveyard in Kentucky.
“It might be willing to get involved in towing it a half mile,” Fulton said.
A large crane on the river would be used to lift the barge, which is estimated at weighing 300 tons, he said.
Fulton said he planned to reach out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its direction.
“We want to get with them to see what we have to do to make this happen,” he said. Fulton said it’s also unclear over details concerning payment to the companies.
The latest effort comes after an earlier attempt fell apart about a month ago in which a private company was to dismantle and remove the barge from where it’s moored across the river from Ross’s Landing.
River City Company’s CEO, Kim White.A couple of downtown parties cheered the most recent initiative.
Bob Doak, the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s chief executive, said the barge should be removed from “our front porch.”
“Scrapping of the barge is the highest and best use of it,” he said, applauding the efforts to move it. “Hopefully, we can put this issue to rest forever.”
Kim White, who heads the nonprofit downtown development group River City Co., said that whoever can rid the city of the barge “should be a hero.”
“It’s obviously a difficult problem,” she said, adding that she’d “give anything” for it to have been gone by this weekend’s Head of the Hooch rowing regatta.
Casey floated the barge to Chattanooga a number of years ago to serve as a restaurant and bar, but the project never materialized. Over the years, the vessel deteriorated and at one time sprung a leak and sat on the bottom of the river for months.
However, after it was re-floated, Casey and one of his companies filed for bankruptcy as he faced a civil trial over a lawsuit filed by former investors. The barge is moored to a vacant 11-acre piece of waterfront property that Casey partly owns and has been put up for sale.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.