Representatives of Citizens for Reopening the Harmony Way Bridge plan to ask Posey County Commissioners Tuesday to accept ownership of the Wabash River bridge, which has been closed since May 2012.
The structure, which opened in 1931, links Indiana 66 New Harmony with Illinois 14 in White County, Illinois. It was closed after inspectors deemed it unsafe for traffic.
The bridge is privately owned by the three-member White County Bridge Commission, which had operated it since 1941 and collected tolls for its maintenance. Because of the private ownership, the structure has not been able to qualify for state or federal assistance for replacement or repair.
Leaders of Citizens for Reopening the Harmony Way Bridge are hopeful transferring ownership to a government entity would pave the way to obtaining federal or state funding for reopening the structure.
The group has collected more than 3,000 signatures from residents of Posey and White counties who want to see the bridge reopened, said Linda Henning, a member of the citizens group.
She's hopeful a delegation of supporters will attend Tuesday's commissioners meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. at the Hovey House in Mount Vernon.
Posey County Commissioners have previously declined to accept ownership of the bridge, and meetings with state transportation officials from Indiana and Illinois have been unproductive.
Henning said Friday evening that sentiment among Posey's three commissioners remains divided with one commissioner reportedly supportive, one opposed and one undecided.
Posey Commissioner James Alsop, who lives at New Harmony, said Friday he did not know whether a decision would be reached on Tuesday. The commissioners, he said, could accept, reject or table the group's proposal.
"I don't know of any new developments," he said.
Jim Clark, a member of the White County Bridge Commission said he isn't optimistic about the vote and doesn't plan to attend Tuesday's meeting.
"Unfortunately, I don't think it will amount to a hill of beans," Clark said. "However, if they vote to take it over, we'll gladly sell it to them for $1 and even provide the dollar!"
The citizens group also plans to present information regarding the economic impact of the bridge closure on businesses in New Harmony and Carmi.
"We've done our due diligence," Henning said. "We've looked at it from a business and economic perspective."
New Harmony is priority No. 1, she said, explaining businesses there are reporting declines in revenue of between 10 percent and 40 percent in the two years since the closure. Some Carmi, Illinois, businesses have also decreases in revenue since the closing, she said.
"It's not only squeezing the business life out of these small, rural businesses that are already struggling," Henning said, adding it's seen, too, as a quality-of-life issue for the area's residents, impacting everything from entertainment options to emergency medical care.
With the New Harmony bridge closed, she noted, the options left for crossing the Wabash River are bridges west of Mount Vernon and on Interstate 64.
"Our goal," she said, "is hopefully the Posey County board will take a look at taking ownership."
Then studies could be done to determine whether it is feasible to reopen it, "but the first step is to get it into a government entity," she said.