'Time to move on:' Hastings Mayor ready to move forward after Supreme Court's viaduct ruling
HASTINGS, Neb. – After five long years of controversy over a demolished Hastings viaduct, Mayor Corey Stutte says it's time to turn the page.
"We're just happy to have this saga over after five long years," said Stutte. "The people voted on it, the council voted on it, and now we're finally able to put this behind us, so I think it's an excellent time for us to move forward as a community."
The controversy started in 2019 when the city proposed to demolish the viaduct on the east side of Hastings.
After the city passed a resolution to demolish the viaduct, a citizen group gathered enough petition signatures to take the issue to election.
The city then rescinded its resolution and put a proposal to repair the viaduct to voters. It didn’t pass and the city council again voted to demolish the viaduct, which was completed in 2022.
After the demolition, the citizen group continued to argue in district court for a special election on the matter. A district court judge ruled the issue was moot.
On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court agreed with the district court judge and ruled the lawsuit moot.
Mayor Stutte says the ruling will take a big weight off of his and the city staff's shoulders.
"If you can think and count up the numbers of hours that were put into just dealing with the lawsuits, it's really unfortunate," said Stutte. "That's taxpayer's money that we're necessarily able to recuperate when we're having to deal with those lawsuits."
The petitioner group did not release an official statement after the court's ruling, but the group told NCN that they're contemplating their next move, and don't believe the fight is over.