When will Verruckt water slide in KCK get torn down? Plans are now in legal limbo

Plans to demolish the Kansas City, Kan., water slide where a 10-year-old boy was killed are tied up in legal wrangling between the state and owners of the Schlitterbahn water park.

In July, attorneys for KC Waterpark Management had said they were prepared to commence the demolition of the 17-story Verruckt water slide shortly after Labor Day, when the park closes for the season.

Attorney Melanie Morgan made that statement during a July 12 court hearing for individuals and companies facing criminal charges in connection to the 2016 death of Caleb Schwab.

After the hearing, Morgan and her co-counsel, Erin Thompson, said they tried to coordinate with attorneys for the state of Kansas on what parts of the slide should be preserved as possible evidence in the case.

But when there was no response from the state, Morgan asked Robert Burns, the Wyandotte County District Court judge presiding over the criminal case, for guidance on how to proceed.

Burns on Aug. 9 notified the state to provide a list of parts it wants preserved by Aug. 16. Attorneys for other defendants in the case were told to do the same by Aug. 23.

The state responded Aug. 10 by filing a motion asking the court to set a date for experts to inspect the slide one final time.

In that motion, it listed items it wanted preserved: all signage bearing rider warnings and instructions; a section of fiberglass bearing glue residue from a failed brake, located on the incline of the second hill below the first water-blaster nozzle; a section of fiberglass bearing “egging” patterns, located at the crest of the second hill; and two of the rafts that riders rode on the slide.

The state also requested that a third-party vendor hired to complete the demolition be mutually agreed to by all parties, and it laid out requested requirements for how preserved parts should be handled and safeguarded.

The water park’s attorneys filed a response on Wednesday, questioning the need for any further inspection of the slide.

The state’s experts have already filed reports of their inspections and did not indicate that any more were needed, the attorneys argued.

“The longer the parties take to find an agreed upon vendor and schedule a time when all parties, their counsel, and their experts are available will further delay the removal of the slide,” Morgan and Thompson said in their motion. “A slide that all sides and the community would like to see removed.”

In their motion, they requested several court orders:

▪ Deny any further inspections by the state’s experts.

▪ If any of the other defendants in the case want inspections, those should be scheduled before Sept. 5.

▪ The signage and rafts the state wants preserved should be removed no later than Sept. 7.

▪ The water park will begin its portion of the deconstruction on Sept. 8.

Once it hires a third-party vendor for the rest of the deconstruction, the water park management said it would notify the state and provide a timetable of when the vendor will begin work.

The attorneys asked the judge to give the state 30 days to arrange with that same vendor the preservation and transport of the fiberglass sections of slide it wants saved.

A spokeswoman said Friday that the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, had no comment on Wednesday’s defense motion.

The issue is expected to be taken up at a court hearing scheduled for Aug. 29 in Wyandotte County.

This story was originally published August 24, 2018 at 1:14 PM.