KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Wyandotte County judge says the time has come for the Schlitterbahn water slide, where one boy died and others suffered injuries, to come down.
Many believe it’s important to remove a looming symbol of pain in the community.
On Wednesday, Judge Robert Burns put an end to the legal wrangling over the future of the Verruckt water slide.
“The slide is a constant reminder,” the judge said of the tragic death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab more than two years ago.
“Its presence troubles everyone in Wyandotte County and surrounding communities,” Burns said.
The judge said people going shopping at the Legends, headed to work at the nearby Cerner Corporation or visiting other tourist attractions in western Wyandotte County are painfully aware of the tragedy every time they see the giant water slide.
Burns said the time has come for it to be removed.
Melanie Morgan, a lawyer for K.C. Water Park Management, a limited liability corporation that is one of the defendants, told FOX4 work will begin to remove electrical systems, plumbing and other utilities in Verruckt within the next three weeks.
Cranes won’t be in place to begin disassembling the structure of the slide itself until Nov. 1.
The state had sought to preserve the slide so that other defendants could inspect it. But more than a dozen lawyers in the courtroom Wednesday morning agreed that every defendant has already done that.
The Kansas Attorney General will be allowed to preserve parts of the slide that it considers to be evidence. And Morgan said water park management will make those parts available for prosecutors to pick up.
No trial date has yet been set in what’s becoming an increasingly complicated case. A deadline for another round of motions has been set for Oct. 31.