Boonville Bridge continues to be center of controversy

Doyle Childers, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, is accusing Attorney General Jay Nixon’s staff of using state computers and e-mail to send messages intended to gain support for Nixon’s political aims.

Childers said he received copies of "very troubling e-mails" that indicated Nixon’s communication staff contacted various groups - including Trailnet, Greenway Network and the Audubon Society - on the day before Nixon filed a 2005 lawsuit that challenged whether DNR could legally give up the possibility of using an abandoned railroad bridge on the Missouri River at Boonville as part of the Katy Trail. . . .

Childers also accused Mary Still, Nixon’s former director of communications, of sending the e-mails to citizen groups. Still said she had a legitimate reason to send the e-mails.

"It was part of my job to communicate with constituency groups when the attorney general had policy announcements," said Still, who is running as a Democrat for state representative in the 25th District. "I would alert those who are interested in these policies … just as I alerted the media. That’s part of your job as communications director or policy adviser. … It’s open government and good government. I did do that, and I’d do it again."