By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune senior reporter
The Covington City Commission made it clear 15 days into its new term that the overwhelming majority of its members are opposed to any plan to charge tolls on a new Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River.
Commissioners Steve Frank and Chuck Eilerman, who were re-elected in November, and newcomers Bill Wells and Jordan Huizenga all indicated their opposition to tolls during a question-and-answer session last week sponsored by the Covington Business Council.
The fifth member of the commission, Mayor Sherry Carran, has said consistently that she doesn’t think the bridge replacement project will progress until Northern Kentucky leaders agree to support tolls as a way to pay for at least part of the $2.6 billion project.
“The Brent Spence Bridge is very important and until we’re seen as unified up here on a need for a new bridge we’re not going to be listened to,” Carran said.
Eilerman, Wells and Huizenga said after the business council event, which attracted about 90 people, that there is no plan for the commission to vote on the Brent Spence issue again.
A little more than two years ago the commission approved a resolution that called for a thorough analysis of construction plans and the funding mechanisms to minimize any negative impact on Covington, where there are two entrance ramps and two exit ramps for I-71/75. That resolution neither endorsed nor opposed tolls for the bridge.
State senators and representatives from Northern Kentucky also have gone on record in opposition to tolling. But there also is a large and influential group of people who believe the project is dead if tolls aren’t imposed.
“They’re not going to build it and put a toll on it, and I think I’ve got the cards to win. End of story,” Frank said in response to a question from Patrick J. Raverty, who works for Turbull-Wahlert Construction in Florence. The outspoken Frank is one of the key supporters of an anti-toll group called Northern Kentucky United.
Eilerman said one of his concerns is that local traffic over the Clay Wade Bailey and Roebling Suspension bridges will increase dramatically in the neighborhoods they feed into if a toll is imposed on Brent Spence motorists. Much of that traffic will be created by people who want to avoid tolls by using the other bridges, the commissioner said.
There was a brief smattering of applause for a question from Mer Grayson, Northern Kentucky market president for Central Bank. Grayson asked if the current commissioners and the mayor believe they can work together without any of the antagonism that surfaced with the previous commission. Commissioners Mildred Rains and Michelle Williams, who often disagreed with other members of the commission and the city manager, were not re-elected last fall.
Grayson said he didn’t expect the five officials to agree on everything. But he said that when business people hear that “…the commission isn’t getting along, it doesn’t give you much confidence” in the city.
Detailed responses to his question were cut short in effort to field questions from as many people as possible. But commission members seemed to be in agreement on a number of questions that were posed by people in the audience.
Pat Frew, executive director of the business council, prefaced the question and answer session by asking elected officials to use it as a “focus group” that might indicate which issues are most important to the business community.
Commission members also were asked to reveal something about their personal “pet projects.”
Huizenga said he’s deeply interested in riverfront development opportunities for the city and wants Covington to get involved in Red Bike, a bike-sharing enterprise that seems to be working well in Cincinnati.
Frank, who is a member of the foundation board for Gateway Community and Technical College, said he’s enthusiastic about plans to have some 5,000 people taking classes at Gateway’s urban campus in downtown Covington in the not too distant future.
Carran mentioned the bridge project as a priority as well as what she called “connectivity,” getting the city working more closely with surrounding cities as well as state officials in Frankfort.
A new development downtown and plans to build a new city hall were high on the agenda for Eilerman. The current city hall had been a J.C. Penney store that was later converted into a bingo parlor.
Wells said he wants to see plans move ahead to expand the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. He also said there should be some discussion about a plan to come up with another design for the IRS Center, a sprawling single-story building that covers about a square block downtown.