Nicklies out, Samuels in at Bridges Coalition; lying expected to continue, perhaps more gently this time around.

Visiting the Bridges Coalition website, I'm reminded that history is littered with the remnants of "simple" truths. Truth seldom is simple, and almost never entirely painted in shades of black and white. The objective of any propagandistic entity like the Bridges Coalition is to simplify selling points to their bare essence, and repeat them tirelessly in the hope that no one will bother contesting their claims.

It helps to have a talented pitchman, and David Nicklies was anything but. Unctuous used car salesman smarmy, leveraged left and right, beholden to the crassest and best heeled interests in the metro area ... not really the ideal carnival barker for selling a product that almost no one in the vicinity views as necessary.

That's why I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news: Bill Samuels Jr. replacing David Nicklies as chairman of Bridges Coalition, by Ed Green at Business First.

The widely venerated Samuels may or may not survive a vote and occupy the position vacated by Nicklies. If he does, you can expect the legendary Makers Mark folksy aphorisms to become the new Bridges Coalition brand, replacing the "up yours, I'm David Nicklies - don't you know who I am?" approach.

Folies de pont continues record run with Nicklies upping his ante from 3% (ooh) to 5% (ahh).

As mayor-elect Irv Stumler spins the Wheel of Party Affiliation and signs warrants for the arrest of Tree Commission members in preparation for his emergency deforestation plan -- gotta get those damned tree limbs away from the street -- let's look at recent developments on the billionaire's mobility boondoggle front.

I couldn't attend Tuesday's meeting, but Braden Lammers of the Evening News explains that the fight against tolls continues, with local officials gathering with Southern Indiana No Bridge Tolls group to listen as Tom Galligan, Jeffersonville mayor-for-life, says he's heavy against tolls and will at the same time reserve judgment until final plans are announced. Profiles in re-election courage, indeed.

With a River Runyon Through the Fields hit squad in hot pursuit, the Courier-Journal's Marcus Green seeks to evade the strictures of the Hawpe Code, noting that cheaper Ohio River bridges plan may open door to more delays (that's a hopeful thing), and then offering this fly-on-the-wall view of saintly elected public advocates in prayerful action: Bridges plan changes hatched at December meeting in Indianapolis.

Green omits the wonderful story making the bedtime story rounds in which Rep. Clere heroically stows away on the Beechcraft King Air amid storms and turbulence to beseech St. Daniels thah he must listen to the earnest wailings of battered constituents, with Daniels responding, "Before or after the lashings continue?", and Clere answering, "Why, yes."

And then there's the one about the forever unctuous David Nicklies, as relayed by Lammers in his knee-slapping account of yesterday's meeting of River Ridge commerce center's budgetary bigwigs.

Bridges request

While the bulk of the revenue for River Ridge will be designated for the bond payments and infrastructure improvements, David Nicklies, chairman of the Bridges Coalition was present to ask for additional support for the Ohio River Bridges Project.

“We’re needing to raise about another $150,000 to $175,000 to get through this year of what we’ve already got committed,” he said.

Last year, River Ridge committed $50,000 to the Bridges Coalition to be disbursed in quarterly payments of $12,500. The coalition has spent the funding it has received on marketing and educational purposes.

While Nicklies said the coalition has been lobbying at the state and federal levels, part of the marketing campaign has been directed toward answering local anti-toll groups.

“There has been a huge anti-toll effort [and] they’ve actually been fairly organized,” he said.

Nicklies mentioned the groups’ frequent attendance at the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority meetings and a petition of 10,000 signatures the group’s organizers sent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

“We’re spending a lot of time putting those fires out and talking about the silent 95 percent which you don’t hear from all the time,” Nicklies said.

Marketing and advertising efforts have been directed to outcry against the initial figure of $3 tolls used to provide an update for the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency’s long-range plan.

“We said politically that was a disaster,” Nicklies said of the $3 toll figure. “Then, we put the $1 commuter toll on the table and we were able to get the bi-state authority to roll that out, which got us into a little more positive mode.”

He continued and said the next 12 months for the project will be critical and referenced the bi-state authority’s upcoming industry forum.

“They’re going to invite design-build firms from all over the world to come in, look at the project, put teams together to come back and see how they can deliver a $3.5 billion project, hopefully for $2.5 billion or less,” Nicklies said.

Don't look at me. You're the one who keeps voting for them.

A slight correction in opinion calculations.

Omigod: Tolling's threat to small business (and large) is so obvious that now even the C-J has noticed.

In which we learn that David Nicklies and Kerry Stemler are suckling from the same Kool-Aid teat, and that as a result, we three-percenters must sacrifice for their common good, although as the reporter succinctly notes, "No one has studied how tolls will affect businesses."

I suppose that's why neither a single Tolling Authority member, nor any of its cadre of apologists, has once so much as attempted to answer the business community's questions to that effect. I'm feeling vindicated, even if Erika still can't bring herself to dispute her beloved's political cowardice and take her own stand on tolls.

Small businesses worry tolls would cut off customers, by Marcus Green (Courier-Journal).

... The Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority, the body in charge of financing the $4.1 billion project, is expected to vote this week on a plan that anticipates $2.2 billion of the project’s cost to come from electronic tolls, designed so they don’t slow traffic.

No decisions have been made on where the tolls will be located, but the authority has asked the federal government to determine whether existing interstate highways can be tolled.

There’s not a major city in the United States with tolls on all of its interstate bridges, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association, a toll industry trade group.

The notion of charging a toll to cross existing roadways has opponents big and small.

UPS, which has its main air hub in Louisville and whose trucks routinely cross the river, is against fees on the Sherman Minton or Kennedy bridges, as well as Spaghetti Junction. The Clarksville Town Council has also passed a resolution opposing tolls on existing highways.