Steve Beshear and Jerry Abramson announced today that five individuals will serve on a negotiating team to talk with counterparts in Indiana to get the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project going.
It’s the first of many steps involved, with the goal ultimately to establish a bi-state authority that would have seven members, four named by Abramson and three by Beshear. It all has to be approved in Frankfort. The Metro Council has strongly suggested it have a representative on that authority.
So here are the members of the negotiating team.
Mike Hancock, Interim Secretary, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
Lori Hudson Flanery, Deputy Secretary, Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet
David Nicklies, President and CEO, Nicklies Development Corp., a Louisville-based real estate development company serving communities in Kentucky and Indiana
Joe Reagan, President and CEO, Greater Louisville Inc., the metro Chamber of Commerce
Ben Richmond, President and CEO, Louisville Urban League
6 responses so far ↓
1 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // Aug 17, 2009 at 11:52 am
First question: Do any of these individuals have ties, even if oblique, to River Fields, the organization dedicated to stopping the East End Bridge?
2 Bill // Aug 17, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Second question: Have any of these people contributed to the campaigns of Steve Beshear or Jerry Abramson.
3 R.L. Holt // Aug 17, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I can’t speak for the rest of the individuals, but I can speak for David Nicklies. He is an outstanding individual who will provide the experience and the drive to get the bridges project moving. I applaud his selection.
4 JTT // Aug 17, 2009 at 7:01 pm
And what qualifies these folks to “negotiate?”
5 chief // Aug 18, 2009 at 12:20 am
With the Job Jerry’s team did on the Cordish deal, what’s makes him qualified to pick any negotiating group….He’s already failed at that!
6 Chuck // Aug 18, 2009 at 7:01 am
I guess you could consider David Nicklies to be someone that would have negotiation skills. As far as the rest of them, I see this as a big reach. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone considering the Jerry Abramson administration.
After all, you have a mayor that is full of lies, obfuscation of law and budgets, and a thousand other crooked maneuvers.
Its ok though, we just had another wreck on the wreck called the Kennedy Bridge. One would think that whole fustercluck called an interstate system would have been fixed years ago. But then again, this is Kentucky where as Mark Twain once said, “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else.”
Its a sad fact but very true even today. Where Indiana had the funding for the bridges already lined up years prior to this, Kentucky has the backwards approach of trying to find the funding. Maybe if Kentucky would worry about its people getting decent jobs so they can pay taxes instead of living off the dole, this state might be able to afford something. Not just always have budget issues like they have had for years. Despite some of the higher taxes in the USA including in Louisville.
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