07/18/2026
FERRY MATH | IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE
This column by Press editor Chris Evans was published in early July. While it's a bit dated, the information is still relevant today. To get news, commentary and information from The Crittenden Press in a timely fashion, please subscribe. It costs only $32 a year to get our eEdition.
- Not so simple to solve this!
If there has been one thing I've learned covering this story over the past several years, it is this: everybody has a solution.
My phone has rung. My inbox has filled up. Social media has offered everything from practical ideas to pie-in-the-sky dreams. Build a bridge. Charge a toll. Move the ferry somewhere else. Hire another operator. Surely somebody can just step in and make it happen.
If only it were that simple.
None of those questions are unreasonable. In fact, they're exactly the questions people should be asking. But once you start peeling back the layers, you find this issue is a whole lot more complicated than most folks realize.
Let's take them one at a time.
Why not just charge a toll?
That sounds easy enough, and it may very well become part of the eventual solution.
The problem isn't whether people would pay. Most people I've talked with would gladly pay a few dollars if it meant keeping the ferry running.
The problem is collecting it.
Right now the ferry operates with a licensed pilot and one deckhand. They're busy enough loading vehicles, operating the vessel and getting people safely across the Ohio River. There isn't another employee standing around to collect money, make change, answer questions or deal with credit cards.
Each state could install a ticket booth on its side of the river, but then somebody has to build it, maintain it and staff it. An automated payment system sounds attractive until you consider the cost of installing it and keeping it operating in an outdoor river environment.
There has even been discussion of some type of pass system or windshield decal for frequent users.
That works fine for commuters. But what about the family from Indiana pulling up with a boat headed to Kentucky Lake? Or the tourist who has never crossed before? Where do they buy their first pass?
Those are details that sound small until somebody has to solve them.
Why not find another contractor?
This may be the biggest misconception.
The ferry isn't simply a boat floating on the river.
Lonnie Ray Lewis, Inc., owns the Kentucky landing property and operates under a franchise dating back more than 150 years. Kentucky law still recognizes those old perpetual ferry franchises.
In other words, this isn't like putting out bids to mow the courthouse lawn.
The owner has made it clear he isn't interested in selling the franchise, although leasing arrangements could always be explored if everyone agreed.
Even then, who would take it? Starting a ferry operation from scratch would require tremendous capital. You would need vessels, equipment, trained personnel, insurance, maintenance facilities and operating cash. That's an enormous investment.
Would you invest millions of dollars based on a guaranteed contract lasting only two years? Most business people wouldn't.
Why not move the ferry somewhere else?
Again, easier said than done.
A ferry crossing isn't simply two boats ramps facing each other.
You need suitable approaches, highways, staging areas and stable riverbanks.
People have mentioned Elizabethtown Landing. The problem is that while Kentucky has a boat ramp there, the access road from the nearest state highway is gravel and prone to flooding.
Others have suggested Riverview Park or the Dam 50 area. Kentucky has good highway access there, but there is no corresponding landing or roadway on the Illinois side.
You can study maps all day long, but there simply aren't many places where geography and infrastructure line up.
Perhaps Golconda, Ill., would come closest to working with Berry's Ferry Landing in Livingston County, but even that would require substantial improvements and years of planning.
Moving a ferry isn't like moving a food truck.
Why not build a bridge?
This one gets asked almost every time the ferry makes headlines.
Because bridges cost...well...bridge money.
The newest Ohio River bridge connecting Kentucky and Indiana – the Lewis and Clark Bridge near Louisville – cost roughly $1.3 billion before it opened in 2016.
Yes, it carries four lanes of interstate traffic, so a smaller bridge would cost less.
But not hundreds of millions less.
Construction costs certainly haven't gone down since 2016.
At today's prices, you could probably operate this ferry for centuries before spending what it would cost to build even a modest bridge across the Ohio River here.
That's simply economic reality.
So where do we go from here?
Ironically, I think we've already seen the best path forward.
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Perry Newcom is encouraging everyone affected by this shutdown to call the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the Illinois Department of Transportation and members of the Kentucky General Assembly.
He's exactly right.
If your business is losing customers...
If you're burning extra fuel driving around through Paducah or Shawneetown...
If you're missing doctor's appointments...
If you're late getting to work...
If your farm, trucking company, campground, restaurant or convenience store depends on that ferry...
Tell them.
Not angrily.
Not with threats.
Just tell them what this closure is costing you.
Government agencies deal with budgets and spreadsheets every day. What they don't always hear are the stories behind those numbers.
Those stories matter.
The old saying goes that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
Well folks, it's time for western Kentucky and southern Illinois to start squeaking.
Call Kentucky Transportation Cabinet at 502-564-8100.
Call the Illinois Department of Transportation at 217-782-7820 or 866-273-3681.
If you're a Kentucky resident, call the legislative message line at 800-372-7181 and ask your legislators to help find a solution.
Be courteous.
Be specific.
Explain exactly how this shutdown affects your family or your business.
Negotiations have stalled a bit over the last few days, but from everything I've been told, no one has walked away from seeking a deal. That's encouraging.
Everyone involved says they want the same thing – a ferry carrying cars across the Ohio River again.
Now they just have to figure out how to get there.
Until then, the most powerful thing ordinary citizens can do isn't complain on Facebook or propose unrealistic options.
It's pick up the telephone.
Sometimes that's exactly how the grease gets delivered to the squeaky wheel.
- Chris Evans, a newspaperman since 1979, has been editor of The Press for more than 30 years and is the author of South of the Mouth of Sandy, a true story about crime along the Tennessee River. You can find it on Amazon or wherever books are sold.
