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SubscribeTolling on the Louisville – Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Tolling is scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. Friday, December 30 on the new SR 265 Lewis and Clark Bridge, the new I-65 Abraham Lincoln Bridge and the improved I-65 Kennedy Bridge.
The Kennedy and Lincoln bridges provide 12 lanes of I-65 traffic connecting Downtown Louisville and Southern Indiana. The Lincoln Bridge carries six lanes of I-65 North traffic, and the Kennedy carries six lanes of I-65 South traffic. The Lewis and Clark Bridge, which opened to traffic Dec. 18, connects the Gene Snyder Freeway in Prospect, Ky. with State Road 265 in Utica, Ind.
RiverLink is all-electronic tolling, with no toll booths, no coin machines, no lines and no stopping.
Information for Drivers
It’s important for drivers to remember that tolling will not change their commute. They should not slow or stop while approaching the tolled bridges. All-electronic tolling means all drivers are able to move at the speed of traffic, with no slowing and no delays.
Drivers with transponders will pay the lowest rates. Sensors read transponders, and the appropriate toll is deducted from prepaid accounts. Cameras will capture the license plates of drivers without transponders, and bills will be sent in the mail.
Toll rates range from $2-12, depending on the size of the vehicle and whether the driver has a RiverLink account and transponder. A driver in a passenger vehicle with a transponder will pay $2 to cross a tolled bridge. A driver in a passenger vehicle without a transponder will pay $4.
Drivers have the option of selecting a RiverLink local transponder or a RiverLink E-ZPass transponder. A RiverLink local transponder is free, one per registered vehicle. The small sticker adheres to the inside of the windshield, is non-transferable and works only on the Lewis and Clark, Lincoln and Kennedy bridges.
A RiverLink E-ZPass transponder is $15. It’s portable from vehicle to vehicle registered to a single account and works in all 16 E-ZPass states. All E-ZPass transponders are accepted by the RiverLink system.
Drivers can register additional license plates to their RiverLink E-ZPass transponders online at www.riverlink.com, by phone or in person at a customer service center.
Mounting Transponders
Drivers need to have their transponders properly mounted before the start of tolling. Transponders are placed on the inside of the windshield near the rearview mirror, as high and as central as possible. It may be placed on the driver side or passenger side.
Transponders should be mounted three inches away from any metal, tint, antenna or defroster.
Drivers should avoid extreme temperatures when mounting their transponders. During cold weather, drivers can warm their car for a few minutes before mounting their transponder.
Drivers Waiting for Transponders
Thousands of drivers have opened RiverLink accounts over the past several days. Not all drivers have received their transponders. If accounts have been processed and transponders have been assigned to licenses plates, drivers will receive the lowest rates until they receive their transponders.
License plates will be scanned and the transponder rate applied until transponders are delivered. Drivers must receive and properly mount their transponders before crossings count toward the frequent-user discount.
Drivers Who Need to Open Accounts
It’s not too late for drivers to open their RiverLink accounts. They will begin paying the lowest rates as soon as an account is processed, and a transponder is assigned to the license plate. The sooner accounts are opened, the faster savings will begin.
Drivers can open accounts online at www.RiverLink.com, by phone at 855-RIV-LINK or in person at one of two customer service centers. The website is the fastest option to open an account. It’s open 24 hours a day/7 days a week with no wait. Customers opening accounts online or by phone will have their transponders mailed to them.
More than 150,000 RiverLink transponders have been requested to date, including more than 125,000 RiverLink local transponders and nearly 28,000 RiverLink E-ZPass transponders. Nearly 67,000 families and more than 2,200 businesses have opened RiverLink accounts.
Just over 110,000 drivers are expected to use the tolled bridges each day.
Customer service centers are located at 400 E. Main St. in Louisville and 103 Quartermaster Ct. in Jeffersonville. The centers are open 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday – Friday. They are also open 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday.
With tolling starting on December 30, customer service centers and the RiverLink call center will be open, as normal, on Saturday, December 31 (8 a.m. – 2 p.m.) and Monday, January 2 (7 a.m. – 7 p.m.).
Those who enjoy a natural pine, cedar, spruce or fir tree for Christmas often don’t know what to do with it after the holidays. Many resort to putting it out on the street or chucking it in the backyard until spring.
You can dispose of your natural Christmas tree and provide habitat for fish by donating it to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources instead of the tree languishing in the corner of your back yard or being ground into mulch.
“Every year we try to get a large number of Christmas trees, so we can sink them as fish habitat,” said Ron Brooks, director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We place them on wooden pallet habitat structures to diversify the habitat or sink just the trees themselves.”
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife will accept trees at 35 locations in 29 counties across Kentucky until Jan. 15. Trees must be natural and free of lights, ornaments, tinsel, garland or any other decorations.
“We added sites this year in our two most populous counties, Jefferson and Fayette,” said Joseph Zimmerman, fisheries habitat program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We added a site at McNeely Lake in Jefferson County and at Jacobson Park in Lexington. We’ve added 15 additional collection sites across the state since 2012.”
To find a convenient location near you, visit the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at www.fw.ky.gov and type in the keyword “Christmas” in the search engine on the top right corner of the page
The construction of most of our state-owned lakes and large reservoirs date to the period from the end of World War II to the early 1970s. As these waterbodies age, the woody cover in them melts away, leaving them starved for habitat.
“Just about all of our reservoirs and state-owned lakes have a habitat problem,” Brooks said. “The aging lakes have a bare substrate; there is not a lot of woody habitat or aquatic vegetation left, especially in reservoirs with highly fluctuating water levels.”
The Christmas Trees for the Fishes program is part of an overall effort to remedy this problem by replacing the lost habitat with items such as Christmas trees, wooden pallet stacks, buckets filled with wooden stakes and other items.
“This is an effort that every fisheries district does,” Brooks explained. “It’s helped out on lakes as large as Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley and on our smallest state owned lakes. The Christmas trees help make our pallet stacks more complex which provides better cover for fish.”
Brooks said algae grows on the sunken Christmas trees, creating multiple benefits for fish.
“Invertebrates lay eggs on the algae and they become a food source for smaller fish, which in turn attracts larger fish,” Brooks said. “It has a two-pronged benefit by providing habitat and a food source.”
The habitat placed in the lakes by fisheries personnel is recorded for use by anglers by plotting the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates on maps on the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at www.fw.ky.gov. Type in “Lakes with Fish Attractors” in the search engine on the homepage to use this valuable information.
Don’t chuck your Christmas tree beside the shed in the backyard until March. Drop it off at one of the collection stations and make better fishing for all Kentuckians to enjoy in the years to come.
Customers who purchase prepaid cell phones or calling cards in 2017 will see a new, small service charge on their receipt, but it is a tax that helps save lives. The charge is comparable to fees that currently appear on customer billings for communications services from traditional wireless providers.
The new Kentucky law passed during the 2016 legislative session requires retailers that sell cellular phones or calling cards with preloaded minutes to charge an additional flat rate of $0.93 per purchase. The fee is effective Jan. 1, 2017.
This new small fee helps fund the vitally important 911 service throughout the Commonwealth.
“Retailers are our partners in collecting this service charge that has tremendous benefit to all Kentuckians,” said Daniel Bork, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Revenue. “This flat rate helps fund 911 services throughout the state. Safety of our citizens is everyone’s top priority. Our role is to ensure timely distribution of these funds so that local 911 services have the resources needed to continue to provide that security.”
This service charge helps fund a multitude of necessary items that 911 emergency services require to function properly. These important needs include hiring additional 911 operations personnel, developing or upgrading address databases, updating software for computer and phone equipment, improving GIS mapping and radio systems as well as technical training for staff.
The Kentucky Department of Revenue (DOR) has made necessary system changes and is ready to administer the new commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) 911 charge on Jan. 1.
Affected purchases include:
- Cellular phones preloaded with a set dollar amount for minutes or units of air time, or sold with rebates for air time;
- Calling cards for cellular phones preloaded with a set dollar amount for minutes or units of air time;
- The recharging of a reusable cellular phone calling card;
- The recharging of a cellular phone itself with additional minutes of units of air time.
Similar to collecting the sales tax, a business selling any of the above mentioned items must collect the prepaid service charge from the customer at the time of purchase for each item sold at retail. Affected retailers must register for the CMRS prepaid service charge with the Department of Revenue, and begin filing returns for each reporting period. The filing schedule is the same as the one for the retailer’s sales and use tax return.
Retailers must be set up to file and pay the CMRS charge when it begins on Jan. 1, 2017.
To file the CMRS prepaid service charge return, or access other online features, retailers must first register for this new charge within the Kentucky Business OneStop Portal (KyBOS).
Additional return and filing tips will be available on the DOR website, revenue.ky.gov, in the near future. For more information about registering and using the portal, visit onestop.ky.gov.
For taxpayer registration questions with KyBOS, call 502-564-5053. For general CMRS prepaid service charge questions, contact the Division of Sales and Use Tax at 502-564-5170, or via email at DOR.WebResponseSalesTax@Ky.gov.
Dr. Gil Liu, a Louisville pediatrician and member of the UofL School of Medicine faculty, has been appointed as the new medical director for the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. CHFS Secretary Vickie Yates Brown Glisson announced the appointment for Liu, who was also recently named as the University of Louisville (UofL) School of Medicine Endowed Chair and Distinguished Scholar in Urban Health Policy Research.
A graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dr. Liu completed an internship and residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) School of Medicine as well as completing an additional fellowship in medical informatics and earning a master’s degree in biomedical engineering while at UNC. He resides in Louisville with his wife and four children.
“Dr. Liu’s impressive background and wealth of experience in the practice of medicine and public policy make him an ideal fit for this position. We are thrilled he is joining our Medicaid team,” said Sec. Glisson. “The Medicaid program provides health coverage for over a million Kentuckians and is vital to Kentucky’s healthcare landscape. As medical director, Dr. Liu will play a key role in providing oversight and directing clinical decisions to guide the program and improve delivery of services.”
“The Department is privileged to have someone of Dr. Liu’s caliber to serve as our Medical Director,” said DMS Commissioner Steve Miller.
Dr. Liu served on the faculty of the Indiana University Department of Pediatrics for 12 years and joined UofL as the director of General Pediatrics Division in 2013. In addition to his medical practice and teaching work, he also founded the Kentucky Pediatric Alliance for Transforming Children’s Healthcare, a learning collaborative to improve healthcare quality for publicly insured children in the Louisville metro area.
This is an incredibly exciting and challenging time to lead health care transformation. I am convinced that Kentucky can advance towards better health for its citizens through higher quality health services, stronger more diverse partnerships, and commitments to creativity and sustainability. I plan to especially contribute2016 expertise in using data and careful analysis to identify effective solutions, I am glad to bring the voice of a clinician to the Medicaid team; and as a pediatrician, I will always be drawn to endeavors that champion child health, taking a family based approach.
Dr. Liu has taught general pediatrics and his research interests include obesity prevention, environmental health, spatial analysis, and improving medical education. His studies of how neighborhoods and schools affect health and health behavior have been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Education, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Liu serves as the current Chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics Pediatric Leadership Alliance, a globally recognized initiative to improve the leadership capacity of pediatricians and other health care providers
The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet in Frankfort for a special called session at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern time) Jan. 6 to discuss proposed changes to the state’s elk regulations.
Items on the agenda for discussion include:
- Compress or reduce the elk season;
- Eliminate elk hunting in January;
- Establish a regulation to eliminate elk hunting during deer season;
- Establish a regulation to mandate a minimum bull size of 3 points on one side;
- Establish a regulation to mandate wounding an elk ends that hunt if the animal is not successfully retrieved. Convicted hunters get substantial penalties, plus lose the right to hunt elk. Guides lose guide license for 10 years;
- Establish a wanton waste regulation for elk, deer and bear with substantial penalties;
- Establish a regulation to establish refuge (no hunting) areas at tourist/viewing areas;
- Requests for management and data collection plans to be developed by the Department for Commission Discussion;
- Meet in executive session if necessary.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission meetings are open for the public. Sessions are conducted at the Arnold Mitchell Building on the main campus of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife headquarters is located at 1 Sportsman’s Lane (formerly 1 Game Farm Road) in Frankfort. The entrance is located off U.S. 60, approximately 1½ miles west of U.S. 127.
With sandhill crane hunting season opening the third weekend in December, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources is issuing its annual advisory to hunters to watch out for federally protected whooping cranes.
The whooping crane is an endangered bird that may not be hunted. The Eastern Population of whooping cranes migrates between Wisconsin and Florida, with their main migration corridor taking them through west-central Kentucky. There are 107 whooping cranes known in this population.
Wildlife biologists have confirmed the presence of six whooping cranes in Hopkins County. In previous years, whooping cranes have also been sighted in several other locations, including Barren County.
Kentucky’s sandhill crane hunting season begins Dec. 17 and continues through Jan. 15. The season will end sooner if the quota of 400 birds is taken prior to Jan. 15. Hunters who have applied for this quota hunt and been drawn to participate must successfully complete an online sandhill crane identification course before they can receive a permit.
Whooping cranes are solid white with black wingtips. They have a red crown. Adults may have a wingspan of 7½ feet and stand up to 5 feet tall on stilted legs. Juvenile birds are similar to the adults, but will have patches of brown or tan mixed in with the white.
Whooping cranes are similar in silhouette to sandhill cranes. However, sandhill cranes have gray bodies and are smaller than whooping cranes. Whooping cranes may associate with sandhill cranes so caution must be used while hunting sandhill cranes.
Hunters should always be sure of their target before firing a gun, regardless of the species being hunted.
Attorney General Andy Beshear today announced nearly 350 Kentuckians and three state organizations have received a combined $18 million from the 2014 Bank of America Settlement involving the company’s mortgage loan practices during the 2008 national financial crisis.
The impact of the settlement for Kentuckians is based on the most recent compliance report by the 2014 Bank of America Mortgage Settlement Monitor released Nov. 30.
The Office of the Attorney General joined five other state attorneys general and the federal government to reach the settlement that has provided billions of dollars of relief to struggling homeowners nationwide, including funds to help defray tax liability as a result of mortgage modification, forbearance or forgiveness.
According to the compliance report, nearly 350 Kentucky homeowners have received relief from the company’s civil penalties:
- 88 Kentuckians received debt forgiveness totaling $6.1 million.
- 56 Kentuckians obtained loan modifications totaling $1.5 million.
- Nearly 10 Kentuckians had their second-lien mortgages automatically extinguished.
- 125 Kentuckians received forgiveness of their outstanding debt related to a junior lien or unsecured debt totaling $3.8 million.
- 66 Kentuckians located in the hardest hit areas who lost a primary residence due to foreclosure or short sale or who were first time low income borrowers were given new loans that meet settlement guidelines.
- Nearly 10 Kentuckians had their loan principal extinguished.
As part of the Bank of America Settlement, the Kentucky Bar Associations’ IOLTA Fund received $6 million; the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises of Berea received $250,000; and Metro Louisville Habitat for Humanity received $99,000 to benefit Kentucky populations affected by the mortgage crisis.
The Kentucky Retirement Systems received $23 million in August 2014, from the settlement with Bank of America for defrauding the state’s pension system when the company sold high-risk loans, Beshear said.
