The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page B1

Time: 01-16-2008 20:20 User: gswick PubDate: 02-12-2008 Zone: KY Page Name: B1 Color: Candidates: Shut up and listen Metro PROTOTYPE MARCH 18,2008 Mike Trautmann, Metro editor 582-4691 Fax: 582-4200 Neighborhoods B3 Deaths B6, B7 Weather B8 Jury sets Big Four Bridge price saves the waterfront agency a lot of money by not having to build a new one, Cox said in an interview after the verdict. Cox said Martingale and Bridge the Gap have not decided how the $350,000 will be split. He said he also hasn't ruled out appealing the verdict. David Karem, president of the waterfront agency, said he was "very pleased" with the value set by See BRIDGE, B5, col. 1 when state courts ruled that it could condemn the Big Four for a public use.

But how much it must pay for the old railroad span remained uncertain until the jury verdict. The agency was opposed in court by Bridge the Gap, a charity that long owned the bridge, and Martingale LLC, a company that once had an option with Bridge the Gap to buy and redevelop the span. At a weeklong trial before Circuit Judge Martin McDonald that ended yesterday, two appraisers for the waterfront agency said the bridge is worth nothing, mainly because the approaches have been torn down. But Lin Bell, an appraiser testifying on behalf of the charity and Martingale, estimated that the bridge was worth $6 million to $8 million. He set the price so high primarily because of the waterfront agency's intent to convert the bridge into a pedestrian walkway, said Martingale attorney Don Cox.

The existence of the old bridge Says agency must pay $350,000 By Sheldon S. Shafer The Courier-Journal The old Big Four Bridge is worth $350,000, a Jefferson Circuit Court jury decided yesterday. The Waterfront Development Corp. took title to the bridge in 2005 THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE Bob Hill A proposal for all our cur-jt rent candidates for president: up. Listen.

It came to me as I was sitting in a plastic chair in a large, featureless government building in New Albany working on a bureaucratic snafu I feared could eventually affect Social Security retirement and medical benefits. In other words: Very Serious Stuff. My first task was to read a computer screen, pick out the nature of my problem, press a button and "Take a number, take a seat." I was "87D." I was sitting in an antiseptic room with maybe 30 other people. Its decor was blue on blue. Directly in front of us were four windows numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4.

I felt as though I was waiting to get loaded into the starting gate at Churchill Downs. Government employees were sitting behind the windows dispensing help. When finished with a customer, each would shout out the next number. I first heard "79D." Only seven people ahead of me in the line, but there was also an line for people with a different problem. I sat reading a New York Times.

Conversations from the chatty people near me drifted in. Most were elderly; they obviously needed their earned government help. One woman said a basement wall was buckling. The repair bids had come in at $9,000, $12,000 and $22,000. Each contractor had suggested a different problem, a different solution.

The woman didn't know what to do. To my right an elderly woman and her daughter waited for a number to be called. When it came, the mother walked toward the counselor bent over, the anxious daughter close behind. A Social Security worker came out and announced to people who had pre-scheduled interviews that he was way behind; it could be another 45 minutes. "I'm sorry," he said, holding up a folder.

"I'm just one guy. There's no way to clone me." He disappeared around a corner. I could hear the conversations between the counselors and clients. Personal details flew out over the counter; things I didn't need or want to know; a man with multiple divorces; a man who had been overpaid for some benefit and needed to pay them back; a young mother who was learning she couldn't receive needed back pay until some lawyer was paid. Prior to this unintended eavesdropping, I had been reading an article about presidential debates.

It got me thinking about the candidates, the process. Yes, several of them are up from poor and difficult circumstances, but it's not the world they live in now. The other candidates have never had to worry about picking a basement contractor. Sure, they're busy. But at this point in their lives, things are fixed with a phone call.

Aides do the grunt work, the plastic chair sitting, the setting up of fundraisers where the candidates smile, pose for photos, say what people want to hear and listen to the money kahing in. There's a disconnect between the endless political debates, the overblown, over-analyzed-and-minutely dissected media blather and a sterile government office where a worried daughter takes her mom for help. I don't want to make too much of this; it would a little difficult for Rudolph Giuliani or Hillary Clinton to quietly slip into an underfunded Social Security office. And, for the record, I received excellent help; my problem was solved. But in the real world, people do have to take a number, take a seat, sit down, shut up and listen.

Wouldn't it be great if the people who want to run that world had to do the same thing? Activists berate Army for gas leak Commander says public wasn't at risk By Tom Loftus The Courier-Journal RICHMOND, Ky. Army officials were taken to task yesterday by citizens' group leaders for not releasing more details about an August leak of deadly nerve agent from a canister stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot. The leak was the largest ever detected there. "I have concern about the press release" issued after the leak was discovered in late August, said Doug Hindman, chairman of a citizens' advisory commission on the Army's plans to destroy weapons at the depot by 2017. "There was nothing to indicate that this was anything other than the very miniscule leaks that we've had in the past." Craig Williams, director of a citizens group based in Berea that has long monitored activities at the depot, said "the leak occurred in late August and here it is in December and this is the first time we're having this discussion." Lt.

Col. Tom Closs, commander of the Blue Grass Chemical Activity at the depot in Madison County, noted that the press release was sent to news media outlets the day the spill was detected, Aug. 27. The release said that vaporized nerve agent GB, also called sarin, was detected in a storage building, known as an igloo, containing the canister. It also said that the igloo was "under strict engineering controls" and that the leak presented "no danger to the community." Closs stressed that he immediately notified state and local emer- See NERVE, B5, col.

1 BL0G BYTES Developer Chris Thieneman said he plans to run for the Louisville Metro Council in District 14, the seat held by Democrat Bob Henderson. "If I can show I can do a good job at this, I'm not going to rule out a run for something else in the future," said Thieneman, who led the opposition to the library expansion tax. Read all the latest news on the people and issues behind Kentucky's politics at The Arena. By Matt Stone, The Courier-Journal The view of the 2007 Thunder Over Louisville from Sharon Chandler's terrace at the Harbours at RiverPointe condominiums in Jeffersonville, Ind. The city's four network stations will take turns televising the event.

Fox-41 wins drawing to televise '08 event The Courier-Journal WDRB, Fox-41, will broadcast Thunder Over Louisville on April 12. The station won the rights in a "pill pull" drawing yesterday at a press conference at Kentucky Derby Festival headquarters. The pill pull followed an an Luallen won't seek McConnelTs seat broadcast the fireworks show in each of the next four years. After WDRB's broadcast next year, WHAS will broadcast the event in 2009; WAVE in 2010 and WLKY in 2011. "The creation of this partnership is a very gratifying show of See THUNDER, B4, col.

1 balance in her life after two fights with unrelated cancers. "It's not because I have any health problems," she said. "I feel great. I'm probably healthier than I've ever been. But it's because the experience of going through cancer any cancer survivor will tell you it changes your priorities and it really makes you focus on the people who are important to you in your life." McConnell, whose campaign put new television ads on the air in Louisville and Lexington yesterday, declined comment.

In her announcement, Luallen said she was "honored that so many respected state and national leaders have encouraged me to consider running" for the Senate. But she noted that she has been See SENATE, B3, col. 1 nouncement that the four major local network affiliates WAVE, WDRB, WHAS and WLKY will continue to rotate broadcasting rights for Thunder, the Derby Festival's opening event. The four general managers participated in the drawing to determine which station will strong candidate, and I think I would have been successful," Luallen said in an interview. "And it was very hard for me, knowing that political analysis, to make this personal decision.

But in the end, I did what I thought was best for me and for my husband and family." She said she wanted to keep Luallen Democrats seeking prominent candidate By James R. Carroll The Courier-Journal State Auditor Crit Luallen announced yesterday that she would not seek the Democratic nomination next year for the U.S. Senate seat held by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Her decision leaves the Democrats still searching for a prominent, experienced candidate to challenge Kentucky's top Republican. Luallen was believed to be the national Democratic Party's first choice to take on the Senate GOP leader.

"I think I would have been a Reach Bob Ml at (502) 582-4646 or Comment and past columns: www.courier-journal.combobhill. 35 OFF windows I Pall Tnriav far unur FDFF Fctimatal I tata kVIIIIIHIVi.