Henderson County judge executive election: Candidates joust over Twin Bridges, economy

HENDERSON, Ky. – Two candidates to lead Henderson County government the next four years agree economic development and prepping for a new Ohio River are top community priorities.

They just have a strong disagreement over who’s best for that role.

Six-year incumbent Judge-Executive Brad Schneider, a Republican and former economic development official in Henderson, is challenged by Democrat Dorsey Ridley, who represented the area for 22 years in Kentucky’s House and Senate and most recently held roles in Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration.

Schneider said Henderson County is faring well under his leadership. He pointed to announcements of $700 million in outside private investment and promises of 800 new jobs over the last 14 months.

“The issue is how to we capitalize on all this and turn this great momentum into something that will benefit us for decades to come, not just years,” Schneider said.

Ridley is equally insistent the county can do better. He highlighted slowing population trends – Henderson County fell from 46,250 people in 2010 to 44,793 in 2020.

2022 Kentucky elections Here's who's on the ballot in Henderson County

“The way to grow that population back is through job growth,” said Ridley, noting his lengthy service in the legislature and connections he made along the way. "You can make a lot of things happen if you know how to make things happen.”

In Kentucky, the judge-executive is chief executive of county government. Although “judge” is part of the title, the role does not include judicial power. Instead the judge-executive presides over and is a voting member of fiscal court, which is the county’s legislative and governing body.

In Henderson County, the judge-executive annual salary is about $113,000.

A new coal mine and a fight over a grain elevator

The two candidates agreed July’s announcement by Beshear that Pratt Paper will build a $400 million facility in Henderson County was big news. It was celebrated by Schneider and other local government officials who negotiated with the company. Ridley said he also had involvement in the Pratt Paper project “from the get-go” as Beshear’s director of emerging industries.

More recent economic development announcements in Henderson include Alliance Coal’s promise of a new $35 million underground mine in southern Henderson County that will be part of its existing River View Mine complex in Union County. River View Henderson Portal 1 will create 260 new jobs, plus employ some miners who will be transferred from the existing River View operation.

There also was a late September announcement of a grain elevator and loading dock at the Henderson County Riverport by Greenfield Grain LLC, a project officials say will give farmers a second major grain buyer to market their corn and soybeans.

While Schneider said those projects are further examples of Henderson County’s progress during his time in office, Ridley cast skepticism on the grain elevator project because not all of its necessary permits are approved. The project is supposed to receive county financial incentives.

“The grain elevator in New Orleans necessary to make that happen in Henderson hasn’t gotten a permit yet,” Ridley said. He described the project as “a five years from now maybe.”

“I believe we need to have a little more coordination with the state economic development cabinet, with true opportunities that will come to fruition, and we make an announcement when it’s time to make an announcement,” he said.

Meanwhile, Schneider claims the Greenfield Grain announcement is anything but premature. Greenfield Grain “is building a series of smaller graineries that will fill a larger one” and Henderson’s project is not dependent on the New Orleans permit, he said. He criticized Ridley for suggesting otherwise.

“How would he know?” Schneider said.

The grain elevator for Henderson County Riverport, Schneider said, is “right around the corner and it’s going to be very beneficial.”

Interstate 69 and the Henderson Twin Bridges

Both candidates said they will advocate for both U.S. 41 Twin Bridges to remain open and free once the new Interstate 69 is finished in a few years.

The federal government’s Record of Decision for the bridge plan calls for one U.S. 41 span to permanently close, but Schneider and Ridley said they will press future Kentucky and Indiana governors and transportation officials to change that.

Even on this area of agreement, though, the two candidates differ.

Ridley, whose service in the Senate ended with a narrow loss to Republican Robby Mills in 2018, pointed to comments he made in 2018 and early 2019 calling for “bridge redundancy” over the Ohio River, as well as his many years of I-69 work while representing the Henderson area in Frankfort.

Schneider categorically disagreed with Ridley’s belief that Schneider at one time opposed keeping both U.S. 41 spans open. Schneider was a founding member of the bistate organization I-69 BridgeLink, and he produced a 2017 letter to the project team calling for both Twin Bridges to remain in use.

Schneider said Ridley's belief that Schneider didn't always want to keep both bridges open is "kind of silly, to be honest."

Both candidates said county government can be a partner in reshaping the U.S. 41 strip as commercial truck traffic shifts to a newly construction I-69 bridge.

But they displayed sharp elbows as the Nov. 8 election nears.

"He has no reality of what the job is having been there six years," Ridley said of Schneider.

Schneider scoffed as such comments, saying Henderson County is in the midst of "one of the greatest economic development runs in 50 years."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: KY election: Where Henderson judge executive candidates stand on issues