ICE HALTS FERRIES ON RIVER

Every morning, Captain Steve Stanionis and his crew go aboard the Hickman-Dorena ferryboat, crank up the engines and check the Mississippi River ice to determine whether the ferry can make it from Hickman, Ky., to Dorena, Mo.

Only once during the past 10 days has the ferry left the Hickman harbor, and it couldn't make it across, said Stanionis.

"We had a customer aboard and headed south toward Dorena," he said. "We got within 200 yards of the Missouri landing but couldn't get to the landing because of the big chunks of ice."

Stanionis' boat is now iced in. "We've been out of business since a day or two before Christmas," he said.

Commuters between Kentucky and Missouri are forced to go 60 miles up or down the river to find a bridge.

The Hickman-Dorena ferry and the Ste. Genevieve-Modoc ferry, which operates from Ste. Genevieve, Mo., to Modoc, Ill., may both be out of business for a while.

"The river in those areas is 75 to 80 percent covered with ice," said Mark Rieg of the U.S. Coast Guard office at Paducah, Ky. "River traffic is still moving, but these are barges that go up or down the river. Ferries have to cross the river," said Rieg.

Although 40-degree weather is predicted Thursday, it could take a number of days before any noticeable difference is detected on the river, said Rieg.

The ice is coming from the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Ice has not presented a problem on the Ohio River, which meets the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill.

The Mississippi River is low, which increases ice problems. The Ohio has more water and is fed by the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, which have warmer water.

The Mississippi isn't iced over 80 miles south of Hickman, said Stanionis, who lives in Lennox, Tenn.

The Hickman-Dorena toll ferry resumed operation in 1998 after being out of service for several months. Improvements ranging from reconstructed landings with innovative ferry signaling to hydraulic loading ramps on the barge were made. It is one of a few remaining riverboat ferries in the nation and the only ferry that crosses the Mississippi between Missouri and Kentucky.

The ferry cuts the trip between Hickman and Dorena from more than an hour to 30 minutes or less and connects Kentucky Highway 94 with Missouri Highway 80.

When running, the service operates seven days a week year round except for Christmas Day. The first trip each day starts from the Hickman landing at 7 a.m. and leaves the Missouri landing in Dorena for the final trip each day at 5:30 p.m.

The ferry at Ste. Genevieve runs daily between Missouri and Illinois.

"A number of workers from Southern Illinois have jobs in the Ste. Genevieve area," said Marv Harman, director of the Office of Economic Development in Ste. Genevieve County.

The ferry saves commuters 25 to 50 miles depending on where the worker lives. Ste. Genevieve is about 20 miles from the Chester, Ill., bridge, where workers have to cross the river.