ALEXANDRIA — Mixed in with the traditional “Vote for me” signs on Campbell County lawns are 100 bright-red wooden axes.

Rogers

Devoid of any printing, many voters have wondered what they mean, who is responsible for them and what they have t o do with the election.

The answers are found in the fiscal court campaign of Alexandria Republican Lloyd Rogers, the county's one-time judge-executive who is challenging incumbent Democrat Bill Verst in the Nov. 5 race for county commissioner.

Mr. Rogers has placed more than 100 axes around the county as a symbol of his campaign pledge to “ax” vehicle emissions testing in Northern Ken tucky.

“People hate the vehicle testing, they don't want to pay for it, they think it's a waste and they want somebody to get rid of it,” Mr. Rogers said. “I did it before and I can do it again.”

No, he didn't, and no, he can't, responds Mr. Verst to Mr. Rogers' campaign promise.

“A county commissioner or a fiscal court can't ax the (state) tailpipe testing,” said Mr. Verst, a three-term incumbent from Wilder. “It just intrigues me how he would even promote himself as a candidate who can get that done. I tell people not to be fooled because this is a federal and state program, and the county can't do anything about it.”

Mr. Rogers freely admits the county fiscal court does not have the power to eliminate the tests, which are mandated by the federal government un der the Clean Air Act and administered by the state.

But he proposes building support on the state or federal level for doing away with the tests.

“You can take no for an answer, which my opponent apparently wants to do,” Mr. Rogers said. “Or, you can do something about it.”

The federal government has ordered much of the region to find a way to improve air quality. State en vironmental officials came up with vehicle emissions testing. The tests began three years ago. Vehicles must be tested every two years at a cost of $20.

“Nobody really likes it,” Mr. Verst said. “It's a nuisance. But there is a Catch-22. When I think about the benefits and how it is helping the environment by cleaning the air, that's what concerns me most. If you take it away, what do you replace it with?”

Mr. Verst and other officials say that if emissions testing is eliminated, the federal government will withhold millions of dollars in money for highway and other projects.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet warned in 2000 that if the test were eliminated, $108 million in federal funds would be lost, said Parker Moore, a branch manager in the Kentucky Division of Air Quality in Frankfort.

Mr. Moore also said that based on information he has received from other state agencies, Northern Kentucky lost out on $100 million in federal money for road and sewer projects because it did not have an air quality improvement plan in place during most of the 1980s.

Mr. Moore said he did not have documentation of the projects that were not funded.

“But we've always considered sanctions likely because the federal government has told us we need to have an ozone reduction plan in place or that area would be subject to sanctions,” he said.

Mr. Verst also pointed to a letter written in 2000 by U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican, to Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery, who had inquired about the testing program.

Mr. Bunning wrote that he has been “long opposed” to the testing, but because it was mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “I am afraid that for now we are stuck with the current situation.”

Mr. Rogers said he does not believe the federal government will not follow through on its threats to withhold federal money. He said other states have flouted ozone reduction requirements, includi ng Pennsylvania and Minnesota, and they were not subject to sanctions.

He also points to Jefferson County. The Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation, signed into law by Gov. Paul Patton earlier this year, that abolishes that county's vehicle emissions test next October when the state's contract ends with the vendor administering the tests.

Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, voted for the bill and said he and other lawmakers believe that sanctions will not be levied against Jefferson County.

“The threat of sanctions is always there, but we haven't really seen that happen in any other states,” Mr. Westwood said. “It's somewhat of a gamble, but I don't think it's very likely that sanctions will ever happen.”

Mr. Rogers takes credit for getting rid of an earlier ver sion of a vehicle testing program that only lasted about a year in Northern Kentucky during the early 1980s. Through litigation, a public campaign and by building a coalition of area officials who opposed the testing, Mr. Rogers — who was county judge-executive from 1980-84 — claims he “axed tailpipe testing once before, and I can get it done again.”

Mr. Verst said all Mr. Rogers and the others did was delay the testing, which ultimately cost the area millions of dollars in federal money.

“Lloyd didn't ax a damn thing,” Mr. Verst said. “And if he says he did, then he isn't telling the truth.”

Mr. Roger stands by his story and maintains he will fight to have the tests eliminated by lobbying federal and state officials and by building public support against the tests.

“If Thomas Edison had taken the "It can't be done' approach when inventing the light bulb, we all would be as in the dark as the naysayers are to my promise to ax the tailpipe testing,” he said.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com

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