DORENA -- The Dorena-Hickman toll ferry resumed operations recently 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 on the toll ferry operation -- one of the few remaining riverboat ferries in the nation and the only operating ferry crossing the Mississippi River between Missouri and Kentucky.

"We're really pleased to have the ferry back in operation, and we plan to keep it floating for a long time this go around," Fulton County Judge-Executive Harold Garrison said Wednesday, when the ferry resumed operations.

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

The service will operate daily on a continuous basis, seven days per week year round, except for Christmas Day. The first crossing each day will be from the Hickman, Ky. landing at 7 a.m., and will leave the Missouri landing in Dorena for the final trip each day at 6:30 p.m. until Nov. 1, when it will change to a slightly shorter schedule by departing Missouri one hour earlier at 5:30 p.m.

During the operating hours, users will no longer have to wait for scheduled returns of the ferry, but can make use of the new electronic signaling system to call the ferry.

Ferry tolls are based on car-sized spaces starting at $8 per space for one-way trips, with return trips half price. Vehicles requiring additional space are sold in half-space increments. Smaller vehicles, pedestrians, bikers, equestrians, etc. have set minimum fares.

The vessel is regularly inspected and licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard, and the new ferry captain, Steve Stanionis, holds a Coast Guard Master Pilot License and has more than 20 years of waterways vessel operating experience.

The toll ferry closed Jan. 6, 1998, when former operator Kenneth Love said he couldn't make a profit under restrictions imposed by Missouri.

Missouri and Kentucky each contribute $75,000 a year to subsidize operating expenses, but under Missouri's original reimbursement restrictions, revenue generated by the ferry was deducted from expenses. Missouri has amended its restrictions to allow the port authority to keep half the revenue to use in operating the ferry.

While service was interrupted, work was done to improve the ferry and landing sites. New and longer loading ramps have been attached to the barge for loading and unloading vehicles, and electronic signals were installed.

"It used to be a two-hour wait for the ferry, but not anymore," Garrison said. "Now all you have to do is get out of your car and press the button on the new signaling device, on both sides, and the captain will know that you are there and come pick you up."

The Missouri Department of Transportation constructed a new concrete land ramp on its side, and Fulton County refurbished the Hickman landing.

Some information was provided by the Associated Press.