The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 7

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1988 SECTION A-7 DITOR: JAN LEACH, 369-1003 Cold weather comingA-8 Israeli teens visit A-8 ObituariesA-9 State newsA-9 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER lan to save Oldenburg school unveiled Jack Hicks Recruitment plans include making parish visits, increasing public relations and urging parents and students to recruit one-on-one with friends and acquaintances. Several committees were formed to handle areas including financial aid, recruitment and raising more money from alumni. Robert Kellison, executive director of development for ICA, (Please see OLDENBURG, Page A-8) clining enrollment and decreasing funds last month by announcing the school's closing. Friday, the general council endorsed a lay advisory board plan to keep the school open indefinitely, agreeing to eventually turn over financial and administrative power to that board. Major points of that plan: Tuition at ICA will rise to $1,500 from $1,025 in 1988-89, and rooming costs per student will rise to $1,800 from $1,700.

Recruitment goals would increase enrollment to 320 from the current 210. A $100,000 annual Sisters of St. Francis subsidy will be withdrawn after the 1988-89 academic year. It will be replaced by money generated through fund raising. This year's alumni fund raising generated $32,000 and the first year of a three-year fund drive has gathered pledges for $250,000 toward a $300,000 goal.

chairwoman of Supporters of the ICA, an alumni and parents group. "You've all said you'd help us. This is a beginning of the going forward Enthusiasm warmed a chilly ICA auditorium as its advisory board outlined the plan to boost enrollment by 50 and generate $100,000 annually for the girls' high school. The Sisters of St. Francis General Council, ICA's 15-mem-ber governing board, faced de BY LARALYN SASAKI The Cincinnati Enquirer OLDENBURG, Ind.

About 150 parents, teachers and students were told Sunday that tuition will increase 50 and recruiting will be expanded to save the 135-year-old Academy of the Immaculate Conception. But, the audience was told, success depends on them. "This meeting here is a beginning," declared Linda Seifert, Taste of the past Lack of snow makes winter bad business The guy looked a little shifty, but then 've never been one to judge a book by its even when addressed as, "Psstt! ley Mack!" This fellow, who stepped out of an alley ind kept looking over his shoulder, said lis name was Billy Bunko. In his briefcase, le related, were some stock certificates he said would make me rich. "I'm in the position to offer an outstanding deal, up to 1,000 shares in the Belly Slammer Sled for just $10 per share," Bunko said.

"Children's sleds are the soundest investment you can make. At some time in their life, every kid gets a sled for Christmas," he emphasized. "And you know how the little tykes like to trade up. If one kid in the neighborhood gets a Belly Slammer, the Edsel of sleds, all of his friends are going to want one just like it. Not opposed to profits "Why Santa delivers more Belly Slam-mers than he does jelly beans," Bunko Airport in need of funds mm.

Lvra attested. "Well I'm not opposed to making money. Just last week I bought a carload of 1987 calendars," I said, "but I don't know the first thing about children's sleds. It has been a long time since I stuck my tongue to a cold runner, and that hurt, as I remember." Undaunted, Bunko brought some other papers out of his briefcase, and offered me an unlimited partnership in a mine which produces road salt. "This is better than a license to steal," he asserted.

"Not every kid goes sled riding, but every city, county and state buys salt for their streets and highways. You couldn't be better off if it was raining soup and you had the world's only spoon." "Mmmmm, I don't know about I contemplated, but he cut me off and whipped out yet another piece of paper. "Now here's a real deal for a sharp cookie, which I can tell you are," he said. "It's a franchise for a Drift Dodger Snowmobile dealership. You can be the only Drift Dodger dealer in Silver Grove, Bunko maintained.

This was all too good to be true. What a portfolio! Bunko gave me a lift to my bank and waited outside in his 1942 Buick while I withdrew my life savings. Quickly I BY IRENE WRIGHT The Cincinnati Enquirer FAIRFIELD, Ohio The Hamilton-Fairfield Airport, vital to Butler County's economic development, is in need of $11 million in improvements to help it soar to greater heights. Located on Bobmeyer Road, the 255-acre public airport is considered "an airport in transition," according to airport consultant Gerry Bandy, of G.R. Bandy Associates Cincinnati.

It had been a privately owned operation -until Hamilton, Fairfield and Butler County officials bought the airport in September, 1984, with primarily federal funds. The newly established Butler County Airport Authority became owner, and the government entities agreed to provide a percentage of the capital costs. About $11 million in federal funds for various improvements isneeded over the next five years for the airport to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. "It's a very strong maybe," said Bandy. "Nationally, the airport's on the cutting edge of priority." It's been designated a reliever airport in the event of overcrowding at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport.

But local money is needed to assure federal funds. The estimated 10 share will be discussed in upcoming weeks with Hamilton and Fairfield councils and Butler County Commissioners. The critical issue is a proposed five-year extension of an agreement with the government entities that expires in May. It comes down to a 25 share for Butler County, and 37.5 share each for Hamilton and Fairfield. "We roughly estimate the federal government's share of the proposed improvements at $9.8 million, and the state's about $300,000," said Bob Arthur, representative of the Butler County Airport Authority.

"The local agencies would share about $800,000 over five years." Even though improvements were made in the past four years such as repaving (Please see AIRPORT, Page A-8) The Cincinnati EnquirerAnnalisa Kraft They pushed back the clock Sunday at Paint Creek State Park near Hillsboro for Maple Sugaring Days. After tapping trees to collect the syrup, volunteers, top, boil it down over an open fire. Then Ted Rhodes, above left, and Barb Rolfe test the finished product. Right, Mark Washburn, 9, of Rainsboro, Ohio, enjoys his syrup over some pancakes. Urbanizing Boone County signed some papers, Bunko had my $1,500 and was gone.

AH I have to do now, I guess, is sit back and pray for snow, and begin adding my profits. You know, that guy Bunko looked kind of familiar, as though I'd seen him, or maybe his picture before. Could it have been in the Post Office? We're spoofing, of course, but anybody who has depended upon selling sleds, road salt, snowmobiles and such around here the last couple of years may be thinking about another line of work. The past two winters we've had a grand total of 25 inches of snow, and it seems like much less. This year's snowfall, according to Jim Dill, weather specialist for the U.S.

Weather Service at Greater Cincinnati International Airport, has been 9.3 inches. We had 2.8 inches on Feb. 11; 2 inches on Jan. 25-26, and 1 inch on Jan. 7.

Other measurements have been too meager for about anyone but the record-keepers to notice. Last winter season we had 15.9 inches, and two-thirds of that fell the last couple days of March and the first few of April. This hasn't been the place for snow-related fun or products. "I bought six sleds for my kids, and they've gotten to use them one day this year," said Debbie McGuire, a clerk at Children's Palace in Florence. Employee is best buyer "The sale of sleds has been lousy," declared John Baer, the store manager.

His own employee, McGuire, has probably been the store's best sled buyer this year, Survey questioned by local experts Area not among healthiest cities Land developers buying the farms for subdivisions BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS The Cincinnati Enquirer Where there once were cows and crops, there are now subdivisions and shops. As rapidly growing Boone County changes from a primarily rural county to a more urban one, more and more of the county's farmland is being gobbled up by developers for commercial, industrial and residential projects. The number of county farms has been declining gradually since the early 1900's. There were 1,540 farms in the county in 1909.

By 1982, there were 962. In 1950, all of Boone County's 13,015 residents lived in rural areas. By 1980 the county's population had grown to 45,842 residents with 19,166, or 42, living in urban areas, and the other 26,676, or 58, living in rural areas. "This rapid population growth has been gradually reducing the available farm Boone county farms I moo i I i i i y160 1800- Thousands of acresj :150 iH i3 1000- Number of farms mmmm 1 1 iiHioo Itbg 1919 13 1949 1959 1 969 1979 Both the number of farms and fjf I -l acreagecufflvaj TKecky farms 300000 I I I I a I "a I Millions of acres 200000- i 1 I 100000- SSs! I Number of farms Nfc 16 1 0j I i i i I 1930 1940 19S0 1960 1970 1980 1987 1 Source: Kentucky Agricultural Statistics Service 1 accidents and access to doctors. Researcher Joan Starker, a Portland, social worker, said that Cincinnati didn't do well on air quality, ragweedpollen counts, access to the outdoors really nothing wrong with it, you're just competing with cancer rates, or access to doctors.

Richard Remmy, the executive director of the Cincinnati chapter of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, said many of the cities chosen were also places with heavy ragweed and pollen. "I don't see how our ragweed or pollen count would be worse than Pittsburgh or Scranton," he said. Dr. David Kirlin, a cancer specialist with Bethesda Hospitals, said Cincinnati's cancer rates were about average for an urban city. City Health Commissioner Dr.

Stanley Broadnax said that studies like that shouldn't be taken too seriously, and he questioned the data examined. BY ELIZABETH NEUS The Cincinnati Enquirer Local health experts are surprised more by some of the cities that were named in a new survey as the healthiest in the country than by the fact that Cincinnati wasn't. Two Oregon researchers, writing in this month's Health magazine, surveyed 50 U.S. metropolitan areas to find those that encouraged healthy habits and were easy places for residents to stay healthy. Cincinnati ranked somewhere in the middle the researchers didn't rank cities that fell below the top 10.

The researchers list the healthiest cities as Richmond, Boston; Honolulu; Milwaukee; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Rochester, N.Y.; Scran-tonWilkes-Barre, Greensboro, N.C.; Pittsburgh; and Seattle. They looked at such things as no-smoking laws, air quality (including ragweed and pollen levels), access to recreational areas, cancer rates, crime rates, the number of traffic Normally, the Greater Cincinnati area gets 22 inches of snow a year. That's not exactly the Arctic tundra. Rochester, N.Y., averages more than 89 inches, for instance.

It wasn't so long ago, though, that selling sleds, snowmobiles and road salt here was a pretty good deal. In the four winters, 1976-77 through 1979-80, the snowfall was 47.3, 53.9, 30.6 and 30.1 inches respectively. In 1984-85 we had 32.5 inches. Snowfall is tougher to predict than the business climate, Dill notes, and when people ask if it's time to put away their snow plows, he suggests they wait until mid-April. Jack Hicks is Kentucky columnist for The Enquirer.

land, county planners say in the latest Boone County Comprehensive Plan. Rezoning by the Boone Coun- (Please see BOONE, Page A-8) I The Cincinnati EnquirerJerry Dowling.