The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 17

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 1994 SECTION MO EDITOR: JIM SMITH, 768-8600 MetboStkte DUI bill Mark 'V-t i Purdy A I The Cincinnati EnquirerGlenn Hartong An aerial view of 1-75 looking north shows how the curve on Death Hill is being made less Cost overruns, work delays, traffic snarls created rough road for Kentucky, contractor targets repeats 4th conviction means felony record, prison BY DICK KIMMINS Enquirer Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio is getting tough on drunken drivers. As part of the legislature's election-year crime focus, a bill that would send more repeat DUI offenders to state prison appears headed into law. "The first obligation of government is to protect its citizens," the bill's author, state Sen. Betty Montgomery, R-Perrysburg, told an Ohio House committee last week. "And these people are playing Russian roulette with an automobile." The bill: Upgrades a fourth driving-un-der-the-influence conviction to a fourth-degree felony from a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

There would be no time restriction on previous DUI convictions. Current drunken driving law addresses four or more convictions only within the previous five years. The penalty for a fourth conviction would remain the same at least 60 days incarceration but in a state prison instead of a county jail. The vehicle driven by the offender would continue to be confiscated by law enforcement officials. The sentence for a felony conviction for a fourth DUI could not be reduced through parole, "good time" credits or early release.

Montgomery's bill passed the Senate 33-0, and the House Judiciary Committee started hearings on it Wednesday. "The public has a right to demand that these multiple repeat offenders will be treated as a felon," Montgomery told the panel. Enactment of Montgomery's bill would cost the state $7.3 million each year, and is opposed by Ohio's common pleas judges. That cost stems from the state's prison expense. Local government costs, however, could decline as multiple DUI cases are sent to a state court instead of municipal courts.

The state judicial lobby argues that enactment will pump more cases into already crowded dockets. The argument was ignored by the Senate. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Suster, D-Austintown, is considering an amendment to continue to allow misdemeanor-only municipal (Please see DUI, Page B6) be growing ades of production operations." The report describes dangers from aging equipment and buildings used to process substances and what it described as persistent "attitudinal problems" at plants when it comes to safety. "Overcoming these attitudinal hurdles is a continuing challenge to DOE," the board's report said. It added: "The board still hears claims that compliance (Please see FERNALD, Page B6) new depths severe.

ruisnn) Jilt Kdl i 9 The Cincinnati EnquirerGlenn Hartong Traffic backs up on the Mitchell Avenue ramp to northbound 1-75 as construction continues. I hi I 4 fa tsL Marines' taboo on tattoos gets under the skin When I pushed open the tattoo parlor door, Adam was busy. He was engraving a Great Gazoo on someone's chest. "Can I help you?" Adam asked. "No, it'll wait," I said.

I don't know much about tattoos. But I do know it's not a good idea to disturb anyone in the midst of a Great Gazoo. When Adam was finished, however, I did have a few questions for him. Such as: What the heck's a Great Gazoo? "He's that cartoon outer space guy on The Flintstones," said Adam. "Only Barney and Fred could see him? You know?" No, I didn't.

But I took his word for it. Cartoon characters are among the more popular tattoos these days. The Tasmanian Devil probably ranks No. 1. Yet out here at the Cincinnati Tattoo Studio a brightly lit place on Glenway Avenue in Price Hill almost anything goes.

If you want the Seven Dwarfs to be tattooed across your um, southern hemisphere, they'll do it. Adam's customer said he wanted the Great Gazoo because it was different and unique, but he wouldn't give his name. "A lot of this is real personal," explained Adam, who added in a friendly tone of voice that he didn't want his own last name used, either. "We have three guys in here who do the tattoo work, and we all just go by first names," saic) Adam. "It's just I don't want any customer coming to see me at home after he or she leaves here." Understandable.

When a customer buys a tattoo, there are no refunds and no exchange window. The design is done in permanent ink. That's the romance of tattoos. Isn't it? They still possess a vaguely illicit image. Not only that, but they are free of government interference.

Marines, tattoos don't mix Or are they? This was the true reason for my visit to Adam's place. I wanted to discuss a recent bizarre development. Earlier this month, a Marine Corps recruit from Dayton, Ohio, was kicked out of boot camp for apparently violating some sort of unwritten federal tattoo ordinance. Dylan Fogle was the recruit's name. The Marines dumped him because Fogle's shaved head featured two colorful tattoos.

One was a bird, over his left ear. The other one, the larger tattoo, was across the back of his head. It was a gargoyle. "In architecture, gargoyles were supposed to symbolically guard against evil," Fogle told a wire service reporter. Phooey, said the Marines, who some where along the way must have adopted a new "Don't Ask, Don't Gargoyle" policy.

The tattoos on Fogle's head were supposedly "inappropriate." Give me a break. This is no earth-shak-'ing issue, but what's our world coming to when a marine can't have a tattoo? And what comes next? Tattoo ratings? I'm sorry, sir, that tattoo is rated PG-13. We can give it to you because there are young children in your house. Not to worry, said Adam, who is 24 years old and was taught the tattoo art by his father. For one thing, it would be impos sible to enforce any laws about tattoos because the vast majority of them are hidden under normal daily clothing.

Secondly, tattoos are just too darn popular. Especially around here. Cincinnati is one of America's more tattoo-intensive towns. There are eight tattoo parlors listed in the Yellow Pages. By comparison, Adam said, Cleveland has only three.

A tattoo kind of town "Cincinnati is a big tattoo town, but it's a very quiet tattoo town," said Adam. "You'd be surprised who's tattooed in Cin cinnati. One regular customer here is a doc tor of chemistry, and he pretty much tattooed from head to toe. You'd never know it, though, because they're all hidden under his clothes. "Our biggest clientele, by far, is nurses," added Adam.

"If you had to pick one profession we see the most often, nurses would be it. They always have small stuff done roses, hearts and it's usually hidden under clothes. But I do remember doing one of the Tasmanian Devil with a doctor's bag and a huge hypodermic needle." Remind me not to have that nurse take my temperature. "I do have some rules," Adam stressed. "I'm not into satanic things and won't do them.

I'm not into anything that has to do with gangs. If you're drunk, I won't do the tattoo. And if you're under 18, 1 won't even let you through the front door. A tattooist with taste? Now there's an odd concept. On the other hand "I've also done one of Princess Diana na ked," Adam noted.

Would the Marines have banned that one? Adam laughed at the thought, then bandaged up the Great Gazoo and sent him out the door. done this year. The state also imposed financial consequences for being late. The company faces fines beginning April 1. That fine goes up to $5,000 daily after Dec.

31 if INCISA fails to meet the new deadline. However, the impact of the delay goes much further than the four years or $50 million the company has taken to rebuild 3 miles of expressway: At least a dozen people have lost their lives and countless others have crashed on the hill since the highway opened in 1963. Semi tractor-trailer trucks without business inside 1-275 have been detoured since 1986, when former Gov. Martha Layne Collins ordered them off the hill after a fiery nine-car pileup. Loss of business because of the project has not been calculated, but losses have accrued.

"It just takes longer to (Please see DEATH HILL, Page B4) Ohio's 1-75 projects on schedule, B5 Inside Eric Pitzer of Lakota works on his team's entry in Saturday's Odyssey of the Mind tournament at Miami University in Oxford. About 1,400 students from area schools competed. B2 Hebrew Union College has established an Academy for Adult Interfaith Studies. B2 Report: facility pose BY PAUL BARTON Enquirer Washington WASHINGTON board safety weapons plants the safety hazards the public might Fernald risks may Waste, aging danger Bureau A government charged with overseeing issues at nuclear says that although bomb-making is over, for workers and be just Reviewing wastes yet to be dealt with at Fernald and similar facilities nationwide, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a newly issued report: "These wastes and the untreated radioactive residues from the production processes may become more hazardous through time. Thus an increasing number of potential problems are surfacing, some of which may be greater in severity over time than those encountered in five dec BY JIM CALHOUN The Cincinnati Enquirer COVINGTON Four years and millions of dollars after it began, Kentucky remains mired in the biggest and most drawn-out road project in its history.

Rebuilding the steep, winding stretch of Interstate 75's "Death Hill" has fallen 17 months behind schedule and climbed at least $4 million above its original $46.5 million budget. Under threat of losing its contract, INCISA U.S.A. the Italian-owned company rebuilding the road, agreed last week to open the highway to traffic by mid-November, and finish all shoulder work and cleanup by Dec. 31. The announcement Friday by Kentucky Transportation Secretary Don Kelly ended several weeks of bickering between the company and the state.

INCISA wanted an extension to June, 1995, to finish the job. The state threatened to fire the company if it did not agree by Friday to get the job 1 The Cincinnati EnquirerRobin Christman Bowen takes Like a Japanese Zero shot down over the Pacific, the Democratic primary in the First Congressional District is trailing smoke and hurtling down toward the Marianas Trench of electoral politics. You knew it had to happen. Bill Bowen, a veteran of Statehouse politics, decides to take on a freshman incumbent, David Mann, in a family feud with themes that go back to the Roosevelt era. They are Democrats, after all and born to rumble.

Generally, the first tell-tale sign of a campaign's descent to the netherworld is when the candidates start squabbling over debates. Candidate always the challenger, accuses incumbent Candidate of hiding ostrich-like in the sand and issues a forthright challenge to debate, bare-knuckled and with no second in the corner, anywhere and anytime. Candidate not eager to give the opponent a forum, praises the concept of the free and frank exchange of views in the intellectual marketplace and then proclaims 3 Democratic Howard VVIIftlllSUIl Politics him- or herself too busy being a legislator, governor or whatever to commit to a long series of joint appearances. A firefight ensues; canisters of verbal shot explode harmlessly behind enemy lines; voters yawn and go about their business. Such a battle began last week when Bowen, inevitably, issued a debate challenge at least two joint appearances, organized by the Hamilton County Democratic Party through a committee with two Bowen supporters, two Mann supporters and one chosen by party chairman Tim Burke; Friday, Burke was trying to avoid being campaign to dragged into the mud pit; Mann's campaign was crying foul.

Bowen, they said, already had what he wanted: two debates in April. One will be on WVXU-FM radio and the other a joint appearance before the Hamilton County Democratic Forum, an issue-oriented group of activists. No good, sniffed Bowen at a news conference Friday outside the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, which, he implied, is where most everybody will end up if Mann stays in Congress. Two of Bowen's best buddies, Cincinnati Councilmen Tyrone Yates and Dwight Tillery, were on hand for the fun Friday; they howled mightily that the forum had imposed a draconian rule on Bowen he couldn't attack Mann's voting record. "What kind of debate is it if you can't talk about your opponent?" Tillery asked.

Good question; bad premise. The facts are complicated but boil down to this: Late last year, Bowen appeared to be a candidate, but on Jan. 8, he announced he he would run again for Ohio Senate instead. On Jan. 20, the forum had Mann in for a question-and-answer session.

Four days later, Bowen decided he was back in the First District race. Had Bowen been a candidate, forum organizers say, they would have asked him to appear with Mann. But wasn't. So they didn't. Then, Bowen decided he wanted his own one-man show before the forum, and forum organizers cut a deal.

Bowen could appear at the April meeting, to be followed the same night by a joint session with the candidates. The only rule, the forum said, was that Bowen would have to talk about himself and not Mann during his one-man show. He could do card tricks or sing Gilbert Sullivan, as long as he didn't attack Mann. Bowen agreed. So the show will go on, with Bowen's demand for more public debates still hanging fire.

Chances are, the forum will have to issue mud flaps at the door. Howard Wilkinson covers politics or The Enquirer. His column appears on Sunday. i 4 Mark Purdy 's column appears in The Enquirer on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday..