The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 9

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER METRO Tomorrow: Report on racism City officials announce findings of a panel led by former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan that examined allegations of racism in the Cincinnati Police Division. Section Your Town 3 Obituaries. 4 Business 7 Editor: Jim Smith, 768-8600 Wednesday August 2, 1995 EE rywT. 1 'KmjiWMi CLIFF RADEL Genius at work, or just CHEAP shot? Air-quality violation avoided BY TIM BONFIELD The Cincinnati Enquirer Thunderstorms on Tuesday spared the Tristate from another smog violation, but weather statistics show that Greater Cincinnati's dirty summer air is no act of God.

The air-quality index peaked Tuesday at 98 in Lebanon, just two points shy of unhealthy levels. With more 90-degree weather expected today, a smog alert remained in effect. i A J' A 1 i I A 4- I i- tSmogl alert Air quality reached unhealthy levels on five days this year (July 12, The Cincinnati EnquirerPaincn Reaay A van rolls through heavy rain and high wind on Winton Road just south of Interstate 275 in Forest Park. Tuesday afternoon storms knocked out electricity in more than 20 communities, including Forest Park and North College Hill. Cincinnati's hottest days Number of days 90 degrees or higher during the months of June, July and August.

13, 14, 30 and 31), according to the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services. The readings were so bad July 14 that the area racked up the fourth violation of federal air-quality standards in three years. The violations could prompt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to change Cincinnati's designation from a moderate to a serious pollution area a move that could cost the local economy $112 million a year, according to a study commissioned by Cincinnati Gas Electric Co. The threat of an EPA crackdown prompted Ohio Gov.

George Voino-vich to write a letter July 18 asking that the area be given a break. "U.S. EPA has in the past considered the need for a policy addressing the impact of extreme weather patterns on air-quality attainment," Voinovich wrote. "I believe that the unusually high temperatures of (Please see AIR, Page B6) in Lnri I 13 I Hi 5 I Ml ii 14 1 1 i i 0B0 Mum HUO BMB A A I A A 1992 1993 1994 1995 A Ja tl, Source National Weather Service 10 date A tractor-trailer rig is stopped by a flooded underpass on Glendale-Milford Road, east The Cincinnati Enquirerbowiing' Onio 4-Rain als0 resulted in fender-benders that snarled traffic on 1-71 and I-75. Neighborhoods unite for 'Night Out9 Be careful when you open your voice mail.

You might get run over by a car. "I hope your car breaks down in the fast lane of 1-71," growled Bob Warner of Sycamore Township. "When you try to run across the lanes, I'll run you down." Appreciate the call, Bob. And, thanks for driving offensively. Warner called to say how ticked off he was about my July 28 "CHEAP" column.

He's against the penny-on-a-dollar increase in the sales tax to build two new riverfront stadiums. I'm for it and said so in the column. He supports Tim Mara's anti-tax group, Citizens for Choice in Taxation. To me, Mara's pilgrims are a bunch of shortsighted pinch pennies who deserve to go by the acronym CHEAP. That word and the column set off a firestorm of voice mail, faxes and letters.

So far with the votes still coming in the tally is running dead even. Fifty percent think I'm a genius with 2020 foresight for backing the tax while attacking the Cincinnati character flaw of SOS Scared Of Success. The other 50 percent think I don't have a brain in my head. Put 'em up "CHEAP" is a fighting word in Cincinnati. One female caller was "greatly offended" by my use of this word.

She then unleashed a string of words quite a few in the four-letter range that many would deem offensive. "We're not cheapies," protested Mary Lou Fike, a Citizens for Choice member from Madeira. "We don't sit on every penny. We just want to vote on taxes." Don Kleier of Cheviot begged to differ. "They are cheapies," he insisted.

"They are afraid to make Cincinnati greater." Arguing via fax from his downtown office, Joseph G. Carr wrote: "If you choose to label their position as I think I am entitled to label yours as Anyone who argues that building separate stadiums with tax dollars will revitalize the Countering the CRAPSTER vote, Robert E. Lewis faxed these words of encouragement from Springfield Township: "Do not let these people who are acting like ostriches or Chicken Littles get away with it! Show them how stupid they are." Lewis was not offended by seeing CHEAP in a family newspaper. Bob Steele of Madeira was. "You can't call people 'cheap' and 'penny he admonished.

"That's an ad hominem attack." Refraining from calling Steele a bone-head or a nincompoop that would be an ad hominem attack and figuring he was an intellectual guy, since he can use "ad hominem" in a sentence, I asked about his reading habits. He said he reads only the New York Times "I've never seen such writing in the Times" "and the sports section and obituaries of The Enquirer. The last time I checked, my column appears neither in the Times nor The Enquirer's obit or sports sections. So, I can only assume Steele stumbled upon me after running out of reading material in the smallest room of his house. Money, honey "You were right on the money," said John Davies of Sycamore Township.

Do I hear a second on that motion? "You were right on the money," said a TV news anchor whose "professional circumstances prevent me from saying so in writing. Peace." Courage, Mr. Anchorman. Bob Stevens called from Price Hill to say he would never vote for a stadium tax that builds a new home for the Bengals Mike Brown has the personality of a plugged-up pay toilet." I have encountered plugged-up pay toilets. I recently spent two weekssfiatlow-ing Mike Brown for a personality profile.

Believe me, he is no pay toilet, plugged-up or free-flowing. "If Tim Mara had been around, he probably would have been against the building of the Suspension Bridge, Union Terminal and Fountain Square," wrote Paul Quarry from his downtown office. He added: "If you want to organize an anti-Tim Mara group, count me in!" Petitions will soon be available at an interstate exit ramp near you. "You are a Communist, dude," muttered George "Duke" Campbell of Madi-sonville. "This tax is wrong.

The devil will get you for this." Not if Bob Warner's car gets me first. Cliff Radel's column appears in The Enquirer Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Call 768-8379 or fax at 768-8340. music. Block parties also were held at District 2 police headquarters on Erie Avenue and in the 1200 block of Westminister Drive in Paddock Hills.

In the Covedale area of Price Hill, residents turned on outside lights and sat on their porches to thwart a recent rash of thefts from parked cars. Said Reinhart: "This is an opportunity for neighbors to get together and talk about crime and how they can watch out for each other." tional Crime Prevention Council was designed to heighten crime prevention awareness within local communities and generate support for Blockwatch programs. The program asks residents to turn on outside lights and hold neighborhood activities to demonstrate their unity in deterring crime. Other National Night Out activities Tuesday night included a cookout in Washington Square Park in Over-the-Rhine, where about 150 enjoyed free food and borhood awareness probably is at least partly responsible for the neighborhood's low burglary rate. "They're close.

People call us (when they notice something suspicious)," Reinhart said. Just last week, Reinhart said, two residents called about a suspicious man going door to door looking for work. The responding officer thought the man was casing the neighborhood, he said. The National Night Out program organized by the Na said Cain, who was one of two dozen residents attending a neighborhood cookout during the 12th annual "National Night Out" activities on Morrison Avenue in his neighborhood. The cookout helps bring the neighborhood together so everybody knows their neighbors, Cain said.

"We know when someone belongs in the neighborhood," he said. District 5 Police Officer David Reinhart said this kind of neigh Activities stress being alert as way to prevent crime BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS The Cincinnati Enquirer There's no better weapon for thwarting neighborhood crime than an alert, caring neighbor, Clifton resident Gordon T. Cain said Tuesday night. "The best crime prevention tool is a good nosy neighbor," Wounded girl beats heat with air care BY ADAM WEINTRAUB The Cincinnati Enquirer More than a dozen Tristate residents stepped forward Tuesday with offers of air conditioning to help a wounded girl who's on the mend in a hot Over-the-Rhine apartment.

Many had a window unit stashed in the garage or basement and saw the chance to put Fairmount slaying captured in video Neighbor shot trying to intercede in dispute 4 A If. I Police think Blankenship, 24, who lived down the street in the 1500 block of Tremont, was struck four times about 3:45 a.m. A witness said anoth-e bullet BY ADAM WEINTRAUB The Cincinnati Enquirer The eye of a security camera on the front porch of Charles Cole's home captured every moment Tuesday morning as he raised a 9mm pistol and shot Charles Kevin Blankenship to death, police said. Then, as the videotape continued to roll inside Cole's apartment, he sat down on the porch of the building in the 1600 block of Tre-mont in Fairmount and waited until rescue workers arrived, according to investigators. "It's pretty dramatic to actually see somebody being killed," said Lt.

Greg Snider of the Cincinnati Police Division's homicide unit. "The sound quality isn't very good, but you can clearly see what's going on." Cole, 44, is charged with murder. He is scheduled for arraignment at 9 a.m. today in Hamilton County Municipal Court. The Cincinnati EnquirerErnest Coleman A new air conditioner provides some relief Tuesday to Dominique Lester, 10, recuperating from a gunshot wound.

Blankenship skipped oil a 1988 photo van parked nearby on the street. The 9mm semiautomatic was recovered on the porch. Another gun, a revolver belonging to Cole, was found in a nearby trash can, Snider said. Neighbors said Blankenship tried to intercede in a dispute between Cole and a tenant in the building. Cole armed himself and renewed the quarrel.

Police con-please see SLAYING, Page B6) it to good use cooling the living room where 10-year-old Dominique Lester is recovering from a gunshot, her left leg wrapped hip-to-ankle in a cast. The Enquirer reported her discomfort and her mother's plea for relief Tuesday. But others had deeper reasons. Tuesday was a birthday for Douglas Whittenburg's daughter, who's just a little older than Dominique. "I started thinking, 'I'm pretty said Whitten-burg, president of McClain Comfort Systems in Norwood.

Recent headlines have depressed Whittenburg, with tales of after-curfew shootings, children dumped in ditches and drowned in car seats. "It seems like there's always awful stuff being done to chil- "I'm pulling out this old window unit from a vacant house and taking it down to St. John," said one man, an east-side real estate agent who asked not to be identified. "We didn't have central air when I lived on the East Coast," said Theresa Gill of Anderson Township. "I've got two old air conditioners, and somebody should get some use out of them." Donations of fans and air conditioners are being accepted by: St.

John Social Service Center, 121 E. 13th 241-2186; and St. Raphael Social Service Center, 233 Dayton Hamilton, (513) 893-1370. dren," he said. "And by the time we read about them, it's always too late.

I read that story, and it seemed like there was finally something I could do." He bought a small window-mounted air conditioner and sent a crew out to the 500 block of 13th Street to install it. By 4 p.m., it was pumping cool air across Dominique's bed. "Send a thank-you note from me to them," said Toya Green, Dominique's mother. The good intentions of other callers won't go to waste. Several said they would donate their old air conditioners to the St.

John Social Service Center, which will pass them along to other families in need. Women to be honored Two Cincinnatians will be among the women honored as Ohio marks the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote and hold elected office. Story, B5. Maternity discharges An Ohio lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would require health insurers to pay for two maternity days in the hospital and up to three home nursing visits after delivering a normal baby. Story, B5.

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