The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 5

EDITOR: KERRY KLUMPE, 369-1003 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER MONDAY, JULY 11, 1988 METRO A-5 Jackson plans visitA-6 Norwood families burned outA-6 State newsA-7 ObituariesA-7 Cooler week ahead for Tristate Rohrer Trees drained by drought BY STEVE HOFFMAN The Cincinnati Enquirer Much of the Tristate got its first taste of July rain early Sunday, but it brought little relief, Following a record-tying 103 Saturday, matching a mark set in 1936, temperatures reached a high of 97 Sunday. The low was 71 Sunday morning. The National Weather Service said the early morning rain totaled .32 of an inch at the Northern Kentucky airport. Some Tristate communities received little or no rain, while several others reported a pre-dawn drenching. The precipitation brought somewhat cooler temperatures, and the possibility of more rain Sunday night and today.

It advanced the year's total to 18.21 inches, 4.44 inches below the normal rainfall for a similar period. But the weekend heat has not negatively affected the quality of Cincinnati air, according to the Southwestern Ohio Air Pollution Agency. It reported an 85, or moderate reading, Sunday at 4 p.m., which is better than minimum clean air standards and an im provement over Saturday's 95 reading. For today, the weather bureau is predicting a 50 chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms and a high of 85. It called for a 40 chance of showers tonight with partly cloudy skies and a low of 65 to 70.

The rain chances for Tuesday's All-Star Game have dropped to 30, with the weather service predicting partly cloudy skies and a high of 80 to 85. The Free StoreFood Bank was closed during the weekend, but delivered 35 air conditioners to needy people with life-threatening illnesses, according to Helen Francis, assistant director. Steve Gibbs, Free Store director, said the supply of fans, which is being purchased with cash gifts, "is barely adequate." Gibbs said Central Hardware and Rohs Hardware in Over-the-Rhine are providing fans at their costs "which allows us to increase the numbers we give out by 30." During the past month, 450 fans have been given to people at least 55 years old or who have medical problems, including pregnancy, Gibbs said. BY STEVE HOFFMAN and PEGGY LANE The Cincinnati Enquirer For Paul Garbon of Westwood, the drought hit home early Sunday morning- As Garbon, 31 and his wife, Nancy, 35, walked across the front yard of their Cheviot Avenue home, three branches fell from a large tulip poplar tree and nearly struck the couple. Garbon, a Cincinnati firefighter, said the largest branch was more than 20 inches in diameter, the other two about 10 inches each.

"It was like a chain reaction," he said. The tree is estimated to be more than 100 years old, and is about 80 feet tall. "We were walking under the tree when we heard strange popping, like Garbon said. "If we hadn't tips on enjoying the Some in Mason call road plan a double-cross MASON, Ohio City Hall confrontations can be a little more intense, a little more personal in small towns. Mason's bureaucratic apparatus isn't spread over a dozen imposing buildings.

The people behind the name plaques in council chambers are neighbors. And a promise is a promise "It's a double-cross," former Mason Councilman Chuck Beatty says. "What has it come to when council votes on a course of action and then goes back on its word?" The object of Beatty's anger is the proposed location of a new entrance to Corwin Nixon Park (formerly Pine Hill Lake). There is now only one entrance, off Kings Mills Road. The city wants a second entrance off Mason-Montgomery Road, in part to further development of the park, in part because various grants obtained for park development call for a second entrance.

Vote was 4-3 Aug. 11, 1986, Russ Bowen approached council and asked about the Mason-Montgomery Road entrance. He was buying a house there, he said, and would not go through with the deal if council was going to take his land or his driveway for the entrance or put it next to his land. Council voted, 4-3, not to do that. And there's the rub.

What exactly did council agree to? "Apparently there is some feeling that we agreed never to consider that location as an entrance," Mayor Lou Eves says. I remember is that we agreed not to use Bowen's land or driveway for an entrance. And we will not do that." City Manager Tom Moeller agrees. "The entrance will be on Mason High School property, then weave in a gentle S-curve onto other property," he says. "We did it that way to avoid the Bowen land.

And if he is worried about the entrance being so close, we can landscape it and do other things to block it off." "There is not going to be any huge amount of traffic," Eves says. "We also agreed to move his septic system leach lines if we have to." But Beatty isn't buying it. "I was on council then, and I made the motion in 1986," Beatty says. "Where are our values when we tell the man to go ahead, then come back less than two years later and double-cross him?" Finding entrance not easy Two members of council voted against the Mason-Montgomery Road entrance, in part because of the promise of two years ago. But, Moeller says, finding a suitable park entrance has been no easy task.

"At one time, there were six or seven possible entrances being studied," he says. "But upon investigation, all the other possibilities were either too expensive or wouldn't work for various reasons. That's why it always came back to this one." The city and the school district worked a deal to allow the new entrance to begin on school land. In exchange for school land, the city has agreed to donate $30,000 in services or materials to the school district. "We would like to settle this peacefully," Eves says.

"We don't want to cause a hardship to anyone. But sometimes, things do have to be done by the city that may cause an inconvenience to individuals." Beatty says: "We voted to drop that whole area as a potential park entrance. The man made improvements to his property. Then they come back and put the park entrance right next to him. Increased participation "That's precisely why he went to them first, before he even bought the land.

He took the time to get involved. "And now this happens. It stinks." Eves is sympathetic, but he's convinced the city has not breached any promise made to Bowen, who was unavailable for comment. One thing about controversies in a small town they tend to increase the level of citizen participation in government. Eves knows it.

He first became interested in city government in 1972 after his restaurant burned to the ground and he learned, to his amazement, that although the restaurant was inside the city, the Mason Fire Department was not responsible to respond first. He got that one straightened out. Jim Rohrer is a columnist for The moved, it would have landed on top of us." The force of the falling limbs pulled incoming electrical wiring out from the side of the home and damaged the nearby sidewalk. Local tree experts say this summer's drought, following several bad droughts and mild Decembers in the last five to seven years, has contributed to extreme stress on trees, causing breakage, disease and death among older trees. Ed Butcher, owner of Madison Tree Service in Madisonville, said that in his 42 years in the business he has seen trees dying at an unprecedented rate.

He is the only consulting arborist in the area. "If the drought does not break soon, we will see a lot of mature, old trees (Please see TREES, Page A-6) Boone jail makes $50,000 State, U.S. pay to house prisoners WILLIAM A. WEATHERS The Cincinnati Enquirer BURLINGTON, Ky. Jails aren't usually expected to be money-makers, but drawing state and federal prisoners has made the Boone County Detention Center an exception.

After 6Vi years of operating in the red, "We made a profit this year," Boone County Jailer John Schickel said. "We ended up the (1987-1988 fiscal) year with a $50,000 surplus." The profit is the first in the history of the 104-bed jail, which opened in 1982. "I can't take all the credit for it," Schickel said, noting that his predecessors, former county jailers Russell Luck 'and his wife, Jane, had worked toward that goal. "It was planned this way when the jail opened in 1982." The idea from the beginning was that the jail would have enough extra beds to allow room for state and federal prisoners, Schickel, elected jailer in November, said. The state pays county jails $16 a day to house state prisoners, and the county collects $31 a day for federal prisoners.

Thursday, the jail had 29 federal prisoners, 21 state prisoners and 49 county prisoners. Boone Judge-Executive Bruce Ferguson said the jail was built to rigid specifications to entice the state and federal government to consider it for the temporary placement of their overflow prisoners. "We believed it could be self-sustaining when we went into it," Ferguson said. Another reason the jail has become self-supporting is the success of its State Community Service Program, Schickel said. Some of the state prisoners in the program have been assigned kitchen and janitorial duties at the jail.

That eliminates the need to hire outside help, Schickel said. (Please see BOONE, Page A-6) Tank location may be studied BY SCOTT THURM Louisville Courier-Journal For 43 years the fuel tanks on school buses have been bolted to the right side of the chassis, just behind the right-front door. The choice was largely a matter of intuition: School officials and bus manufacturers thought the tank would be too vulnerable to collision at the front, back or left side of a bus. Indeed, an analysis by the Courier-Journal of accident statistics from six states indicates that school buses are struck least often in the forward portion of the right side. But officials have never studied whether that is the best tank location even (Please see TANK, Page A-6) The Cincinnati EnquirerClay Owen These autograph seekers (bhuck Tolliver of Detroit, left, Greg Douglas of Madeira, center, and his cousin Jeff Douglas of Loveland, right, staked out the lobby of the Terrace Hilton on Sunday afternoon.

The Douglases also collected autographs in the parking garage of Riverfront Stadium. Autograph hounds dog All-Stars Hotels, stadium bristling with hopeful youngsters bearing pens -Mm Tuesday: Crosiey Field III dedication in Blue Ash. Riverfront All-Star Game. 32 BY KELLY LEWIS The Cincinnati Enquirer After staking out hotel lobbies for a few hours, it is easy to spot an All-Star. Just ask Ben Schmidt of Park Hills, a veteran, 11-year-old autograph-seeker.

"Most of them have straight hair," he said. "They wear California-type clothes." Ben and his cousin Jamie Grainger, 11, of Ontario, Canada, were among the dozen or so young autograph hounds Sunday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown. In three hours, Schmidt and Grainger had had their picture taken with Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. They got his vr But retired 10-time The stay at York Oakland's autograph, too. 14, had scored a big zip by late Sunday.

They struck out getting Old-Timer autographs after paying $3 each to get inside the baseball memorabilia show at Music Hall. "The lines were too long," Comisar said. Jeff Douglas, 14, of Loveland had better luck getting autographs in the parking garage of Riverfront Stadium. He and his cousin Greg Douglas, 12, of Madeira had autographs from Cincinnati Reds Chris Sabo, John Franco and Paul O'Neill. Not everyone was lucky.

Indian Hill youths Jason Comisar, 13, and Scott Tomsick, Schmidt said he was really waiting for Steve Garvey, San Diego Padre and a All-Star player. cousins said they would the Hyatt until they received autographs from New Yankee Don Mattingly and Jose Canseco. Tougher school bus standards coming cy doors. At least not since 1972, when I came here. There has been some discussion of roof hatches, but only one man brought it up and nobody else (on the specifications committee) was in favor of that." Corky Regenbogen, a Boone County school official, said, "I've brought up roof hatches every year for the past three years, but I've pretty much stood alone." He said, however, that he favors roof hatches as much for ventilation as for an additional escape route.

In the past, federal rule-makers and a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Education have said that additional emergency exits would be counterproductive on school buses because children would play with them. But school transportation officials in the six states that require additional exits said they have had no problem with that. emergency exits, gas tank placement and protection, and flammability of seats. The NHTSA, which sets federal safety standards for new vehicles, is reviewing its regulations for school buses. Interior materials and exits likely will get the closest scrutiny, said Barry Felrice, associate administrator for rule-making.

Also, the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major accidents, may have a hearing next month in Kentucky. The board is considering additional safety recommendations for a report to be completed next year. In the fall, Kentucky state and local school officials also will test a fire-retar-dant seat cover that may be required on school buses. "Until now," said Sam Jackson, Kentucky's assistant director of pupil transportation, "we never have discussed push-out windows or additional emergen BY SCOTT THURM and HUNT HELM The Courier-Journal The Kentucky Board of Education will be asked this week to order stronger emergency exit requirements two push-out windows on all new conventional school buses. Meanwhile, recommendations for stronger federal standards for school buses are expected by the end of the year, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spokesman.

These moves follow the May 14 collision of a pick-up truck and a church bus on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Ky. As fire quickly spread from the front of the bus, 27 people, unable to reach the rear exit, perished on board. The fire and death toll raised several questions about bus safety regarding 7.