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The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 88

Location:
Cincinnati, Ohio
Issue Date:
Page:
88
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

the Cincinnati enquirer METRO Tomorrow: Profitable partings i It's not unusual for Dublic emDlovees to leave their Section Your Town 3 Obituaries 8 Business ..10 jobs with tens of thousands of dollars in accrued vacation time, an Enquirer investigation found. Editor: Jim Smith, 768-8600 Saturday September 30, 1995 TMO JWDSfiS (al can be. sultant. While both organizations deny they are connected financially or otherwise, an opposing coalition of cable companies says that strains credibility. When former state Sen.

William Bowen of Cincinnati, now a lobbyist, announced the formation of the Ohio Universal Service Alliance (Ohio USA) in August, both Bowen and Cincinnati Bell denied any connection between the $1 billion phone company and the organization that shares its goal of controlling the way CBT's closed market is opened to competitors. But nestled away in a luxury apartment community in north Columbus there is a connection. It is the home of Roy Steinfort of the Strategic Alliances Group, a division of the New York-based public relations firm Robinson, Lake, Sawyer, Miller. Steinfort recently was hired to represent CBT as the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio works out the rules and regula- But Cincinnati Bell consultant shares office BY CHRISTOPHER DAVEY Enquirer Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS, Ohio A grass-roots organization concerned about competition for local telephone business shares its address with Cincinnati Bell Telephone Columbus con tions that will be implemented in the next year when local phone monopolies statewide are opened to competition. The commission in August granted a certificate to Time Warner Communications to offer local phone service in CBT's area and elsewhere in the state.

The commission's action opened the battle for control of Ohio's $2 billion-a-year local phone market, and the mysteries surrounding Ohio USA illustrate just how complicated that battle Steinfort's apartment at 42 Sanctuary Village Drive in Columbus is also the office listed for Ohio USA on Bowen's lobbyist disclosure form filed with the Ohio Legislative Ethics Committee. Milton Benjamin, who oversees the Columbus office of the Strategic Alliances Group from Washington, D.C., said he has (Please see PHONE, Page C9) KRISTA RAMSEY 1,1 1 11 Dog named Hope gives us all some All of Cincinnati is mourning Benny, the golden retriever shot in the face by two boys. This story, however, is about a dog named Hope. It was a hard-earned name. Last spring, the German shepherd was found in a ditch near Trenton, Ohio.

Her front left leg and right paw were mangled, her tail a ragged mess. Her injuries were probably caused by an encounter with farm machinery, or a paw that stuck fast as she crossed a railroad track. Gangrene had set in. She was one nasty sight. The man who rescued her called the only person he knew who would take on such a hopeless case.

Sheelah Parker Rebuilding East End Westwood store owner kills robber Bloody and beaten man grabs revolver sek 1 fl Uh-wtr -R iff" The Cincinnati EnquirerGar Landers New Lewiston Townhomes are nestled in among 100-year-old buildings along Eastern Avenue in the East End. Squabbles that began years ago about development continue to tear at the neighborhood today. Old meets new along the river Development has torn the neighborhood apart BY ADAM WEINTRAUB The Cincinnati Enquirer Dwayne Handy was a regular customer at Bob's Grocery in Westwood, but he never got the sandwich he ordered Friday. As owner Delmas Joe Penley turned away from the counter Handy attacked Penley, beating him in the head with a blunt object, police said. But Penley was a tough customer, too.

Bleeding from head wounds, Penley got to the revolver he kept at the store and turned the tables, firing two shots, police said. Nearly three hours later, a police SWAT team moved into the store and found Handy dead in a narrow aisle behind the meat counter, a bloody wad of cash in his hand, said Police Chief Michael Snowden. Homicide investigators said Handy had been shot twice in the left side of the abdomen. "It was obvious that he had been deceased for quite some time," Snowden said. Police knew that Handy might have been wounded in the conflict around 9:45 a.m.

in the store at 2614 Harrison, but delayed their entry because they knew there was at least one more weapon inside the store, Snowden said. Penley's wounds were not life-threatening the 66-year-old Madeira man was treated at University Hospital and released. But his injuries looked plenty serious to Anthony Braunskill, a security officer with Ohio Public Safety Patrol who was driving by as Penley stumbled outside. "I saw the man waving at first I thought he was just waving at cars then I looked back and saw he was covered in blood and waving a gun," Braunskill said. "His left eye was filled with blood and he had a big gash on his head." Braunskill of Lincoln Heights calmed Penley down and talked him into putting down the pistol, then cautiously looked inside.

"I called twice for the suspects to come out and there was no response, and that was when the (Cincinnati) motorcycle officer pulled up." Mike Rollison of Westwood, who also works at the store, said he wasn't surprised Penley resisted a robbery attempt. "A few years ago there was another robbery, and there were pellet holes in the ceiling from where the shotgun went off while Joe was grabbing it," Rollison said. SWAT team members entered the store around 12:15 p.m., and sent in police dog Argus with an officer seven minutes later. Within minutes, investigators had confirmed that Handy was dead. No address was available for Handy, 34.

The investigation of the shooting will be completed by the homicide unit and submitted to the prosecuting attorney's office, Snowden said. The Cincinnati EnquirerGary Green Robbie Deaton of Newport works on drywall in condos along the 2100 block of Eastern Avenue. Developers like the neighborhood for its views. BY ALLEN HOWARD The Cincinnati Enquirer Eastern Avenue looks and sounds different to Betty Burns as she nears the end of her two-year reign as president of East End Area Council. Her tenure has been marked by sniping between residents and nonresidents about what kind of housing development should take place along the eastern riverfront.

Longtime East Enders favor the ubiquitous 100-year-old buildings. There is a certain quality in longevity that cannot be replaced by bricks and mortar, they say. Burns shares a piece of that nostalgia, but to her, urban decay is a bigger sin. And stalled development plans have allowed buildings to deteriorate in the East End. In March 1991, housing inspectors shut down the 96-year-old Betz Flats building and evicted 15 families.

They found the building at 2467-2475 Eastern Ave. infested with rats and snakes, raw sewage in its basement, walls collapsing and floorboards rotting. Burns was elected president in 1993 in a bitter fight over control of the council between residents and outside developers. The matter wasn't resolved with the election. Three of the eight officers on the area council live in the came by immediately.

Her husband, Jon, met her at the vet's. Jon Parker remembers his first glimpse of the dog. "Hi, Sweetie," he said softly to the limp body. She wagged what was I remaining of her tail. When her 2 '2-hour surgery was fin-' ished, her left leg had been amputated, along with part of her right paw and her tail.

But nothing was taken from her strong and joyful spirit. Today when the doorbell rings at the Parkers' home in Covington, Hope is not the first to greet visitors. She is upstairs busy mothering four kittens the Parkers have rescued from the street. Her role, as she sees it, is to guard anything small, furry and fragile. Raunchiest remain The initial welcome, then, comes from Stanley the cat (who has seizures), his feline friends Maxfield (with the heart condition), Helen (with skin allergies) and Boogie (who had the hole in her side).

Alongside may be Icky the terrier (who lost her fur to a skin disease), or Joe the retired greyhound (rescued just before his former owner shot him). And then there's the supporting cast of it seems thousands. Jon and Sheelah Parker are foster parents for animals. They have paid for medical care for more than 100 animals, then given them away to carefully screened homes. "All the good stuff floats to the top and gets a home," Jon laughs, scratching the head of Oscar (who had the abscess on his side).

"Everything that sinks to the bottom we keep." Around him, seven scruffy cats purr out their gratitude. The Parkers have been rescuing animals for two years, after seeing a television report of abused animals in Pendleton County. Friends shook their heads and said, "But what can you do?" Sheelah Parker said, "I'll show you." Two days later, 17 rescued dogs were living in her basement. A week later, they had homes. All is not lost Stories such as Benny's make us feel all is lost.

When savagery is inflicted on even the gentlest creatures, we feel shame in being human. We lose faith. We lose hope. Then we find it again, in stories like that of Sheelah and Jon Parker. The young couple has spent more than $4,000 on medical care and $1,500 annually on food and cat litter.

Each day at noon, Sheelah leaves her job as a youth advocate at Holmes High School to feed fragile baby kittens. Jon recognizes the meow of each individual cat, even in background noise on an answering machine. When we torment ourselves with the question, "What's this world coming to?" we can answer with two twisted boys who pump BBs into old dogs. But perhaps the world is "coming to" Sheelah and Jon Parker. Down most of our streets, in most of our neighborhoods, we can find a million kindnesses to animals.

We'll find people tossing cat treats into shopping carts and brushing fur off car seats, only to have-it shed there again. I We must not let the crudest among us define who we are as human beings. We must never believe that they speak for our behavior, or seal our fate. "People say you can't make a differ- ence," Jon Parker says. "But you can," I says his wife, finishing his thought.

"We have made a difference to this one," she says softly, looking down at Ben the Cat, who squeezes his eyes shut in great contentment. "And we have lots of ones like this." So let us not be overcome by evil. Let us overcome evil with dog grooming and scratching posts, with distemper shots and Invisible Fences, with cats named Helen and dogs named Hope. Let us overcome evil with good. Krista Ramsey's column appears in The Enquirer on Saturdays.

Write her at 312 Elm Cincinnati 45202 or fax at 768-8340. East End; Burns said she splits her time between a home in the East End and one in Walnut Hills. The other four live outside the neighborhood. Fred Funk, president of the East End Community Health Board, questions whether Burns lives in the area. "Whether she does or not, I still don't like the leadership.

We need people we know live here who are totally familiar with East End problems," he said. "There are too many houses being torn down." Funk thinks building inspections connected with a low-interest loan program are too frequent and too demanding, with some residents required to make repairs they don't want. "My house is 100 years old and it is comfortable and livable for me," said Funk, who lives in the 2400 block of Eastern Avenue. Two blocks away, 78-year-old Christine Berry said she wishes more repairs were done to existing single-family homes to keep the area as it is. She has received a $30,000 low-interest loan from the city to renovate her 70-year-old, six-room frame house in the 2600 block of Eastern Avenue.

"I probably won't live to pay for it, but I like it and I want it fixed up to stay here," she said. Karen Adler, community development analyst for the city, said the (Please see EASTEND, Page C9) Phyllis Strub dies months after reunion with family Ohio schools leave room to improve Study uses 8 national goals as standard what she did. I just thought that we'd never see or hear from her again." Mrs. Strub, a former Harrison resident, walked away from the feder- 'a 'J fC, districts are still not getting the job done." But Voinovich singled out Cincinnati leading the pack among urban schools when it comes to finding innovative ways for meeting the goals. From the Mayerson Academy, which focuses on teacher training, to the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, which works to raise academic performance and reduce the drop out rate, Voinovich said Cincinnati is recognized nationally for its programs.

"A lot of the innovation that has taken place in Cincinnati would not have happened without the help of the business community," he said. Cincinnati School Board President Virginia K. Griffin agreed. "We are absolutely the leader in the state, no question about it," she said. "In about every area you can think of, we've raised the standards." To keep Cincinnati public schools on the cutting edge, Voinovich said he will be in Cincinnati on Monday to rally support for the two levies on the ballot Nov.

7. BY CANDACE GOFORTH The Cincinnati Enquirer During her 57 years, Phyllis Jean Strub knew celebration: the love of the family she raised and the pride of a career. And she knew humiliation: hiding from the law, destitute in a New Orleans shack. The 57-year-old mother of four and grandmother of nine, who spent the last 0 months of her life getting reacquainted with the family she left 14 years earlier to elude federal embezzlement charges, died Thursday at Shady Nook Nursing Home in Lawrenceburg. For her family, her death left questions unanswered.

"I didn't want to push for details. I figured there was always time for that after she got out of jail, but there wasn't," said a son, Darren Strub, of Shandon. "We're grateful that we found her and knew what happened and where she's been, why she did schooling and health through immunizations to increasing parental involvement in learning. "I'm encouraged by the results in the report," Voinovich said The good news included that more students are passing the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test by the end of ninth grade, increasing from 46 percent in the 1990-91 school year to 60 percent last school year. The bad news was that the percentage of Ohio ninth-graders graduating from high school in four years dropped from 75.5 percent in 1991 to 74.8 percent in 1994.

"Even though we've certainly made many significant accomplishments, we still have a great deal of work left to do in several areas," Voinovich said. "Our urban school BY CHRISTOPHER DAVEY Enquirer Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS, Ohio Gov. George Voinovich gave Ohio a mixed grade on Friday for where the state stands on meeting eight national education goals by the year 2000. Voinovich and State Superintendent of Public Instruction John M. Goff released the results of the fifth annual study by the state Department of Education on how far Ohio has come toward meeting the goals.

Former President Bush and the nation's governors set six goals with a target date of 2000. Congress made the goals law last year and expanded the list to eight. They range from making sure all children are ready to learn when they start school by ensuring good pre- Strub ally insured 1980 photo Netherland Terrace Credit Union, where she was treasurer, when an auditor arrived one day in 1980. FBI agents found Mrs. Strub in New Orleans in December 1994.

She was convicted of bilking $247,826 from her former employer by altering vouchers and journal entries. Shortly after she arrived in prison, doctors diagnosed her with terminal cancer. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur (Please see STRUB, Page C8).

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