The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 3

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER 5 "inn Section In Dusiness: Cinergy shuffle Cinergy Corp. names Madeleine Ludlow president of its energy commodities business. Story, CI 2 A.M. Report 2 Your Town 3 Obituaries 4 Editor: David A. Wells, 768-8600; fax, 768-8340 Tuesday April 7, 1998 WE TI RO El me.

to issue $20 in bonds for aquarium Newport 7 think that means that things are really moving. It's great. It's really happening. Tom Guidugli, mayor of Newport multiscreen movie theater and live animal wilderness display to an interactive video arcade. The aquarium will showcase exotic saltwater fish, and include freshwater exhibits.

In other matters, the city: Met in executive session to discuss the water works and police departments. No action was taken. Unveiled its new call-in program, which enables residents to call during commission meetings and ask questions or comment. The number is 292-3666. "It gets us closer to the people," Mr.

Parsons said. during construction, is expected to draw 1.2 million visitors a year. That would make the aquarium Kentucky's fifth-largest tourist attraction when it opens May 1, 1999, according to state Tourism Development Cabinet. Groundbreaking for the two-story facility occurred in November. The aquarium is being built at a site north of Third Street between the and Taylor-Southgate bridges.

It will serve as the anchor for an adjacent entertainment district that could include everything from a and the construction and equipping of the aquarium. Final approval of the ordinance is expected today at a 5 p.m. special meeting in the first floor multipurpose room at the city building. Aquarium Holdings of Northern Kentucky LLC expects to close the deal with the city next week. "I think that means that things are really moving.

It's great," Mayor Tom Guidugli said. "It's really happening." By agreeing to issue the bonds, the city will not incur any expense, and Newport's Mirror image Aquarium Holdings of Northern Kentucky LLC, which will pay back the bonds over 20 years with revenues from the project. Aquarium Holdings of Northern Kentucky LLC is a joint venture of five Greater Cincinnati businessmen and Oceanic Adventures International Corp. in Toronto. oners nou mi (Diivorce credit will not be affected, City Manager Jim Parsons said.

The city is acting as a conduit for the sale of the bonds, making it easier for the developers of the for-profit attraction to get a more favorable interest rate on the project. The agreement calls for the city to lease the aquarium to vices when the two talked about which banks would be best, FBI Special Agent David Carrell testified. It was allegedly the second time Mr. Poteete had planned to rob a bank, officials testified. But the Star Bank he chose in Newport was locked the branch was drive-up only.

Mr. Schweinzger, code name "Rembrandt," volunteered to be what is known as a federal cooperating witness and help with drug cases being worked on by the Safe Streets Task Force. This was a joint effort of FBI agents and local police 1 rwi I I mr ry i it i i lM. i IT in Cincinnati Water Works employee Lester Blye of Corryville uses a high-pressure hose to clean the bottom of the reflecting pool in Eden Park on Monday morning. Even though the pool is off-limits to people and animals when it's filled, the water is one of the attractions that draws both out-of-town visitors and Tristate residents to the park.

Friend implicated suspect in Newport bank robbery attempt Deal means better interest rate for developers BY EARNEST WINSTON The Cincinnati Enquirer NEWPORT The riverfront aquarium received a huge boost Monday with the city's preliminary approval of a deal to help finance the $40 million project. Newport City Commission agreed to issue $20 million in industrial revenue bonds to help pay for acquisition of property Taste, brewers asked to solve tiff BY LISA DONOVAN The Cincinnati Enquirer Call it an exercise in the power of persuasion. 1 A committee of Cincinnati City Council members wants Taste of Cincinnati organizers to sit down with owners of local microbreweries and try to reach a compromise before the committee approves this year's Memorial Day weekend event. Local microbrewers say they have been excluded from the event, designed to showcase the city of Cincinnati's culinary offerings. Officials with Downtown Council, the i event promoters, say the J.

Cissell cus of the event is on food not beer. Still, the sponsor of Taste Miller Brewing Co. will be selling beer, as will two other local brewers, Oldenberg Brewing Co. and Sam Adams. Miller has a brewery in Butler County and a sales office in Cincinnati.

"The issue of excluding local microbreweries at a Taste of Cincinnati raises a number of policy questions for council to consider concerning that event and any other subsidized at any level by the city," Councilwom-an Jeanette Cissell said Monday during a meeting of council's Law and Public Safety Committee. If the two sides meet this week, the committee would make a recommendation on the event next Monday, with final approval by council April 15. Mrs. Cissell and Councilman Todd Portune proposed allowing local microbreweries to participate in the event. Mr.

Portune explained that the city provides fire, police and other services for Taste at no extra cost to the organizers. But promoters say they weren't trying to slight anyone just practicing good business, said Teri Gasper, vice president of the Greater Cincinnati Area Chamber of Commerce in charge of the Downtown Council. In the case of BarrelHouse Brewing whose owners raised concerns about being excluded, Ms. Gasper said promoters had several reasons not to offer the Over-the-Rhine a spot to sell beer. Among them is the higher cost of the specialty brew for customers.

Mike Cromer, vice-president of BarrelHouse Brewing Co. and a member of the Cincinnati Brewers Guild, expressed optimism that microbreweries could still join Taste. "They're (council members) using their leverage to say 'What's going on Mr. Cromer said. He said he declined organizers' invitation to join the event as a restaurant instead of a brewery.

"We are foremost a working brewery, and we're interested in promoting our beer," he said. I Laura IrUIUM III returns Thursday. "The issuance of the industrial bonds does not place any liability on the city," Commissioner Jan Knepshield said. "They now have everything in place; the banks have made the commitment to issue the bonds and sell the bonds." Newport has approved similar bond issues for a number of projects, including the expansion of Trauth Dairy and the conversion of a former girls school into the Hannaford Apartments. The aquarium, expected to support nearly 1,300 jobs once it opens, and about 1,500 jobs The Cincinnati EnquirerGienn Hartong had a remote-controlled switch to cut the truck's engine from a distance.

Mr. Schweinzger told Mr. Poteete the truck was borrowed from an old man who left the keys inside, Agent Carrell testified. That gave authorities the story that the men were pulled over because the truck had been reported stolen. Mr.

Poteete's attorney, Gary Sergent, said the gun taken from the truck that day, a BB gun, was not loaded and did not have Mr. Poteete's fingerprints on it. The trial continues today. bombing customers and sell food staples, cigarettes, snacks and alcohol. But Omar Saleh shrugged off the accusations.

"I don't think it's anything about business," he said. "They're working, and we're working. This is competitiveness. You make money." Omar Saleh said he caused a family spat by hiring away his nephew's store manager. He said he also hired Mr.

Tolbert to keep drug dealers out and would never pay him to harm his family. But Yousef Saleh said he and his 61-year-old mother narrowly missed being hit by a Molotov cocktail. Bdria Saleh, Yousef Saleh's mother and Omar Saleh's sister-in-law, explained through broken English and hand gestures how she frantically fled the building. She and her son say the week since the bombing has been unsettling. "I wake from my sleep," Yousef Saleh said.

"I hear something. I think I hear another firebomb." Graffiti above a boarded doorway at Jordan Carry Out explains the sentiments of those inside: "Your dis-re-spect of 'building' has gone much too Wife might testify about role in death BY TOM O'NEILL The Cincinnati Enquirer WILMINGTON Tracey Baker's attorney twice recently sent faxes to the attorney for Lori Baker, suggesting that the couple's pending divorce could be settled to Mrs. Baker's financial benefit, according to copies of the faxes obtained by the Enquirer. Mrs. Baker is expected to testify against Mr.

Baker in connection with the death of Carrie Culberson. He is charged with two counts of obstructing justice, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of gross abuse of a corpse in the slaying of Miss Culberson, 22, of Blan-chester. Mr. Baker's half-brother, Vince Doan, is serving a life sentence for her August 1996 kidnapping and murder. Mr.

Baker, whose trial is to begin Monday in Clinton County Common Pleas Court, allegedly helped Mr. Doan dispose of her body, a contention Mrs. Baker's testimony is expected to support. Miss Culberson's body has never been found. The faxes, dated March 26 and 27, are included in a supplemental disclosure filed Monday afternoon by prosecutors which indicates they intend to call Mrs.

Baker's attorney, David Bender, to the stand. At a hearing Monday, Judge William McCracken said the issue of spousal privilege would be decided at trial, delaying the defense attempts to get Mrs. Baker's grand jury testimony excluded. "As I am sure you are also aware," a March 26 handwritten fax from Baker defense attorney Scott J. Frederick to Mr.

Bender reads in part, "there is significant marital debt also, that far exceeds the equity in Photos by Michael E. Keating The Cincinnati Enquirer Tracey Baker smiles at his parents Monday as he enters a courtroom in Clinton County. His trial begins next week. L. Baker Culberson the real estate and could expose -Mrs.

Baker to greater liability. Please advise me of your clients position on the spousal privilege issue, and depending on her position, I believe we can resolve this divorce to her benefit." A second, typed fax, dated March 27, reads in full: "If you will prepare an Agreed Entry, stipulating that our clients are in fact married and that Lori Baker is entitled to exclusive use of the marital residence, my client and his parents will agree to sign and it can be filed with the Court immediately. Also, I believe that we could settle this entire pending divorce to the satisfaction of all parties in a very short period of time. (Please see BAKER, Page C5) 1" D. BY JANE PRENDERGAST The Cincinnati Enquirer COVINGTON When FBI agents and Newport police officers stopped the pickup and arrested Donnie Ray Poteete one March day last year, the Latonia man had no idea the buddy with him had ratted on him.

Details of the elaborate ruse came out Monday, the first day of Mr. Poteete's trial in federal court on a charge of attempting to rob a Fifth Third Bank branch in Newport. Mr. Poteete's friend, Rick Schweinz-ger, was wearing recording de Rival's employee charged in WXIX parent sells to Raycom Media If I i I A- -v iff lit Bill sLJi I I Mr. Schweinzger told them he knew of Mr.

Poteete's plan to rob a bank, Agent Carrell testified. In exchange, authorities agreed to mention Mr. Schweinzger's cooperation when talking to prosecutors handling several charges against him for allegedly writing bad checks. When Mr. Poteete and Mr.

Schweinzger finished several weeks of planning for the bank robbery, agents and police officers met with their informant and gave him a rigged truck to drive to the planned heist. Agents tracking the truck ton, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday in Hamilton County Municipal Court. He is being held at the Justice Center in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. A grand jury is expected to decide April 14 whether to indict him.

Family spat Yousef Saleh says his competitors want to run his 5-year-old market out of business. Both stores, between Vine and Race, cater to low-income Malinda Rackley for The Cincinnati Enquirer Jordan Carry Out owner Yousef Saleh and his mother, Bdria Saleh, say the week since the fire bombing of the Over-the-Rhine store has been unsettling. A Kentucky man pleaded not guilty Monday to the bombing. 12th St. stores stir bad blood BY TANYA BRICKING The Cincinnati Enquirer The bouncer at a nearby bar has been charged with aggravated arson in the fire-bombing of an Over-the-Rhine carry-out last week.

Cincinnati police arrested Richard Tolbert, an employee of The Bank Cafe, on an aggravated arson charge. Investigators are trying to determine who hired him and for how much, Fire Capt. Dan Rottmueller said. Yousef Saleh, the owner of Jordan Carry Out, says competition has been fierce since his uncle, Omar Saleh, owner of The Bank Cafe, opened a grocery in the same block of West 12th Street two months ago. Hit twice When Omar Saleh lowered his pop price to 99 cents, Yousef Saleh lowered his price to 89 cents.

But Yousef Saleh fears the competition between the Jordanian immigrants may have led to the firebombing. His store was hit twice last Monday with Molotov cocktails homemade bombs fashioned out of 40-ounce Bloomberg News Service and The Cincinnati Enquirer Raycom Media Inc. has agreed to purchase the owner of Cincinnati's WXIX-TV (Channel 19) in a deal that will expand Raycom's broadcasting reach to about 10 percent of U.S. television viewers. The purchase of Cleveland-based Malrite Communications Group will bring Raycom TV stations in Cleveland, Toledo, West Palm Beach, and Puerto Rico, as well as Cincinnati, the company said.

It will let Raycom, based in Montgomery, broadcast to more than 10 million households. The cash price for the deal was not disclosed. "This purchase allows us to implement our strategy of expanding into major markets," said John Hayes, chief executive of employee-owned media company Raycom. "We look forward to working diligently with their management and employ ees to continue to grow these successful television stations." He said the Malrite stations' commitment to local news blends well with Raycom's programming philosophy. Milton Maltz, chairman and chief executive officer of Malrite, called Raycom one of the country's best-managed broad-C3sters Officials of WXIX could not be reached.

The agreement, subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, is expected to close later this year. Raycom owns 25 TV stations, two radio stations and Raycom Sports, a sports production and distribution company. It also runs three LPGA golf tournaments and co-owns television rights to Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games. The Retirement Systems of Alabama will finance the transaction, which is expected to close this year. i beer bottles stuffed with fuel and napkin wicks.

The second bomb hit customer Jerome Thomas, 61, of Walnut Hills, who spent several days recovering at University Hospital from burns to his neck, back, hands and feet. While both blazes did only about $6,000 damage, court records indicate it was a case of fire for hire. Omar Saleh said he, too, is concerned by the attack. "I'm trying to find what's happened," he said. "The one who did this is going to be in trouble with me, too." Mr.

Tolbert, 30, of Coving.