The Journal News from Hamilton, Ohio • 5

Monday, August 1, 2005 JournalNews A5 INCINNATI Longer lines feared if airport screeners cut JournalNews wire services HEBRON, Ky. Greater Cincinnati residents are flocking to Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport in record numbers, and a new runway opens in December. What, then, will happen if the federal aviation officials follow through with plans to cut 50 of 316 security screener positions? me, common sense. You take away staf ng, and wait times go said Barb Schempf, manager of governmental affairs and noise abatement at the airport. With that prospect on the horizon, the airport is ramping up an effort to reverse or at least moderate plans by the Transportation Security Administration to trim the number of screeners at the Hebron, complex as part of a national reduction ordered by Congress.

TSA has 45,000 screeners deployed at U.S. airports and is increasing or decreasing positions at airports depending on need as determined by a survey of wait times. The formula for the changes derived from an analysis of wait times done between June 2004 and May of this year. Schempf said airport staff is considering a recommendation to the Kenton County Airport Board, which oversees the airport, to hire a consultant to analyze wait times at the airport and compare those with numbers. If staff recommends the hiring, the board could consider the issue at a meeting Aug.

15. Darrin Kayser, a TSA spokesman, said the cuts at the airport were made after a complex analysis of the number of passengers who originated their travel at the airport; the number of security lanes, employees who pass through security and the duration of peak time waits. Airports like CVG where wait times are relatively short will have their staffs cut to shift resources to busier locations. The number of passengers beginning their travel at the Cincinnati airport jumped 33.6 percent in May from May 2004. That month those flyers made up 27 percent of total passengers using the airport The TSA report found that the average wait time during morning and afternoon peak periods at CVG was 14 1 2 minutes.

On 45 occasions, it was 30 to 39 minutes, and in four other instances, passengers were stuck in line for more than 40 minutes. Kayser said the TSA will continuously monitor the effects of staff changes at the airport and adjust levels if needed. expect signi cant increases. always looking at those wait times. We get very concerned if they get over 40 minutes.

If (Cincinnati Northern Kentucky) wait time got over 20 minutes consistently, have to take another look at staffing levels. But again, I think that will be the he said. Delta Air Lines, which operates more than 90 percent of flights at the airport, is keeping a wary eye on the situation. are concerned that any cuts would affect customers in the lines if the lines got said Delta spokeswoman Benet Wilson. William Robinson, chairman of the Kenton County Airport Board, said he hopes that changes the TSA makes hurt customer service at the airport.

to say, disappointed if this is what actually occurs. But still optimistic that our representatives in Congress will be effective in turning this situation around as far as CVG is he said. U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, of Hebron, said he is working to get the TSA to release data it used to determine the cuts in screeners.

Schempf emphasized that security staff reductions, if they occur at all, will happen gradually through attrition and affect safety at the airport. working with the TSA and hoping to resolve the situation prior to any reduction in she said. More cuts may be on the horizon. House and Senate versions of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill now under consideration call for fewer security screeners as a budget-trimming move. The current budget staffs 45,000 screeners, but the House calls for 42,000 in scal year 2006 and the Senate wants just 39,000.

On Friday, travelers at the airport voiced concern about the potential for longer waits. someone like myself, who flies all over the world, said John Coggins, of Bristol, England, who works with an international rugby club. But others said security delays already are a reality, so waiting a little longer be a big deal. people who are upset are the ones who are running late and plan said Dave Phillips, of West Chester Township, whose job as a college athletic recruiter has him traveling constantly. The biggest determiner of line length is the time of day, not the number of screeners, he said.

Some said they might take their business to other airports if long lines become a problem at the Cincinnati airport. probably fly into an airport where more people Coggins said. Passengers already wait an average of 14 1 2 minutes Airport adds fifth canine to security team JournalNews wire services HEBRON, Ky. While the number of human security screeners at Kentucky International Airport may be reduced to save money, the canine team has added its fth member. One of 10 bomb-snif ng dogs that completed a 10-week program Friday at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, is being assigned to CVG.

The teams of dogs and their handlers spent much of their time searching for explosives in specialized indoor and outdoor training areas that resemble the airport environment, including aircraft searches where they checked cockpits, cabins and overhead storage bins. The teams also practiced searching warehouses, luggage and a parking lot filled with cars, trucks, vans and buses. ten teams are another example of commitment to build upon our existing layered security said Dave Kontny, Director of the Transportation Security National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program. The new recruit and the other four bomb-sniffing dogs used at the airport are owned by the TSA, which oversees airport security nationwide. The police officers teamed with the dogs are provided by the airport.

Glory sought for the Black Brigade JournalNews wire services CINCINNATI Before the 54th Massachusetts the legendary black regiment whose heroics during the Civil War were depicted in the movie there was the Black Brigade. Pressed into service so suddenly and mysteriously when police rounded them up at bayonet point that they thought they were being driven back into slavery, members of the brigade helped construct a ring of forti cations across Northern Kentucky credited with thwarting the most serious Confederate threat to Cincinnati during the war. Despite that critical contribution, the Black Brigade remains largely unknown to most Tri-Staters today. people in Cincinnati realize that the city was being threatened with a Confederate attack and even fewer know about the Black said William Mallory a retired West End legislator and former floor majority leader in the Ohio House. Now Mallory and David Day want to do something about that, 143 years after the fact.

The two are seeking backers for a monument on waterfront to the Black Brigade. Day has drawn plans for a 21-foot-tall bronze column relating the story of the brigade. He and Mallory want it to stand on property near the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Day, owner of the downtown design rm David Day Designer Associates spent three months researching the brigade in public libraries, interviewing Civil War experts and sifting through Ohio Historical Society documents before the idea for the memorial came to him early one morning in March 2002. Day learned from James Ramage, a Northern Kentucky professor who specializes in Civil War history, that in the summer of 1862, Cincinnati was at serious risk of Confederate invasion.

Confederate troops had taken Richmond, and Lexington and had their sights set on the strategically located Queen City, which they saw as an ideal launching point for incursions deep into Union territory. The situation seemed so grave to Gen. Lew Wallace who later gained fame as the author of that he instituted martial law and ordered people to turn out as for labor or soldiers for Ramage said. Wallace drew up a defense plan that included construction of a ring of forti cations in the Northern Kentucky hills in a line stretching from Bromley to Fort Thomas, reasoning that would keep rebel troops from getting near enough to the city to shell it. To build a Campbell County section of that line he ordered the mayor of Cincinnati to have black men rounded up and organized into a construction gang.

They were marched across the Ohio River on a pontoon bridge fashioned from coal barges. Once in Northern Kentucky, however, the Black Brigade was quickly detoured to other jobs. Instead of digging trenches, clearing trees and building breastworks, they were set to work cooking and doing laundry for Union troops stationed at Fort Wright. That went on for a couple of days, said Day, until Col. William Dixon, a Cincinnatian with abolitionist sympathies, learned about it.

He reorganized the 500 men into a construction unit and allowed them to return home for a night to gather their belonging and tell their families about the important task they had been given. The next morning, Dixon returned at 5 a.m. to nd 706 men waiting for him, Day said. Over the next several weeks the brigade constructed various hilltop forti cations and dug trenches from Hill to Fort Thomas in Campbell County. Remnants of some of those works remain today.

was one of the most magnanimous activities in the history of race relations; the story started with them being treated like animals, forced into mule pens across from City Ramage said. would have liked to have volunteered to ght, but were not allowed to because to obey the order of Gen. Wallace, you had to go to your polling place to volunteer and blacks could not vote and considered Race relations in Cincinnati had been as volatile as a powder keg because the city had struggled for years with conflicts between its strong Abolitionist movement and industry that relied heavily on raw materials produced cheaply by slave labor in the South. Just a few weeks before the Black Brigade had formed, the same police who had rousted its members from their homes had nearly rioted against the black community, and been dissuaded from violence only after the Confederate threat became apparent. After work on the defenses began, many in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati believed that Wallace had cried wolf, Ramage said.

But it became clear by Sept. 11, 1862, that the case when an Confederate force under the command of Gen. Henry Heth moved into the area. After reconnoitering for two days, Heth decided he wanted no part of 72,000 volunteer locked and loaded behind forti cations the Black Brigade had helped to build, Ramage said. The Confederates withdrew.

Day based his design for the memorial on column in Rome. It will have a bas-relief sculpture with an entablature describing the story of the Black Brigade. He and Mallory hope to site the monument slightly upriver from the Freedom Center in the proximity of the Roebling Suspension Bridge, where the pontoon bridge the Black Brigade marched across once oated. Day and Mallory have joined forces with a nonpro called Media Bridges that is securing funds for a documentary about the brigade that will be available on DVD. Duo seeks funding for monument on waterfront household chores brand cleans up By Dan Sewell HE A SSOCIATED RESS CINCINNATI Folks at Procter Gamble, which today launches the latest Swiffer quick- cleaning product, like to talk about making housecleaning While that can sound a little like Tom Sawyer persuading his friends they will like whitewashing a fence for him, the Swiffer line has had an impact on habits and perceptions about the household chore.

know of anything that makes cleaning fun, but this comes says Amber Harris, 26, of Trenton, who says she uses Swiffers for her oors, her ceilings, her fans much everything I clean, I use a The CarpetFlick, hitting stores six years after the original Swiffer Sweeper made its debut, is the seventh Swiffer product, joining the mop, the duster, and others in considered likely to eventually become a billion-dollar brand for And Swiffers also have become part of American pop culture. Swiffers have shown up everywhere from with a scantily clad Jessica Simpson on the cover of Rolling Stone to a Saturday Night Live spoof, and on a range of other TV shows such as Jay Leno, and Eye for the Straight And while still often mispronounced some people now use as a verb for cleaning up. products hit that kind of status, generally because fulfilled a unique need for consumers and it really takes said Bruce Cohen, consumer goods specialist with the Kurt Salmon Associates consulting firm. Swiffer is innovative, easy to use and has been to penetrate across all the segments and all the he said. are a lot of families with busy lives who want to sac ri ce on said Kristine Decker, Swiffer brand manager for is a better way to clean with a fun personality to Small children can use them and like to play with them, young people use them for inexpensive, quick clean-ups, active families love the convenience and senior citizens find them easy on the back, officials say.

began working on Carpet Flick 22 months ago based on research that 75 percent of the oors in U.S. households are carpeted, and that three of every four times a vacuum cleaner is used, for a small-area problem such as dropped crumbs or tracked-in mulch. laboratory is the said Robert Godfroid, senior scientist in Swiffer research and development. try to understand where coming from. We go into their homes and kind of live with them for a couple He recounted visiting a Cincinnati mother of two who picked up her crying baby while trying out a CarpetFlick in her home.

said if I can use this while holding him, on to Godfroid recalled. The mom declared it a success, adding that she use a vacuum cleaner while the baby was sleeping because of the noise. The goal for CarpetFlick was to be a quick stand-in for the vacuum cleaner. The result is a one-pound sweeper with a handle, swivel head and disposable adhesive cartridges that catch particles onto it by the sweeping action. It has a rubberized top built for easy storage, including leaning against a wall, and a bright orange color, in contrast to traditional drab colors for vacuums and sweepers, Godfroid said.

Suggested retail price is $12.99, with a 12-pack of cartridges at $4.29. Decker said plans a wide range of promotion, from television commercials to in-store demonstrations. is a big launch for she said. want to get people to see it, to play with Cohen noted that Swiffer leads a growing category of simple cleaning offered by and its competitors, including such items as disposable toilet bowl wipes, that have many people cleaning more than ever. he said.

would go down a list of most hated activities and find cleaning. But you and I are cleaning more often Company introduces new Swiffer product THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The CarpetFlick will makes its debut today. The CarpetFlick, in stores this month six years after the original Swiffer Sweeper made its debut, is the seventh Swiffer product. It joins the mop, the duster and others in a brand that not only is expected to reach $1 billion in annual sales in the next year or so but also has become part of American pop culture. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS began working on CarpetFlick 22 months ago based on research that 75 percent of the floors in U.S.

households are carpeted, and that three of every four times a vacuum cleaner is used, for a small-area problem such as dropped crumbs or tracked-in mulch. SWIFFERING FUN.