ALEXANDRIA
RECORDER
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving the communities of southern Campbell County 75¢
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2015
MVP HONORS 1B Campbell’s Austin Myers never lost a match in high school
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Law requires longer stay in booster seats for children Chris Mayhew cmayhew@communitypress.com
CHRIS MAYHEW/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER
Myrtle Hausenfluck holds a photo of what a rock retaining wall and garden in her yard used to look like before stormwater runoff damaged her yard.
Rainy day damage has resident seeking help Chris Mayhew cmayhew@communitypress.com
ALEXANDRIA — Myrtle Hausenfluck, who pays $60.48 annually to mitigate water runoff and almost $500 in city taxes, says some of it needs to come back to fix damages to her property. said she Hausenfluck doesn’t know how much it will take to fix damage to her inground pool, retaining wall and hillside garden on Shaw Drive. Somebody needs to take responsibility first, she said. “I hate to get a lawyer and sue anybody,” she said. “I just want them to take responsibility.” Runoff problems started about five or six years ago and have gotten worse, Hausenfluck said. Water flows off the street and through a gravel driveway she owns that is lower than the street, she said. Workers from Sanitation
District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky (SD1), Alexandria Mayor Bill Rachford and city public works director Sam Trapp have all made trips to see Hausenfluck’s property damage. Neither SD1 nor the city are willing to take responsibility for repairing her property. “I’m not 100 percent convinced that it is street runoff,” Trapp said. Whether Hausenfluck’s home drain pipes are partly to blame or whether there are other factors has not been determined. Trapp said he believes the city’s rebuilding of Shaw Drive this year, including lowering the street’s grade, and installing new storm sewers as part of an $800,000 project, may help. “The street reconstruction, if in fact she does have some problems there, then it should be corrected,” he said. Rachford said he has no de-
finitive answer for Hausenfluck until Shaw Drive is rebuilt. “I think after the street is reconstructed, whatever problems she should have had should disappear,” he said. If Hausenfluck has a problem from her home’s drain spout, runoff damage could continue, Rachford said. “I certainly don’t want to get into something that might not have been a city issue,” he said. Over time, overlaying fresh blacktop has raised the level of the street and created general runoff problems, Rachford said. There’s no commitment to whether the city should help Hausenfluck, he said. “I wouldn’t say an emphatic no,” Rachford said. The city needs to be careful to not set a precedent of fixing problems in residents’ yards, See DAMAGE, Page 2A
WILDER — Children have to wait until they are 8 years old or at least 57 inches tall to get out of car booster seats under a new Kentucky law. Police can pull drivers over and issue a $30 citation for a child not in a booster seat. HB 315, approved by the Kentucky General Assembly this spring, went into effect June 24. Previously, Kentucky required children under 7 years old and between 40 inches and 50 inches tall to be strapped into booster seats. Parents seeking help ensuring their booster or child safety seats are installed properly can turn to select area fire departments and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for free safety checks. Shoulder seat belt straps used with a booster seats should contact a child on the collarbone area closer to the shoulder to avoid potential neck injury in a crash, said Wilder Fire Department Lt. Brandon Fromeyer, a trained child passenger safety technician. Booster seats keep lap belts off a child’s abdomen in an accident. Fromeyer completed a 40hour training through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Comprehensive Children’s Injury Center to become a technician. Reading both a child safety seat’s manual and a car manual’s instructions is usually enough for most people to install seats themselves, he said. “Some people come in and just want to see if they installed a car seat properly,” Fromeyer said. “And that’s perfectly fine.” Wilder will do free child safety seat checks for anyone,
CHRIS MAYHEW/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER
Wilder Fire Department Lt. Brandon Fromeyer demonstrates where a seat belt needs to come across a child’s collarbone to avoid their neck while riding in a car booster seat. Starting June 24, a new Kentucky law raised the age a child has to be in a booster seat from 7 years old to 8 years old or until they are 57 inches tall.
regardless of where they are from. People don’t have to make an appointment, but it’s a good idea to call ahead and make sure a technician is on shift and able to help, he said. So far, not many people have called with questions about the booster seat law change, Fromeyer said. Keeping children in a car seat until they meet the seat’s advised weight limit is also preferable to a booster seat, he said. “Keeping them in a fivepoint harness is the safest thing for a kid,” Fromeyer said. “It’s a good idea to keep children riding in the back seat until they are 13 years old and away from air bag deployments, he said. Fromeyer said police will be enforcing the new booster seat law. See BOOSTER, Page 2A
Fort Thomas honors Vietnam War veterans Chris Mayhew cmayhew@communitypress.com
FORT THOMAS — Chuck Taylor served in the Vietnam War, had a Highlands High School classmate and best friend killed in action, and was spit upon while in uniform in the U.S. Welcoming home veterans from the Vietnam War and telling residents’ stories including Taylor’s is why Deanna Beineke organized a new museum exhibit. “These folks, it was a very political war, and things were not always wonderful for them,” Beineke said. “I feel strongly we need to express our thanks.”
Creation of the new exhibit, opening July 4 and lasting all year at the Fort Thomas Community and Military Museum, was spurred by Beineke’s membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR is encouraging members to mark 40 years since the end of the war in their communities, she said. From tragic to funny stories, different aspects of the war are told including background information and details about each of the four Fort Thomas residents to die in the war, Beineke said. Anyone who wants to share their story from Fort Thomas can write in a blank book during the exhibit or email up to
CHRIS MAYHEW/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER
U.S. Navy Vietnam War veteran Chuck Taylor, Fort Thomas Vietnam War exhibit creator Deanna Beineke and U.S. Air Force Vietnam War veteran Roy Hiser Jr. gather inside Fort Thomas’ Community and Military Museum.
1,000 words about their experiences to beineke@isoc.net, she said.
RITA’S KITCHEN
RABBIT HASH WEDDING
Sipping spa water hydrates, gives dose of vitamin C. 7A
Couple rents Ohio River town for old-time touch at nuptials. 5A
Taylor, 73, a museum volunteer, served in the U.S. Navy for four years after graduating
Contact us
News .........................283-0404 Retail advertising .......513-768-8404 Classified advertising ...513-421-6300 Delivery .......................781-4421 See page A2 for additional information
Highlands High School in 1961 along with his best friend Joe Ross. Taylor and Ross ran track and played football together. Ross went on to the U.S. Air Force Academy and was shot down while piloting an F-4 Phantom in Vietnam Aug. 1, 1968, and was later declared dead. “That upset me, well it upset everybody in our whole class, because we had a very tight class,” Taylor said. Taylor said he still talks to Joe’s younger brother Steve on occasion about the “good old days.” Vietnam was only one of Taylor’s missions as a mechanSee VETERANS, Page 2A Vol. 10 No. 38 © 2015 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED