WHERE ARE THEY NOW B1
B OONE COUNTY RECORDER 50¢
Shaun Alexander, right, has come a long way since playing football at Boone County High School.
Clockmaker shows at Winterfair For more than 20 years, Doug Durkee of Burlington has been participating in Winterfair. This year is no different. Durkee’s contemporary floor clocks, coffee tables and wall mirrors that "reflect infinity" will be part of the fine arts and craft fair Nov. 25-27 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. Life, B1
Neighbors Who Care One reason the holiday season is our favorite time of year is because it seems to bring out the best in all of us – whether helping a neighbor, a family member or a complete stranger. The Community Recorder wants to recognize those who make their neighborhood and community better – not just in November and December, but all year long. If you know someone who fits that description – a Neighbor Who Cares – let us know about them. E-mail us at ndaly@nky.com, with “Neighbors Who Care” in the subject line. Make sure to include your name, community and contact information, as well as theirs. Deadline for nominations is Friday, Dec. 9.
Send your craft show information Hosting a seasonal fair, craft show or bazaar? Send the information to Amanda Hensley at ahensley@nky.com to be included in our listing. Include the name of the event, a brief description, and the time, date and place.
Ryle’s amazing journey Reflect on the Ryle soccer team’s amazing trip to the state final four in this week’s Recorder.
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Vol. 8 No. 47 © 2011 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For the Postmaster
Published weekly every Thursday. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, KY 41042 USPS 0060780 Postmaster: Send address change to The Boone County Recorder 3635 O’Hara Rd., Erlanger, KY 41018 Annual subscription: Weekly Recorder In-County $18.02; All other in-state $23.32; Out-of-state $27.56; Kentucky sales tax included
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving all of Boone County THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Grant covers 911 equipment By Stephanie Salmons
ssalmons@nky.com
BOONE COUNTY — A grant will allow for installation of next generation 911 equipment. Boone County leaders approved Nov. 1 a resolution allowing Judge-executive Gary Moore to execute a grant agreement with the state Commercial Mobile Radio Services board to install next-generation 911 equipment at the Boone County Public Safety Communication Center. The county applied for, and
received, a grant for $348,000 to upgrade equipment for seven different agencies – Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Grant, Gallatin, Pendleton counties and the city of Erlanger, County Administrator Jeff Earlywine said. Boone County is the lead agency for the grant, he said. Each month, when cell phone bills arrive, 70 cents is paid to the state which is then directed to the CMRS board that collects and dispenses fees to groups around the state, Earlywine said. A portion of those funds go to
telecommunication providers like the “Cincinnati Bells and BellSouths of the world so they can provide 911 equipment on their end of the system to make sure calls are handled,” he said. Another portion of the funding goes to local governments which operate 911 centers to work on equipment from their side “to make sure we can promptly and efficiently handle phone calls,” Earlywine said. “This equipment would be used to implement next generation 911 – (the) next set of digital equipment that will help them
Steamboats still around in Florence
deal with all these new communication devices that come on board through wireless, through the Internet, to make sure they can quickly and efficiently dispense with the 911 calls, that they can locate where the call is coming from within 100 meters or so as required by the federal government,” Earlywine said. According to Earlywine, some of the equipment will be maintained by Cincinnati Bell. For more about your community, visit www.NKY.com/boonecounty.
The wheel of Thomas Schiffer's steamboat which was originally built in 1910.
Schiffer keeps recreational vessels from an earlier era in his Boone County garage
STEPHANIE SALMONS/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER.
By Stephanie Salmons ssalmons@nky.com
FLORENCE — If you're looking for a quick getaway, don’t try to make it in a steamboat. “No. 1, it ain’t fast and No. 2, everyone sees it and remembers it,” Thomas Schiffer of Florence said. He should know about the attraction of steamboats – Schiffer actually owns two. The first boat he purchased from a friend was originally built around 1972 and accommodates four people, he said. In 2009, he went to Florida and purchased the second boat which was built in Clayton, N.Y., in 1910 and holds six. "It’s all been rebuilt,” Schiffer said of the 100-year-old boat. According to Schifffer, the first boat is propane-fired while the older boat is wood-fired. This is what the sporting boat was more than 100 years ago, he said. “You just don’t see them anymore,” Schiffer said. Schiffer said he “wouldn’t doubt” that he spends about two hours working on it for every hour spent in the water, he said. He likes that this form of transportation is quiet – at least until he blows the whistle.
Thomas Schiffer of Florence stands in front of his steam-powered boat originally built in 1910. STEPHANIE SALMONS/THE COMMUNITY RECORDER
Schiffer said he has always been interested in steam, he said. “Why would you want to do
something like this? Why would you want to spend two hours for every hour in the water and the
answer to that is pretty simple – I really don’t. That’s what it takes and I think it’s worth it.”
Boone County subscribes to grant database By Stephanie Salmons ssalmons@nky.com
BURLINGTON — With the Boone County Fiscal Court’s Oct. 18 approval for a subscription to an online database, county officials may soon be able to better know what grants are available – for almost any purpose. Commissioners voted to approve a three-year subscription to e-Civis, an online database of all federal, state and private foundation grant information specifically built for local governments. The subscription costs $19,800 per year, assistant coun-
ty administrator Lisa Buerkley told commissioners. According to a memo from Buerkley to Judge-executive Gary Moore and commissioners, the price is normally $48,000 per year for the service for an unlimited amount of users. A number of discounts were offered to the county to bring the price down, such as bundled product, incentive and a multiyear discount because Boone will be the first county in the state to use the e-Civis service, the memo reads. The search engine is updated regularly, Buerkley said. The program provides requirements for the grants, planning, how to
apply, grant management and monitoring, but “the best part is the great search engine it has,” she said. “You can drill down to any specific thing you would like to find.” The service even offers help during the grant application process by providing samples of winning grants from previous years, Buerkley said. The county can partner with other taxing districts and nonprofit organizations connected to the county to allow them a subscription to the grant program as well, Buerkley said at the meeting. Buerkley said she’s received confirmation from nine differ-
ent districts showing interest. The county is looking at a peruser fee for each of the districts not only “so we can help the other districts, but also help recoup some of our money so it doesn’t cost us the entire amount,” Buerkley said. Commissioner Charlie Walton said there are many entities that pay someone full time to research grants. “If we were to do that here in Boone County, just the benefits section of a salary would almost, I’d say, be $12,000 to $14,000,” Walton said. For more news visit www.NKY.com/ boonecounty.