BIRD IS BACK
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NORTH CLERMONT
Your Community Press newspaper serving Goshen Township, Jackson Township, Newtonsville, Owensville, Stonelick Township, Wayne Township E-mail:clermont@communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, S e p t e m b e r
Jacob the peacock has found a home.
Vol. 30 No. 34 © 2010 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Haines wins Gatch Award
Nancy Haines’ says her sense of volunteerism came from her parents. “Whenever we said there was something we couldn’t do, my mom would say, ‘We’re Americans, not Ameri-can’ts,’” Haines said. “They raised 11 children, but were still able to help whenever anyone needed it.” Haines received the Orpha Gatch Citizenship Award at the League of Women Voters of Clermont County Suffragist Event Tuesday, Aug. 24. FULL STORY, B1
Goshen buys used ambulance
The Goshen Township Fire & EMS Department has replaced a 12-year-old ambulance which has broken down nine times in the last eight months. The Goshen trustees unanimously authorized the department to purchase a $22,500 ambulance with only 19,000 miles from the village of Greenhills. FULL STORY, A2
Meals on Wheels gets new kitchen
Construction is almost complete on Clermont Senior Services’ new kitchen facility, which will provide a permanent home for the Meals on Wheels program. Meals on Wheels has been at the old Williamsburg High School since 1998, but Clermont Senior Services Executive Director George Brown said they knew the school wouldn’t be a permanent home. FULL STORY, A4
New regs for access to be OK’d
After four public hearings and a slew of advisory committee meetings, the Clermont County commissions are almost ready to approve the county’s Access Management Regulations. The regulations “are designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the traveling public ... (And) to improve public safety,” according to the regulation packet, created by the Clermont County Engineer’s Office. FULL STORY, A4
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Cheyenne always smiled
Counselors to help classmates of girl killed in house fire By John Seney jseney@communitypress.com
Grief counselors were to be on hand Tuesday when students returned to classes at Clermont Northeastern Elementary School after one of their classmates died in a fire. Eight-year-old Cheyenne Ward died Thursday, Aug. 26, in a Jackson Township house fire. CNE Superintendent Neil Leist said counselors from the district as well as the county would be at the school. Ward would have been a second-grader, said Principal Glenda Greene. The school staff and students expect to do a memorial for Ward, but no definite plans had been made, Greene said. Her teacher last year, Brandy Craver, said Ward “was just such a joy. She was eager to learn and always had a smile on her face.” It was the first fatal fire in Jackson township since 1996, said Fire Chief Bill Wiederhold. The Clermont County Sheriff’s Office said fire units and sheriff’s deputies arrived at 3002 U.S. 50 at 11:12 p.m. Wiederhold said Ward’s grandmother, Stella Ward, 68, climbed out a second story window onto the roof of the burning house and was rescued by neighbors by the time firefighters arrived. After being rescued, Ward told
Cheyenne continued A2
An 8-year-old girl died in this house at the corner of U.S. 50 and Locust Street in Jackson Township Aug. 26.
THERESA L. HERRON/STAFF
4-H Club members to hold benefit car wash, bake sale
Members of the Survivors 4-H Club in Owensville will hold a bake sale and car wash Saturday, Sept. 11, to benefit the family of an 8-year-old girl who died in a Jackson Township fire. Leslie Younger, leader of the 4-H club, said the girl, Cheyenne Ward, attended some of the club’s meetings and was thinking of becoming a member, although she was not yet a member. “A lot of the kids in the group knew her because they all went to CNE (Clermont Northeastern Elementary School),” she said. The benefit will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Karen’s Place, 307 S. Broadway, Owensville. The money raised will be donated to the Ward family, Younger said.
THERESA L. HERRON/STAFF
Fire was seen coming from this house in Jackson Township late Aug. 26.
Jones OKed as levy committee chair By Mary Dannemiller
Goshen Township Fire levy
mdannemiller@communitypress.com
George Jones has replaced Goshen Township Trustee Ray Autenrieb as the new chair of the Committee to Keep a Safe and Secure Goshen. As the committee’s chair, Jones will help coordinate efforts to promote a 3-mill replacement fire levy on the November ballot. Autenrieb resigned, leaving room for Trustee Jack Kuntz to remain on the committee as treasurer. Autenrieb said it could be a violation of Ohio Sunshine Law for two trustees to serve on this committee. “I will make myself available to the new chairman if he has questions or concerns. I will help in any way without violating the law,” Autenrieb said. Also, he said he would be available to help the committee with efforts like walking door to door to promote the levy. He just
This is a 3-mill continuing replacement levy. Residents can estimate their new and old net annual costs from the chart below. Appraised value $100,000 $150,000 $200,000
New net annual cost $91.87 $137.81 $183.75
Old net annual cost $30.04 $45.06 $80.08
Source: Clermont County Auditor’s Office. This information is for this levy only.
will not attend a meeting. Autenrieb was not a trustee when he served as chair during the safety services levy campaign in 2008. If passed, the levy will bring in about $793,000 a year, according to Chuck Tilbury, chief deputy with the Clermont County Auditor’s Office. The current levy brings in about $282,000 annually. Currently, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 pays $30.04 a year; $150,000, $45.08; and $200,000, $60.08, Tilbury said. The new levy would cost owners of homes valued at $100,000, an addi-
tional $61.83 per year for a new total of $91.87 annually. For a home valued at $150,000, the cost would increase by $92.75 per year for a total of $137.81 and $200,000 an increase of $123.57 per year. “The committee is extremely important because a lot of people don’t realize exactly what this levy is,” Autenrieb said. “They think it’s a new levy or they think we’ve been spending money frivolously, which is not true.” Jones was appointed after the trustees asked for volunteers for the position at their Aug. 24 meeting after Autenrieb resigned. He
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said he volunteered because he wanted to support both the trustees and the fire department. “I’d like to see the future of Goshen grow and I think the only way it’s going to grow is to pass our levy for the fire and EMS,” he said. “We have a lot of elderly people in the community and they rely on our EMS and fire department to be and if this levy doesn’t pass, they won’t be able to be there like they are now.” The new committee chair also said he wants to reach residents in every corner of Goshen. “I want to target the people who are in the remote area of Goshen Township closer to the borderline of Goshen and Stonelick and Wayne Township,” he said. “I want to bring them into the community to be aware of what’s going on and involve them. I think it’s very important for them to know because their response times will go from 15 minutes to 45 minutes if the levy fails and cuts are made.”