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Ken Steffen
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving Fort Thomas E-mail: kynews@communitypress.com
Volume 11, Number 46 © 2011 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Lights out
After an overwhelming amount of requests from their patrons, the Buckhead Mountain Grill in Bellevue went smoke-free April 5. “Even though the smoking ban was repealed, we have decided to listen to our guests and what they want,” Angela Jimenez, Buckhead Mountain Grill General Manager said. “The numbers were staggering in the data we collected and we believe it to be in the best interest of our guests and our business to take the leap and go smoke-free.”
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T h u r s d a y, A p r i l
7, 2011
RECORDER W e b s i t e : N K Y. c o m
B E C A U S E C O M M U N I T Y M AT T E R S
Council to review chicken law By Amanda Joering Alley
ajoering@nky.com
After receiving a letter from a resident complaining about a neighbor raising chickens in their backyard, the Fort Thomas City Council is reviewing the ordinance that allows it, which was passed in 1943. Bluegrass Avenue residents Dan and Donna Fehler sent the letter questioning the ordinance, which states residents can keep up to 100 chickens or rabbits on their property for personal use as long as the animals are at least 50 feet
from any other house. Donna Fehler said even though she hates to bother the city with this problem, her neighbors raising chickens has been on ongoing issue that can’t seem to be resolved civilly. “This is a definite strain on our neighborhood because we aren’t the only people that aren’t happy about this,” Fehler said. “These neighbors think it’s OK to keep chickens as pets, but I believe chickens belong on a farm or in a rural neighborhood, not in the middle of Fort Thomas.” Fehler said she has lived in her
Devon Younger and Pam Barlow sport their Cincinnati Reds gear while watching the opening day game at the Olde Fort Pub in Fort Thomas Thursday, March 31.
Southern Campbell County continues to be a place where home builders want to sell, and in one developing neighborhood Potterhill Homes has a model home open that’s been awarded best floor plan in the region. he home builders associations of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky awarded the modified ranch-style “"Hemingway” home model from Potterhill Homes the best floor plan in the region for 2010. The Hemingway model house is available for viewing in the Pond Creek Crossing community near Campbell County High School. NEWS, A4 Keep up with news from across Northern Kentucky by liking “NKY.com” on Facebook.
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home for more than 40 years and has never had a problem like this. She is concerned that having a neighbor with a “make-shift farm” in their backyard will decrease the value of her home if she ever decides to sell. The chickens have often been a nuisance, Fehler said, between having to hear them clucking to them driving neighborhood dogs crazy. “Fort Thomas isn’t the way it used to be in 1943, and I think it’s time to take a look at that ordinance again,” Fehler said. City Administrator Donald Martin said under the current ordi-
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Dr. Brian Hackett helps his students Tiffany Best and Aleia Brown work on part of the Beverly Hills exhibit. PROVIDED
Museum prepares for new exhibits By Amanda Joering Alley ajoering@nky.com
The Fort Thomas Military and Community Museum is busting at the seams with one new exhibit set to open this month and one in the works for early next year. On Saturday, April 16, a new exhibit about the Beverly Hills Supper Club will be opening, complete with survivor’s stories and artifacts from the club. The exhibit is being put together by the museum exhibits class at Northern Kentucky University, that has been working on the project since January. “The exhibit is going to cover everything from when the club first opened to after the tragic fire,” said Cierra Earl, a student in the class.
Richard Challis, another student in the class who went to the supper club when it was still open, said there was so much to the club besides the fire that closed it. “There were so many big names and big events at that club,” Challis said. “Before Vegas was the showplace of the country, this was.” In January, the museum is hosting the Smithsonian Institutes’s Journey Stories exhibit, a traveling exhibit that is making five stops in Kentucky throughout the year. Debbie Buckley, the city’s Renaissance manager, said she is thrilled to have the exhibit coming to Fort Thomas. “The Smithsonian is the ultimate in museums, so to be able to host one of their exhibits really
gives credence to what we’re trying to do here,” Buckley said. The exhibit, which is being brought to the city with the help of the Kentucky Humanities Council, is a large interactive exhibit featuring information about the migration of people throughout the country. Buckley said for the city’s part of the exhibit, they are collecting stories from community members about how their families ended up in this area. Buckley said other new happenings at the museum include a native garden surrounding the museum that is being planted by the Fort Thomas Forest Conservancy. The museum is also now open six days a week from noon to 4 p.m. and closed Mondays.
nance, residents must get a permit from the zoning administrator, who may check up on the residence at anytime to make sure the resident is following certain guidelines, like keeping the animals in an enclosure. Martin said the neighbors in question have the necessary permit to have the chickens on their property. After reviewing the letter, the council decided to have the law, labor and license committee review the ordinance to see if it should be changed in any way. For more about your community, visit www.nky.com/fortthomas
County wins grant for radios By Chris Mayhew cmayhew@nky.com
Firefighters and emergency responders have been well equipped for years with working radios, and a $295,350 federal grant will help Campbell County agencies defray half the cost of keeping up with a federal mandate requiring an upgrade of radio technology. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters matching grant will cover costs for multiple agencies including 10 fire departments in the county, the Campbell County Office of Emergency Management and search and rescue and water rescue teams. It’s great to receive the money, but also a great achievement in cooperation between all the agencies that pooled their resources together to support and back the grant application, said Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery. “It’s a wonderful thing when multiple jurisdictions are going to have their needs addressed in one grant like that,” Pendery said. If each jurisdiction tried to write up a grant application on their own, they’d all have to have the technical expertise required in the questions that have to be answered in the process, he said. The Fort Thomas Fire Department took the lead in the grant writing and proposal process to FEMA, but others from multiple agencies including the Alexandria Fire Department contributed technical and other expertise to make it a successful effort, said Greg Schultz, a captain for Fort Thomas and president of the Campbell County Firefighters Education Association.
See GRANT on page A2