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HILLTOP PRESS

Your Community Press newspaper serving College Hill, Finneytown, Forest Park, Greenhills, Mount Airy, Mount Healthy, North College Hill, Seven Hills, Springfield Township

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016

75¢ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS

Public meeting for Winton Road widening set for Feb. 4 Jennie Key jkey@communitypress.com

Plans to widen Winton Road from north of Fleming Road to Sarbrook Drive are moving along, and Hamilton County Engineer Ted Hubbard wants to give Springfield Township residents a chance to hear about the project and ask questions. Preliminary engineering for the project investigated a number of altematives, ultimately recommending widening on both sides of the road. The proposed improvement includes widening the road to provide a center tum lane, which would mean five lanes in total. Hubbard said the county secured $2.5 million in federal Urban Surface Transportation Funds to help pay for the project; construction costs are estimated at $4.85 million. The widening will be designed in the area of St. Bartholomew Church and School, the Powel Crosley

YMCA and Millbrook Drive to accommodate left turns. Residents can come to the meeting set from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at St, Bartholomew Church, 9375 Winton Road. The meeting will be an open house format. There will be no formal presentation, but there will be information about the project, and opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback on what is being planned. Comments are encouraged, either during the meeting, or they may be submitted separately by Feb. 29, by sending them to the Hamilton County Engineer’s Office, Attention: Tim Gilday, 700 County Administration Building, 138 E. Court St., Cincmnati, Ohio 45202-1232. Preparation of detailed design plans should be complete by summer, with right-of-way acquisition, beginning this summer and targeted for completion in 2017. Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer

JENNIE KEY/THE COMMUNITY PRESS

The Hamilton County Engineer is widening Winton Road between Fleming and Sarbrook and will have a public meeting on the project Feb. 4.

of 2018. Since the completion of a Winton Road corridor study in 2001, the engineer’s office has been tackling Winton Road from end to end. In 2007, the engineer’s office rehabbed and widened Winton from Reynard

Drive to Fleming Road. The rehab and widening from North Hill Lane through Reynard Drive, including the Galbraith Road intersection, happened in 2008 and the county finished rehab and upgrading traffic signals from the North

Have you checked out the library lately? Branches open doors to display host of programs, services Jennie Key jkey@communitypress.com

The word library immediately brings to mind a building full of shelves of books and smart, bookish people to help you find the one you want. Even the name contains the Latin work for book. But the library has expanded like a Narnian wardrobe in recent years. While there is still a building filled with books, the universe of services and information for which it serves as a gateway is expanding exponentially and at a dizzying speed. Greg Edwards, deputy director of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County says that’s not likely to change. His library system, the fifth busiest in the country, according to the 2015 Public Library Data Service statistical report, handed out its 600,000th library card in August and circulated more than 18 million items through its 41 branches. Lots of those items were books, and he says books will always be at the heart of library services, but his libraries are offering a lot more these days to meet the needs of those 600,000plus card holders. Libraries can help patrons learn to download e-books and other electronic items and use ereaders. In addition to books, magazines and newspapers can be checked out in electronic form. Looking for a job? Your local library can help. Research for a school paper? Your local library can help. Need a computer to use for a couple hours? Try your local library. Homework too

CHOCOLATE IS LANGUAGE OF LOVE 7A Truffle recipes for kids and adults.

JENNIE KEY/THE COMMUNITY PRESS

Erica Riddick works on a candy cane Valentine wreath during the monthly craft program at the North Central branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

tough? Many branches have homework help. Delight your inner crafter? Entertain your toddler? Feed hungry kids over the summer? Check out your local library. Want to learn how to sew? Make a button? Print and bind a book? Main Library’s MakerSpace. A makerspace is a place where creative people can gather, create, invent and learn. Customers of the Library have access to 3D printers, audio and visual equipment, laser cutters and engravers, sewing machines, cameras and other hardware and software tools that they can use for free to create pretty much anything they can imagine. Some machines readditional materials quire

which may be bought for a fee. Upcoming programs are listed on the library’s website and patrons can reserve stations for up to an hour at a time to work on projects. Available equipment at the MakerSpace at the Main Liincludes: 3Doodler, brary Crayola Melt ‘N Mold Factory, button makers, Ellison die cutting machine, MaKey MaKey, Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting tool, 3-D printers, an audio recording booth, Canon DSLR cameras, a laser cutter/ engraver, a large format vinyl printer/cutter, sewing stations, VHS to digital conversion, VHS to DVD conversion, cassette tape to digital conversion, slide and image scanner, high perfor-

YOUR ONLINE HOME Find local news from your neighborhood at Cincinnati.com/ communities

mance computers, and software packages to complete projects. Patrons may come to libraries for WIFI, to use printers or to escape the cold, or charge their phone. If near a school, children may spend time in the library because it’s close and it’s safe. They know the library workers at their branch. They can get help with homework. Programs and services at the libraries grow from needs in the community. Edwards said the staff at the branches get a lot of feedback, and library systems share ideas with their colleagues. “We do card holder surveys, track trends among our users and demand drives some of the services we offer,” he said. Next on the horizon, the library will offer hotspots, portable WIFI that can be checked out from branch libraries by patrons. “They can be checked out and used at home or when people are on vacation,” he said. As the library acquires users, its directors and administrators are constantly checking to see what services they want and need. While Edwards said people think of books initially, libraries are places for community members to gather, to meet, to learn and do. “Outside our buildings look the same,” he said. “Inside, we still have books, but we have a lot more going on.” Local branches are in tune with the needs of the communities they serve. Ned Heeger Brehm, branch manager at the Groesbeck branch library, says the branches are groups into regions not by geography, but by the focus branch based on the patrons who most often visit the branch.

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Bend Road intersections to Harbury Drive in 2013. Coupled with work in Forest Park, Greenhills and Cincinnati, Winton Road will eventually have been rehabbed from its start at Spring Grove Avenue north to the Butler County line.

LOCAL LIBRARY BRANCHES College Hill 1400 W. North Bend Road, 45224 513-369-6036 Forest Park 655 Waycross Road, 45240 513-369-4478 Green Township 6525 Bridgetown Road, 45248 513-369-6095 Greenhills 7 Endicott St., 45218 513-369-4441 Groesbeck 2994 W. Galbraith Road, 45239 513-369-4454 Monfort Heights 3825 West Fork Road, 45247 513-369-4472 Mount Healthy 7608 Hamilton Ave., 45231 513-369-4469 North Central 11109 Hamilton Ave., 45231 513-369-6068

WHAT YOU PAY The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is partially supported by tax dollars. In November 2013, the voters of Hamilton County approved a 10-year renewal tax levy which will provide funding through 2024. The 1-mill property tax costs the owner of a $100,000 home $30 annually. In 2014, the levy generated about $18 million , which is about third of the library’s $56 million annual revenue. According to the 2014 annual report, the Hamilton County library received about $36 million or 63 percent of its funding from the state’s public library fund. Taxes represent 32 percent of the funding. Patron fines and fees account for just under $1.4 million or 2.4 percent and other revenue 2.1 percent.