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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
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Forest Park offers pickleball clinic Sept. 19 Jennie Key jkey@communitypress.com
JENNIE KEY/THE COMMUNITY PRESS
Mount Healthy Police Sgt. Nick Michael looks over evidence on shelves in the newly reorganized property room at the police department.
Mt. Healthy property room gets overhaul Jennie Key jkey@communitypress.com
Imagine cleaning a garage in which you have been storing things for 20 years. The Mount Healthy Police Department took on a similar task this summer, overhauling its property room. Sgt. Nick Michael, who oversees the property room, worked with Steven Kramer of Anomaly Consulting to improve the department’s property room and set up a agreement with a private agency to clear out more than 400 items including drugs and weapons from closed criminal cases. The department’s policies and procedures regarding the property room are also being beefed up. Michael said the city stopped using the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for disposal in 2010, and for the next six years, that evidence simply remained in the department’s property room. “It was hard to stay organized,” Michael said. “We don’t have unlimited space in there.” It’s important for property rooms to be organized. There is
If you want to cook at pickleball, you have to stay out of the kitchen. The “kitchen” is is a no-volley zone in pickleball, a small area a couple of feet in front of the net that keeps players from getting too close. It’s one of the many phrases and rules that can make learning pickleball a challenge. The learning curve isn’t discouraging people from picking up the pickleball paddles. Touted as one of the fastest growing sports in America, indoor and outdoor pickleball courts can be found in all 50 states. The national pickleball association’s website, www.usapa.org, provides an interactive map of where the sport can be played. Pickleball, best described as a combination of tennis, badminton and table tennis, is played with paddles and a perforated ball on a court roughly half the size of a tennis court. The sport’s appeal, especially for senior citizens, is largely due to the smaller court size. It’s not as grueling as tennis because there is less ground to cover, but it still requires quick movement, fast reflexes, hand-eye coordination and technique. Pickleball is gaining in popularity, and a number of area recreation centers are teaching the game, starting leagues and sponsoring clinics. Forest Park property manager Jerry Ernst competed in the Senior Olympics in Columbus, qualifying for the 2017 National Senior Games in Birmingham, Alabama, and now, he’s teaching pickleball clinics for the city.
The first clinic is set up this month and will be a beginner’s pickleball clinic at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, on the newly renovated Forest Park Courts behind the Forest Park Senior Center at 11555 Winton Road. Forest Park’s tennis courts were repaired this summer, and two of the courts were striped for pickleball. Taffy Jackson, the city’s recreation director, said as soon as the clinics were announced, some residents pushed for more, requesting additional clinics be offered on nights and weekends to allow those who work or go to school to attend. Jackson says the recreation department hopes to accommodate those requests, and she is planning to add clinics if the first one is well attended. She says the timing of this clinic was aimed at residents who might already be at the senior center for programs, and might stay for the clinic. “It’s right after line dancing,” she said. “We are hoping they might stick around and try something new.” Forest Park assistant Fire Chief Jermaine Hill, who heads up the city’s We Thrive health initiative, says pickleball is another way to encourage residents to be physically active. He used some of the city’s We Thrive funds to buy some paddles and pickleballs. Information about the pickleball clinics will be on the city’s website at www.forestpark.org. You can learn more about the sport at the USA pickleball Association website at www.usapa.org. For more information, residents can call 513-595-5252.
PROVIDED
Officers sorted through a large number of items from the property room this summer and more than 400 items were destroyed.
a chain of custody necessary for evidence in a criminal trial. To maintain chain of custody, police need to preserve evidence from the time it is collected to the time it is presented in court. To prove the chain of custody, and ultimately show that the evidence has remained intact, it’s important to be able to show that the evidence offered has
GRID WORKS Did you miss a high school football result from Friday night, or wondering about this week’s matchups? Go to Cincinnati.com http://cin.ci/1Cmt6hr.
been in the control of law enforcement since it was collected and has not been tampered with. Retired Cincinnati Police Lt. Steve Kramer with his firm Anomaly Consulting said maintaining control over evidence and being able to prove it has reSee POLICE, Page 2A
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PROVIDED
Jerry Ernst was part of a two-man team that qualified to play pickleball in the 2017 National Senior Games in Birmingham, Alabama.
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