INDIAN HILL
JOURNAL
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving Indian Hill
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THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Indian Hill could consider private fundraisers for Grand Valley projects By Rob Dowdy rdowdy@communitypress.com
There haven’t been many renovation projects at Grand Valley in recent years, but that could change in the near future. Indian Hill could allow private fundraising in order to pay for numerous potential projects at Grand Valley over the next 10 years.
Indian Hill Village Councilman Dan Feigelson said the village could consider several projects listed in the Grand Valley McLean Nature Preserve if private fundraising is allowed to pay for the projects.
Councilwoman Lindsay McLean said the Grand Valley Advisory Committee will meet later this summer to consider private fundraising and will report back to council with its thoughts on the matter. McLean said with the success of Indian Hill Veterans Memorial, which was paid for entirely with private donations, it might be worth considering for Grand
Valley. “Obviously, we would like to improve Grand Valley,” she said. Potential projects for Grand Valley include a pedestrian bridge ($100,000) between lakes one and two, updating the entrance ($50,000), landscaping and several other projects that would be considered if private fundraising is allowed and obtained. McLean said “these are possi-
bilities” and there is no certainty any of the projects would be started if the funding isn’t there. McLean noted Grand Valley is popular with residents and customers of the Indian Hill water system, which has access to the nature preserve. She said the average daily attendance at Grand Valley in April was 56 people, with 128 visiting on the weekends.
Speeding drivers concern Camp Dennison resident By Leah Fightmaster lfightmaster@communitypress.com
Indian Hill resident Dick Hannan was recently awarded the University of Cincinnati Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship. Hannan ran his own company, Mercury Instruments, for 45 years before selling it in 2009. ROB DOWDY/ THE COMMUNITY PRESS
A Mercurial career Indian Hill man wins UC Lifetime Achievement Award
By Rob Dowdy rdowdy@communitypress.com
Indian Hill resident Dick Hannan always put the customer first, and it served him well in his 45 years as a business owner. Hannan was honored by the University of Cincinnati with the school’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship. Hannan began Mercury Instruments, a company that manufactured equipment that gave precise measurements of gas flow and volume, in 1964. Prior to starting his own business, Hannan had a varied career that took him from Boston, where he grew up, to the Marine Corps. to Cincinnati, where Mercury Instruments began. After leaving the Marines for graduate school at Wharton Graduate School of Business, Hannan worked for Gillette in Boston and
PEDALERS B1 Students were in gear for Cincinnati Country Day School’s annual Bike-a-Thon.
the Association of Scientific Apparatus Makers in Chicago, where he gained the valuable contacts that led him to start his own company. Hannan said he started the company by traveling to natural gas suppliers and inquiring about problems they faced in the field. With that valuable information, often obtained through lunch meetings with gas supplier employees, Hannan worked to address the issues they faced and sold the solutions to the major gas suppliers. Mercury Instruments would eventually sell its wares on six continents. Hannan said he never made it to Antartica, though not from a lack of trying. Despite the success the company achieved in more than 45 years, Hannan said he never broke the one company rule he es-
RIDERS
tablished on the first day. Hannan said there was “no discussion of the word ‘profit’ ... event at board meetings.” He said he didn’t want to fall into the trap so many successful companies did. “They get hung up on profits and they forget the customer,” Hannan said. Hannan’s strong work ethic began early in life. He said he started working at age 12 and hitchhiked from Boston to Alaska over eight days during one summer away from college to work for a construction company. Hannan moved quickly through the ranks during his short time in the Marines, moving from private to captain in Marine Air Intelligence. He was also a lecturer in management at the University of Cincinnati for 12 years.
Some residents of Camp Dennison are concerned about speed. Ohio State Route 126, or Glendale-Milford Road in that area, runs straight through the middle of Camp Dennison in Symmes Township, between Indian Hill and the Clermont County border. A winding road with several small hills, speeding over the limit is not only illegal but dangerous, especially on this stretch, said D’Arcy Havill, Camp Dennison resident. Havill went to Symmes Township’s Board of Trustees last month asking the trustees to come up with a solution for cars that speed through on GlendaleMilford Road. While the road is technically state-managed, Havill hoped the township could contact the Ohio Department of Transportation. The intersection Havill is most worried about, at Glendale-Milford and Lincoln roads, is at the top of an area where the road is at an incline. When approaching it from the south, Havill said visibility is at a “bare minimum” and many drivers do not obey the 35-mph speed limit. “People come up over the hill so fast they can’t see or stop,” he said. At the intersection sits Tranter’s Tasty Treats, 7832 Glendale-Milford Road, which attracts many children and families. Havill said a lot of children live on the west side of the road, which means they would have to cross the intersection to get to the ice cream shop. Havill originally suggested to the board that ODOT could build a speed study there, but
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Administrator Brian Elliff was wary to recommend it. He said sometimes ODOT increases speed limits after speed studies, which would not be a productive solution. Another suggestion was to install a speed radar that when a driver approached it over the designated speed limit, it flashed red. Havill said it was easier to slow drivers because if one was pulled over and the police officer saw the radar, there was little argument about whether the driver was speeding. “It told the officer that the driver saw the sign, saw it flash red and still chose to speed,” he said. “I would like to see something like that in Camp Dennison. At least, around that intersection.” Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Butler said he would increase patrols in Camp Dennison, which Havill said he has noticed. Elliff said that when he contacted ODOT, something was already being discussed for the intersection. Installed the first week of May, Havill said the solution was to install two small signs before the intersection alerting drivers. While the signs have only been there a few days, Havill said he has not noticed a difference. He said that while the signs are a passive solution, he believes a more active and effective solution would be the speed radars. “I’m really kind of looking for some sort of radar and deputies being down more often,” Havill said. “… It would be very unfortunate if a child was killed crossing the street.”
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