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COMMUNITY RECORDER
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving Covington, Independence, Latonia, Ryland Heights, Taylor Mill E-mail: kynews@communitypress.com T h u r s d a y, J a n u a r y
Kathy Moughler at Buffalo Bob’s Restaurant.
Volume 14 Issue 12 © 2010 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Learning abroad
Students in Kenton County School District are being given the opportunity to interact and ask questions of professionals on a national level. Read about the district’s Talk to You Live career sessions hosted by the district and tailored to students. SCHOOLS, A5
Hoops
Local teams are gearing up for state tournaments as boy’s and girl’s basketball teams come out of a round of holiday play. Read how local teams are positioned in terms of getting ready to go to state. SPORTS, A6
7, 2010
Get some tips from area experts in how to live up to those New Year’s resolutions. Read what organizations from the Healthy Monday Coalition of Northern Kentucky to Silverlake Recreation Center suggest to keep you fit and motivated through January and beyond. LIFE, B1
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Linden Grove plans start to take shape By Regan Coomer rcoomer@nky.com
A Linden Grove Cemetery master plan aims to preserve the historic integrity of the site while expanding burial space, creating walking paths, re-instating a buried lake and constructing a new access road. “You want to preserve the dignity of the dead that are buried there, but at the same time, that’s the best single piece of green space available to the urban core of the city of Covington,” said cemetery board member Pete Nerone. “It’s a neat resource to the city. It’s important to turn that into something useable.” For the last two years board members have been developing the plan to not only improve the circa-1800s cemetery, but also to bring it out of receivership with Kenton County and Covington, Nerone said, explaining that LinREGAN COOMER/STAFF den Grove has been financially Linden Grove Cemetery’s oversight board has developed a 20-year master plan that will help support the site financially for years to come. dependent on the county and city since the ’30s. plan is re-creating a lake that had there are other areas to be utilized chase an available plot there. “We hope the improvements been filled in when I-75 was built, as grave sites, Nerone said, adding Linden Grove Cemetery board will remove it from being a burden Nerone said. that the cemetery’s age had made members presented the plan to the on the public to a resource for the Cemetery board members it hard in the past to know exact- Kenton County Fiscal Court in public,” Nerone said. December. would like to move the lake else- ly where burials have occurred. Nerone estimates the total where in the cemetery for irrigaCommissioner Kris Knochel“They spent the fall semester in master plan cost to be more than tion purposes and stabilize the the cemetery actually mapping out mann called the plan a “great $1 million with improvements current filled-in lake area to be on grids and documenting all of idea.” taking place over the 20 years. used as new grave space, which the grave stones and markers,” “Hopefully the dollars are Currently the board is working to can be sold and thereby provide Nerone said. “We’ve been very eventually there to get it done put exact numbers to each step of new revenue for Linden Grove. right,” he said. lucky to have that work done.” the master plan, which will then Judge-Executive Ralph Drees Eventually the board plans to A grave site inventory just be presented to the entities in the completed by a Northern Ken- have Linden Grove records avail- said the plan, if carried out, would spring or summer. tucky University archeology class able online for historic purposes as be a “big improvement,” adding, “it An essential part of the master will help the board determine if well as for those wanting to pur- will draw people to the cemetery.”
County buildings could get greener By Regan Coomer rcoomer@nky.com
Kenton County could save as much as $98,000 a year if county officials choose to implement proposed energy efficiency improvements. Ameresco, an independent energy solutions company, is currently assessing county buildings for possible energy savings improvements and upgrades. Kenton County could utilize almost $400,000 in a Energy Efficiency Community Block grant, allocated to the county through
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the federal stimulus packages, to pay for the improvements, but total project cost is estimated to be about $959,000, said Teresa Barton, the Ameresco executive handling Kenton County. Higher-efficiency lights, appliances, better windows and the use of natural gas are just some of the things that could make a big financial difference for the county, Barton said. No final decisions have been made as to which changes will be carried out or how the county will pay for the project at this time. Currently the energy savings
company is hammering out the exact costs of energy saving recommendations and which of these commission is most amenable to. “We’re developing the most advantageous plan for the county. That means not taking every possible measure, but taking the measures into consideration that will produce the best pay back for the shortest term,” Barton said. Ameresco guarantees a certain amount of savings to its clients within 12 years. If the savings guarantee is not met, the company is liable for it. “The savings are guaranteed so
we have to be very accurate,” Barton told the fiscal court in December. County Personnel Director Joe Shriver said a contract with Ameresco will be brought before the court in about two months. Judge-Executive Ralph Drees hopes there will be enough funds in the county’s reserve to pay for the rest of the energy improvements because he does not want to take out a loan. “I think we should move forward,” he said. “We should hopefully have enough in reserve when we get through with the jail to have money to do this.”
Safety sought for McCullum/Ky 17 junction By Regan Coomer rcoomer@nky.com
Independence doesn’t want to wait for tragedy to strike before addressing the potentially dangerous intersection of McCullum Pike and Ky-17. To date, there has been five or six accidents at the intersection, said Independence Police Captain Tony Lucas. “It concerns me there has to be a major accident or fatality before a decision is made,” said Council member Mary Pat Behler of the 4way intersection. After discussing the intersec-
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tion at December’s council meeting, the city sent a letter to Rob Hans, director of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s District 6 office in Fort Mitchell, asking for a re-evaluation of the road and the installation of some kind of traffic signal on the spot. Copies were also sent to State Rep. Tom Kerr, R-Taylor Mill, and State Sen. Damon Thayer, RGeorgetown, asking for their support. The state’s traffic division has started a review of the intersection in response to Independence’s request, Hans said. The study should be complete,
weather permitting, by the end of January. “We can’t go out there and do studies in non-ideal weather because it wouldn’t operate as it usually would,” Hans said. Hans said the traffic division will administer a full turn movement study of the intersection and evaluate traffic counts, accidents, delay times and more. A similar request was made soon after the new Ky-17 opened in 2008, said City Administrator Dan Groth, but the traffic counts at the time did not justify a light. District 6 did remove McCullum Pike’s left and right turn lanes at
that time because it had been hard for vehicles turning right to see around through traffic, but now, during rush hour especially, cars are pulling off the road to turn right anyway, Groth said. “It has turned back into a dangerous situation,” he explained. Mayor Chris Moriconi said a yellow flashing light would improve the intersection, but he’d go so far as to support a regular traffic light. “Anything would be better than what there is now,” he said. “I know of no other four-lane intersection going 55 mph with no light.”
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