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THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK ###
Covington announces tech services development Former shopping center at Latonia race track site to be home to $7 million development Chris Mayhew Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Griffin Kelley tosses the Price Hill Press neighborhood weekly newspaper onto a client's porch on April 30, in West Price Hill. Kelley's route is part of the Cincinnati Enquirer junior carrier program. Kelley started helping his older brothers deliver papers when he was six-years-old and has been helping deliver them ever since. The program is scheduled to end at the end of May. ALBERT CESARE /THE ENQUIRER
Century-old Tradition Coming To An End Junior newspaper carriers, having served the Tristate for decades, are being retired
Cameron Knight Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
We’re losing another piece of “the good old days,” as junior carriers stop delivering weekly newspapers in the suburbs. This newspaper has been using junior carriers since at least the 1870s, but more likely since its launch in 1841. During that time, young people delivering newspapers has become a touchstone of the American experience. May will be the last month The Enquirer and its network of Community Press and Recorder newspapers will use junior carriers, also known as paper boys and paper girls in Ohio. The Kentucky carriers will deliver their last papers in June. Some East Side carriers have already made their last rounds.
Paper route taught life lessons Ben Bergan is 10. He just lost his fi rst job. For the past two years, he’s been delivering papers near his home in Montgomery. “I decided I needed a continuous income because I didn’t like having a lemonade stand or two every year or so,” Ben
Ben Bergan is 10. He just lost his fi rst job. said. “I did not like having to ask my mom or dad for anything any time we went anywhere and I wanted something.” To say the elementary school student is entrepreneurial is an understatement. He started with one route, about 12 houses, but then picked up an extra route. “I’m really sad about losing my customers, all the people,” he said. He recalled an older couple would wave at him through the window every time he dropped off a paper. His father, Dave Bergan, said it has
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Two former big box stores in a shopping center in Latonia will be remade into the home for two Northern Kentucky computer technology service companies, said Covington offi cials in a recent news conference. Offi cials, including Mayor Joe Meyer and Economic Development Director Tom West, made the announcement with the owners of two businesses over a Zoom online video conference. The former Latonia Shopping Center, built in the 1960s atop the former Latonia horse racing track, will be remade, Meyer said. Meyer The remaking of 200,000 square feet in the former Value City and Burlington Coat Factory stores will be done by Florence-based Blair Technology Group and Covington-based ReGadget. “We expect this to be about a $7 million project overall,” said Andy Blair, founder of Blair Technology and a coowner of ReGadget. The companies have purchased the two former big box stores from Schottenstein Property Group of Columbus, Ohio, under a new venture called CovTech Investments, said Kurt Reynolds of ReGadget. ReGadget, a provider of educational computers and software to schools, will move 24 employees from its Florence location. Reynolds said ReGadget will hire 10 more employees immediately, and 30-40 more in a year’s time. Schottenstein Property Group still owns the remainder of Latonia Shopping Center, Reynolds said. Covington-based Blair, a refurbisher of laptop and desktop computers, will expand from its current headquarters in the former Johnny’s Toys location on Howard Litzler Drive a few blocks away in Latonia. Blair’s current Tech Castle headquarters and retail store will remain at its current location. Blair is the number one authorized refurbisher of Microsoft products, according to a Covington news release. Blair plans to add 30 to 40 more employees, according to the release. Meyer, to start the press conference, said he remembered people being excited about the shopping center when it was fi rst started in the 1960s. “It needs a new future, and the people of Latonia have long wanted to see that center refocused and revitalized,” Meyer said.
Ben Bergan, 10, delivers newspapers in Montgomery. He said started the job when he was 8 because he wanted "continuous income." PROVIDED/DAVE BERGAN
been an emotional experience for his son. “He wanted a job. For an eight-yearold to say they wanted a job, this is all we could fi nd,” Bergan said. “This was just his fi rst regular job and responsibility where he was serving his customers. That’s just a hard skill to replicate in other ways at young ages.”
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Ben said the job helped him connect with other people in his neighborhood and taught him “you have to be nice to people in order for them to continue talking to you.” But the 10-year-old has plans. He’s learning to run a lawnmower and See CARRIERS, Page 2A
News: 513-903-6027, Retail advertising: 513-768-8404, Classified advertising: 513-242-4000, Delivery: 859-781-4421, Subscriptions: 513-248-7113. See page A2 for additonal information
The Latonia Shopping Center now occupies the site of the Latonia Race Track, where the racehorse Sarazen broke Man O' War's American record for a mile and a quarter. THE ENQUIRER/DOUG TIFFT
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