Issuu

NORTHEAST

SUBURBAN LIFE

Your Community Press newspaper serving Blue Ash, Montgomery, Sycamore Township, Symmes Township

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014

75¢

BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS

Montgomery family starts year out in the

COLD

By Marika Lee

mlee1@communitypress.com

For the 14th year the DiGiovannas, of Montgomery, did not sleep in after celebrating the New Year. Instead they participated in a Polar Plunge to raise funds for research 15-year-old Shane’s rare skin condition. The 14th annual Farcical Aquatic Ceremony was at the DiGiovannas’ backyard pool at 12043 Cooperwood Lane at 10 a.m. Jan. 1, Chuck DiGiovanna said. The event is to raise money for epidermolysis bullosa, which is a rare skin condition that prevents the layers of the skin from binding together making the skin very easily damaged, Chuck said. He added his son goes through four to five hours of medicial care each day because of all the bandaging required. The family started the event when they were living in Connecticut and would jump into Long Island Sound. After finding the best medical care for Shane at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the family relocated. “We moved back to Cincinnati for Children’s Hospital. There wasn’t an ocean to jump into, so we bought a house with a pool,” Chuck said. The event now takes place in both locations, with an audio feed going between the two, which Shane uses to make the speech he does every year. Chuck said this year the event is focused on making donations to

Montgomery resident Ron Delsignore jumps in the pool. (An optional tradition some people do is crazy dressing.) THANKS TO PERRI SCHENKER Trying to warm up at the fire post-jump of the Montgomery Polar Bear Plunge. From left: Gabe Schenker, Nathan Gregg and Ryan Stoneberger, all Sycamore seniors, and Adam Lucken, Sycamore junior.THANKS

Neighbors Gabe, Mike and Elyse Schenker, post-jump. THANKS TO PERRI SCHENKER

MORE ONLINE See more photos from the 2014 Polar Bear Plunge at Cincinnati.com/photos.

Ebkids.org in Shane’s name and to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital EB Center. A collections box will be provided at the event for funds and gently used iPod touches and iPad to keep the patients at the EB center entertained during their stay. “It’s for friends and family and really for everyone at Children’s,” he said, adding about 40

TO PERRI SCHENKER

See COLD, Page A2

Board to hear zoning case for landscaping By Leah Fightmaster

nesuburban@communitypress.com

The Board of Trustees will hear a zoning case on Jan. 2 that will decide if at least 10 trees have to remain on Kemper Road at Goldcrest Drive. THANKS TO GREG BICKFORD

BEACH BALLS A4 Moeller basketball returns from holiday tourney

A zoning case with an upcoming public hearing is pulling plans out of the archives. The Board of Trustees heard a zoning case Jan. 2 regarding landscaping at the corner of Kemper Road and Goldcoast Drive, in which Goldcoast Properties of Cincinnati wants to change the landscaping. Greg Bickford, acting township administrator/planning and zoning director, said the trees on that corner are thick, and Goldcoast wants to change it. However, the changes don’t

FENNEL OF LOVE Incorporate healthy greens into your diet with pizza See Rita’s Kitchen, B3

match the township’s code. He said the development was created back in the 1980s to the best of his knowledge, and the landscaping plan isn’t specific. Bickford added that in that case, the current number of trees have to be maintained or they can be replaced according to the township’s current zoning code. Sycamore’s zoning code says that 10 trees would have to be replaced, but Goldcoast only wants to replant five along Kemper Road, Bickford said. Craig Hopewell, general counsel for Belcan, an engineering and staffing company in-

News ..........................248-8600 Retail advertising ..............768-8404 Classified advertising .........242-4000 Delivery ........................576-8240 See page A2 for additional information

volved in the case, said at the zoning commission meeting Dec. 9 that the change was requested because another staffing company, Belflex, will be on the property and wants to have better visibility from Kemper Road while it rebrands the company. Bickford added that the Zoning Commission recommended denying the change and requiring the corner to meet the code’s minimum of five trees. Want to know what’s going on in Sycamore Township? Visit Cincinnati.com/SycamoreTownship.