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Your Community newspaper serving Colerain Township, Green Township, Groesbeck, Monfort Heights, Pleasant Run, Seven Hills, White Oak E-mail: northwestpress@communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, J u n e 1 7 , 2 0 0 9
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Saying goodbye
Hundreds of students, friends and relatives honored the memory of 17Phillips year-old Jessica Phillips, a Colerain High school junior killed in a one-car crash last week. – FULL STORY, A2
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Volume 92 Number 19 © 2009 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Quaker Steak working to keep it down By Jennie Key
jkey@communitypress.com
Thursday night is Bike Night at the Stonecreek Quaker Steak and Lube and neighbors of the eatery say they don’t need flyers to know it. Mike and Pam Collins, residents of adjacent Sagebrush Lane, told trustees last month they hear the band playing and the bikes leaving the parking lot. “The music stops around 10,” Pam said. “But the bikes keep going until 12:30 p.m.” The police department has already investigated as it has received noise complaints from residents of the Yacht Club, across Interstate 275 from the restaurant. Chief Dan Meloy and Colerain Township Trustee Joseph Wolterman visited the Yacht Club on the May 14 Bike Night after talking with officials from Quaker Steak and Lube about the problems. Since the original complaints were registered, Meloy said the restaurant owners agreed to cut music off on time and posted signs in the parking lot telling motorcycle operators not to rev their engines. Meloy said he has had an open dialogue with the restaurant operators and they are willing to work with the township to address the concerns.
“We want to make it work. I have chased people down in the parking lot and told them if this continues, don’t come back.
B.J. Cahill manager of Stonecreek Quaker Steak and Lube
JENNIE KEY/STAFF
Thursday Bike Nights at the Stone Creek Quaker Steak and Lube are a good time and raise a lot of money for charity. Restaurant owners are working with Colerain Township police and neighbors of the eatery to insure they can continue to have them. “The restaurant owners from Pittsburgh told me they have a $5 million investment in this community and they want it to work. They want to be good neighbors,” Meloy said. Wolterman said the township will keep the conversation going. Meloy followed up with the board at the June 9 board meeting. He said he met with representatives from Quaker Steak on June 2,
and the meeting was very positive. Meloy said restaurant management agreed to lower the sound level of the band, and to cut the music at 9 p.m. Police later measured decibel levels at the Collins house and found them to be lower. The restaurant has also changed the position of speakers to help mitigate noise problems. B.J. Cahill, general manager of the restaurant, said he’s doing
everything he can to deal with the problems. “We want to make it work. I have chased people down in the parking lot and told them if this continues, don’t come back,” he said. Meloy agreed that the township and the restaurant are working together to resolve the issues. “I think we are going to get the result we want,” he said. “We will keep working on it.”
Mercy gets Green’s OK for hospital By Kurt Backscheider kbackscheider@communitypress.com
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Darren Flynn is ready to ask voters if a hospital should be built in Monfort Heights. Flynn, a White Oak resident and St. Ignatius parishioner, is president of Concerned Citizens in Opposition to the Proposed Mercy Hospital Site. The group opposes Mercy Health Partners’ plans to build a $200 million hospital and medical office complex off North Bend Road and is willing to take the issue to voters if needed. After the Green Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday, June 8, to recommend approval of a land-use amendment for the proposed 260-bed hospital and office complex, Flynn said he spoke with staff at Hamilton County’s planning and zoning office to learn more about the next step in the process and the rules for placing a referendum on the ballot. “The trustees aren’t representing the people of the community,” he said. “The biggest disappointment was that they discounted the 1,200 to 1,300 signatures we presented from residents opposed to the location of this hospital.”
“The trustees aren’t representing the people of the community. The biggest disappointment was that they discounted the 1,200 to 1,300 signatures we presented from residents opposed to the location of this hospital.”
Darren Flynn President of Concerned Citizens in Opposition to the Proposed Mercy Hospital Site
Trustee Vice Chairman Tony Upton said he endorsed Mercy’s proposal because the hospital would be a great addition to the township and Mercy is good at working with the community. He said the research he did on his own, as well as the investigative study township staff conducted on areas of concern such as
“I think Mercy can overcome all of the objections as far as the community is concerned. They’ve been around for 151 years, and they could not have survived that long without the ability to meet concerns of the community.” Tony Upton Green Township trustee
traffic, crime, property values and noise, showed him no reason to deny the proposal. “I just felt, overall, it was a very good project,” Upton said, adding the township, by supporting the plan, now has a seat at the table when it comes time for discussing development plans. “I think Mercy can overcome all of the objections as far as the community is concerned. They’ve been around for 151 years, and
they could not have survived that long without the ability to meet concerns of the community.” He said he also likes the proposed layout of the development, which he likened to a college campus. “The medical community is just drooling,” he said. “They want the new hospital and they want the new state-of-the-art technology.” Bryan Snyder, development services administrator for the county’s planning and zoning office, said the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission will be the next body to review the plan. If the planning commission endorses the project in July, it will move on to the Hamilton County Rural Zoning Commission in August at the earliest, and will then go before the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners, he said. Snyder said if the county commissioners support the project the opposition group will have 30 days to collect signatures and submit a petition for a referendum to the board of elections. He said the opposition group must wait until the county commissioners vote on the issue before starting the petition process
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