Big recognition, bigger ambitions for Union winery
By Nathan Granger
You may not know it, but Boone County is home to an award-winning winery and vineyard called Gunpowder Creek Vineyard. This year, the business took home the best red wine award in the Kentucky Commonwealth Commercial Wine Competition for its Norton line of wines.
“We entered first in 2020,” said Gena Ward, one of Gunpowder Creek’s partners. “We had 11 wines at the time. We entered 11, and we medaled every one, silver and bronze.”
The winery started when Jeff Ogden, the other partner in the business, bought about 1,000 grape plants from Indiana. While Odgen’s family has been farming in the region for three generations, Ogden owned a fabricating shop in Newport for 33 years.
Ward owned a barbecue restaurant in Rabbit Hash called the Scalded Hog.
Gunpowder Creek the winery has its main growing and production facilities in Union
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Documentary to explore history of Newport Barracks
By Haley Parnell
The Newport Barracks site has a layered history set to be laid out in an upcoming documentary.
The site was important to Native Americans before becoming a military camp during the War of 1812 and an outpost during the Mexican-American and Civil wars. Historians say it also served as a key location in America’s westward expansion. Such notable figures as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Samuel Walker and Robert E. Lee visited the barracks during their military careers.
The conversation about the documentary began in December 2023, when Northern
Kentucky University and archaeologists led digs at the barracks site. Haley Snowden, the documentary’s director, executive producer and writer, said the film will start in the late 1700s with the site’s role before the War of 1812. As it works through other wars significant to the site, it will discuss the barracks’ impact on the Cincinnati and Newport areas.
“I think these guys have sort of the magic bullet of really telling a story,” said Brian Hackett, associate professor of history at NKU. “I’m excited about their work because we, as historians, tend to talk in books. And the fact is, history is only important when it’s shared with people. The key to public history is all about the audience. How do you make important historical discoveries
relevant to current and modern people?”
Hackett, one of the historians interviewed in the documentary, said Gen. James Taylor, who founded Newport in 1795, saw an opportunity when Cincinnati’s Fort Washington closed to bring the base across the Ohio River to Newport.
“That made a big difference, and there was a lot of impact,” Hackett said. “It brought people, it brought jobs, it brought commerce. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re actually just kind of speculating and discovering right now.”
One thing the documentary tried to capture is the soldiers’ experience. Michael
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Continued from page 1
along Gunpowder Creek the waterway, a tributary of the Ohio River. Its tasting room and primary consumer-facing operation, however, is in Rabbit Hash.
Gunpowder Creek is one of four wineries in Boone County. It makes 17 varieties of wine, all made locally. It’s also the only Northern Kentucky winery to use muscadine grapes in some of their wines. They’re brought in from North Carolina because they can’t grow in the local climate.
When LINK nky visited the Union vineyard, the growing season had passed, but Odgen and Ward led us on a tour of their facility to learn about their production process.
Besides dealing with what Odgen characterized as onerous regulations around wine production, permitting and distribution, the most peculiar thing about making wine, Ogden said, is finding the right balance of techniques to pique people’s interest. This is especially true with sweet wines.
“Little variances in residual sugar on your sweet wines make all the difference in the world,” Ogden said.
With red wines, it’s more about timing the harvest with when grapes reach the right acidity levels. “If you got to pick them when the numbers aren’t perfect, then it’s a little struggle to make good wine,” Ogden said.
This year’s award is only the beginning of what Gunpowder Creek has in store. It’s currently constructing a new tasting room next to the wine-making facility.
The new tasting room will run alongside Gunpowder Creek. It’ll feature a bandstand and should be able to hold about 60 people inside and about 100 on the deck outside.
Ward said Ogden has done about “80%” of the construction on the new building.
Ogden said he “can’t wait” to get a band in the tasting room, adding that “I work on building it every day.”
Learn more about Gunpowder Creek Vineyards and sign up for its newsletter at gunpowdercreekvineyards.com.





Coker, the project’s executive producer, researcher and writer, said it was a tough time for the men there. They often were away from home for the first time.
“They’re young men, and they dealt with illnesses, they dealt with alcoholism, they dealt with stress,” he said. “One of my colleagues here has talked about documentation about suicide rates among the enlisted and found a high number at the barracks, or at least [deaths] presumed to be suicide. So, we talk about the human experience within the fort.”
Hackett said the men at the barracks were dealt a whiskey ration. To help keep up with demand, five distilleries eventually were constructed along the Licking River, and next to them would be pig yards for disposal of the mash created during the distilling process.
Role in War of 1812
In doing research with Hackett, Coker said they discovered that the Newport Barracks had a pig as its mascot.
“It was a female pig, and what I understand is that the men of the barracks were watching this female pig fight off another pig, and they were rooting for her, and she won,” he said. “And so they started feeding her, and she became sort of the mascot. Well, when the men marched off to the Battle of the Thames up in Canada [during the War of 1812], she followed them. She even swam across the Ohio River, went to Canada and then all the way back.”
The pig was eventually adopted by the gov-


ernor of Kentucky and lived out the rest of its natural life.
Coker said one thing that surprised him was that the troops marching back from the Battle of the Thames – an American victory in which the Shawnee leader Tecumseh was killed – had several hundred Native American prisoners of war with them.
“So, it becomes a big prisoner of war site in Cincinnati’s backyard, and the prisoners there, a lot of them would be basically farmed out to work in the city or work in the area, work on buildings,” he said.
Coker said they believe that, aside from prisoners of war, the site held enslaved people and British soldiers.
The documentary will feature reenactments to interpret the militia’s departure for the Battle of the Thames and maybe a camp scene. The crew is working on acquiring a pig, too, for the scenes.
The start of the West
Coker said the documentary will be divided into roughly five acts. The film will discuss the site before European colonization, including its importance to Native Americans.
“There have been some significant Native American artifacts [and settlements]
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found near the Newport Barracks site, and we try to showcase that history as well,” Coker said.
The artifacts that Coker mentioned were discovered during the December 2023 archeological dig. It happened through an NKU graduate public history program taught by Hackett. He said the dig relates to the documentary because it gave them insight on the grounds they didn’t previously have.
Hackett said NKU professor Steve Preston, who also is education director for Heritage Village Museum & Educational Center in Hamilton County, has been in contact with representatives of Native American tribes who will have input into the interpretation.
Hackett said the barracks are also being added to the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail. He said that, when Lewis and Clark came through on their famous expedition, they first went to Fort Washington and then to Newport, where they stayed with Gen. James Taylor.
“The question had always been, ‘Did they go to the Newport Barracks?’” Hackett said, “because we can’t find any written documentation. However, James Taylor’s house was right there. So basically, I don’t think they couldn’t have visited it if they went to James Taylor’s house, because James Taylor’s house was literally either inside or next to the fort.”

Hackett also emphasized the idea that the Newport Barracks was the starting point of what America was to become.
“This place becomes the start of the West,” he said. “Everything that comes after is because of what happened here.”
Keeping viewers’ attention
Snowden said it is important to know the history of where you are living. She took that idea and wanted to research more about the site being a start of westward expansion. She asked Hackett if there was something she could read or watch, but he said there was not.
“I said, ‘Would I be correct in saying that this would probably be the first form of media that actually talks about this theory?’” And he was like, ‘yes,’ so this will be something kind of new, and I think people would have a lot of interest in it. We’re hoping that educational facilities can maybe use it to help with teaching.”
Snowden has some ideas for the film to help keep audiences engaged, such as using old and new images and comparing the same spot today to what it looked like in the past.
“People could be able to explore it and be able to recognize it,” she said. “The visuals have been, I wouldn’t say necessarily a struggle, but it’s been something that we’ve really focused on making sure that we have something interesting that will keep everyone’s attention, like the reenactments.”
Toward the end of the documentary, Snowden said they wanted to discuss what people are doing with the site now and what they hope to see done in the future.
Hackett said another NKU class led by Preston is working up ideas they can present to Newport on what to do with the site. The idea is for the city then to provide them with feedback or tweak ideas.
The film will most likely be able to be viewed online on platforms like YouTube. Additionally, the team said they hope to premiere it somewhere in Newport and at NKU. Snowden said they plan to have the documentary out during spring 2025.
Spanish on the Fly among businesses to receive awards

Spanish teacher turned entrepreneur Lori Wall took a risk by moving her business into a brick-and-mortar store.
Wall operates Spanish on the Fly, a conversational Spanish education and tutoring service. Her client base is wide-ranging, from young professionals looking to learn Spanish for their careers to older people who are traveling or interested in picking up a new hobby.
After operating out of her home for nearly 20 years, Wall decided to take a leap of faith in August by moving into a storefront at 311 Elm St. in Ludlow in an effort to expand her business. So far, the move has paid off, Wall said, but there is still room to grow.
Earlier this year, she applied for a small business grant for minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses through the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Duke Energy and Blue North. The money could be used for physical space improvements, technology upgrades, talent sourcing, job posting fees and professional development training.
In late November, Spanish on the Fly was named one of eight Northern Kentucky-based small businesses to receive a grant this cycle. Wall’s business is slated to receive $5,000, which she plans to invest in software upgrades and newer signs for her storefront.
“I will be able to put up large, visible signage out front, purchase some technology and software for my online presence and purchase some practical items like a printer,
which makes it more convenient to print any ancillary materials I provide to my students,” Wall said. “It really is a huge help.”
The other businesses to receive awards are:
• Aunt Kathy’s Child Care & Preschool, Highland Heights: $10,000
• Bradbury Design LLC dba Black Goose, Union: $5,000
• Greater Comfort Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., Newport: $5,000
• Honey Child Pops, Covington: $5,000
• Leila Urgent Care, Hebron: $5,000
• Misty Ridge Farm, Camp Springs: $5,000
• Unataza Coffee, Dayton: $5,000
Dashai Thompson, the NKY Chamber’s inclusive business strategies director, said in a news release that the grants were to help regional business owners from underserved communities achieve sustainability. “In doing so, our region enhances its ability to support a thriving business landscape that values and promotes small businesses by removing a major barrier – funding – to entrepreneurs, especially those in often underserved communities,” she said.
To qualify for the grant, businesses had to employ 50 or fewer people and be Duke Energy customers in Boone, Campbell or Kenton counties. Duke contributed $25,000 to the program, with Blue North’s Northern Kentucky Entrepreneurship Fund matching the donation. The grants ranged from $1,000 to $10,000.
The Northern Kentucky Entrepreneurship Fund is dedicated specifically to supporting and funding Northern Kentucky-based entrepreneurs and organizations, including startups, support organizations, educational vehicles and accelerators.
“This year’s winners demonstrated a clear need for the capital and a clear plan of how they’re going to make it an investment in their business to drive growth,” Blue North Executive Director Dave Knox said in the release. “These are entrepreneurs that have thought about how they can be a flywheel, and, when they look at that investment, it can not only grow their business but also their community in Northern Kentucky as a whole.”
For Duke Energy, the grants were part of a larger effort through which the utility distributed $122,000 to eight Greater Cincinnati organizations, including the Northern Kentucky Chamber.
Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell may see new roundabouts with Brent Spence project

Roundabouts may be coming to Fort Wright and Fort Mitchell as part of the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project.
Representatives from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet presented information about potential roundabouts at Fort Wright’s Nov. 20 city council meeting.
Fort Wright and Fort Mitchell, among other local municipalities, looked at potential overpass designs as part of the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor in June 2023. The transportation cabinet was looking for feedback on the aesthetics of the designs.
This year, the project representatives sought preliminary feedback about proposed roundabouts on either side of the overpass.
The cabinet has installed several roundabouts in Northern Kentucky over the past decade. Nikki Boden, Kentucky design lead with the Brent Spence project, said research shows roundabouts to be more efficient and safer for drivers and pedestrians.
“The biggest thing is that roundabouts are traffic calming,” Boden said. “They require reduced speeds because of the geometry.”
LINK nky asked traffic expert John Ash, assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, about the “traffic calming” effect. “[Roundabouts] use yield control versus signal control and limit the movements an individual can make [and] directions they can travel when entering the roundabout,” he said.
Some argue that yielding requires more careful attention than a 4-way stop light, or “signalized”, intersection. Boden also said that the slower speed and limited options of a roundabout result in fewer crashes.
Her department has data to support those claims. The Transportation Cabinet analyzed 11 newly constructed roundabouts in Hardin County over the last three years.
“The results [in Hardin County] have shown a 31% reduction in total crashes and an 81% reduction in injuries,” said Naitore Djigbenou, executive director of public affairs for the cabinet. “Preliminary monitoring by engineering staff also found a reduction in traffic delays for motorists.”
The Hardin County data reflects national statistics that show a 37% reduction in all crashes and a 90% reduction in fatal crashes when a roundabout replaces a traditional intersection.
Ash also described the ways in which roundabouts can be more efficient. “[There is a] decreased number of stops and delays, since drivers are yielding versus stopping, as well as environmental benefits due to lower emissions from idling vehicles,” he said.
Fort Wright council member Justin Weber voiced concerns about how rush hour traffic would affect the proposed roundabouts. “When everybody is coming home, when everybody is backed up on the ramps, what happens then?” Weber said.
According to Boden, that won’t likely be a problem.
“There will be queues, but [research shows] the queues do not reach mainline traffic,” Boden said. “These intersections are able to move traffic through.”
Boden and Stacee Hans, the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project manager, told Fort Wright city council that they expect city leaders and residents to be hesitant toward roundabouts at first. Many communities, including Hardin County, have been initially resistant to eventually successful roundabout installations.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has made no final decisions on the roundabouts or the Brent Spence Corridor overpasses.










Three from NKY sign to Division 1 football programs

Three Northern Kentucky high school football players put ink to paper on National Signing Day, the first day for athletes to sign their National Letter of Intent to their respective schools in Division I.
Ryle’s Dillon Smith is staying in-state, heading to the University of Louisville. Cooper’s Isaac Brown is going west to Southeast Missouri State University, and Beechwood’s Mattox Kelly is headed to Illinois State University.
Smith was a game-wrecker at defensive end for the Raiders, while marking his name on offense at tight end. As a fouryear member of the varsity team, Smith, before the Raiders state championship game, had totaled 166 tackles, 45 tackles for a loss, 23.5 sacks, three interceptions and one pick-six. On offense, he had three catches for 25 yards and a touchdown. He helped lead the Raiders to 35 wins, including a senior season during which the team went 12-2 and made a Class 6A state championship appearance.
Brown first saw the field as a freshman, eventually playing in 40 games across four
years. He had five catches for 50 yards and one receiving touchdown on offense. On defense, Brown had one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, 63 tackles, two tackles for a loss, nine interceptions and one picksix. In his junior and senior seasons, Brown helped the team go 26-3, including two Class 5A state championship appearances and one runner-up finish.
Kelly managed both the offensive and defensive lines for the Tigers. In three seasons with the team, Kelly played in 34 games and was a part of two Class 2A state championship teams and one semifinalist team with the Tigers in their third state title game in four seasons this year. Over his career, he had two fumble recoveries, 52 tackles, 12.5 tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks.


Vinson just ninth player to score 1,000 for NKU

Sam Vinson sure has racked up the awards in Northern Kentucky.
Once leading the Highlands basketball team to a state championship, winning the 2021 Gatorade Player of the Year and scoring 1,791 points, Vinson’s success has carried over to the next level, as he scored his 1,000th point as a member of the Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team on Dec. 3 in a road tilt at Akron.
With just under 10 minutes to go in the first half, Vinson knocked down a 3-pointer to join the millennium club, finishing with 11 points, six assists, two rebounds and two steals in the game.
He’s now one of nine players in program history to have over 1,000 points. He’s tied for eighth with Dantez Walton for total career points at 1,008. His teammate Trey Robinson is 10th on the list and 17 points shy of the achievement.
Vinson is already at the top of several categories in the team’s history in steals (194) and steals per game (2.3). He’s also fifth in career assists, third in assists per game, ninth in free throws, seventh in minutes played and second in minutes per game.
The senior guard is averaging the second most points on the squad with 12.5 per contest, also pulling down 4.6 rebounds a game this season. He leads the team in minutes played (260), three-point percentage (36.4%), assists (31) and steals (18).
Bellevue football named LINK nky’s Team of the Season
With the fall high school sports season at its end, the LINK nky Team of the Season award went to the Bellevue's football Tigers.
The Tigers were one of 11 teams during the fall season named a LINK nky Team of the Week and came away as the TOS after compiling over half of the total votes with 36,924.
After a loss to Eminence in the first game of the season, the Tigers routed Trimble County, Pendleton County and Gamble Montessori for a 3-1 start. Bellevue went on to beat district rival Dayton, 42-0, in the annual Battle for the Paddle. The Tigers finished with a 5-5 record, surpassing last season’s win total of four, and having their winningest season in six years.
Jordan Pendleton was the team’s go-to guy. He had three passing touchdowns, 901 rushing yards, 16 rushing touchdowns, eight receptions for 107 yards and a score. Defensively, he had four fumble recoveries, one resulting in a touchdown, 53 tackles, one tackle for a loss and three interceptions.
Quarterback Stephen Specht had 407 passing yards and five touchdowns; his leading receiver Brayden Sizemore had 17 catches for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
Sizemore led the team in tackles with 76, adding on two tackles for loss, one sack and tying Pendleton for the most interceptions on the team with three, one a pick-six. Arion Stuckey had a team-high three tackles for loss along with three sacks. Derrick Fortner had 63 tackles, one tackle for loss and a team-leading six sacks.


By Kenton Hornbeck
MCirclePort undergoes major updates
ajor changes are underway at CirclePort, a 650-acre mixeduse development that straddles Boone and Kenton counties.
The updates include land sales, rezoning, construction, site clearing and infrastructure improvements.
Corporex, the Covington-based real estate developer behind CirclePort, labels the complex as the gateway to Greater Cincinnati because of its proximity to Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport. It’s home to several large businesses, such as Archer-Daniels-Midland, Fischer Homes, TQL, Answers in Genesis, St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Toyota Boshoku.
CirclePort’s intended use was for offices and manufacturing. Now, Corporex wants to expand that by investing in quality-of-life amenities like hotels, apartment complexes and restaurants.
“We are specific in terms of what somebody’s vision is – who either wants to buy the land, develop the land with us or build

something,” Suzanne Deatherage, Corporex vice president of marketing, told LINK nky.
CirclePort Mineola
CirclePort Mineola consists of five parcels west of I-275, ranging from 4 acres to 19 acres. In the redevelopment plans, they are designated for potential residential, retail, office and medical uses. The area already has several restaurants and hotels, such as Residence Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Guthrie’s Chicken, and Hot Head Burritos.
In November, the Kentucky Transportation

NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Cabinet announced Mineola Pike’s widening to four lanes from I-275 and Donaldson Highway was complete. The infrastructure update allows CirclePort to handle more traffic from increased commercial and residential development. Additionally, new sidewalks and multiuse walking paths were built next to the widened road.
CirclePort Mineola consisted of six parcels until Corporex in October completed the sale of 5.69 acres at the corner of Mineola Pike and Olympic Boulevard to Kentucky Red LLC. Months prior, the Boone County Planning Commission recommended rezoning the land from rural suburban to commercial-2. In turn, this would allow new commercial buildings to be constructed on the parcel.
There are plans to build a 37,300-squarefoot commercial complex with six buildings on the parcel. Concept plans shared at previous planning commission meetings showed plots for a 6,300-square-foot gas station and convenience store, three commercial buildings and two drive-through restaurants. The commercial buildings would vary in size from 5,000 to 11,000 square feet.
Next door is a 5.7-acre parcel that will soon be home to Velo CirclePort, a 233-unit apartment community under development by Arlington Properties. Construction is well underway, with concrete elevator shafts and the wooden bones of the apartment complex already visible from Mineola Pike. According to Corporex, construction is expected to be finished this spring.

South of the Velo apartment complex is an 8.8-acre parcel being cleared and graded. The parcel has drawn interest from residential developers.
“Our proactive clearing of that 8.8 acres has already shown interest,” said Bert Hehman, an associate director of sales and leasing at Corporex. “We feel that the demand for multifamily in this area will meet the proactive work that we’re doing.”
In addition, a 19.4-acre parcel behind the St. Elizabeth Training Center and Olympic Corporate Center II has been cleared and graded. Right off I-275, access to it is from Olympic Boulevard.
CirclePort Pacific
CirclePort Pacific features two plots covering 109 acres at Turfway Road and Pacific Avenue. The larger, approximately 100 acres, has been cleared and graded. Corporex designated the plots for potential office, residential, industrial, light manufacturing and senior living uses. Utilities are already available at the site.
CirclePort Dolwick
CirclePort Dolwick features the Pacific Corporate Center, an 80,000-square-foot building on Dolwick Drive previously occupied by Convergys. After Convergys moved out, Corporex stripped the building’s interior, which is slated to be subdivided and redesigned.


Modern updates, original charm in historic Mainstrasse
Address: 513 W. Seventh St., Covington
Price: $530,000
Bedrooms: Three
Bathrooms: Four
Square footage: 2,385
School district: Covington Independent County: Kenton
Special features: This three-story, brick, Italianate home in historic Mainstrasse features three en-suite bedrooms, four total bathrooms and a first-floor flex space that can be used for various purposes. The home has been updated with modern amenities, such as an open kitchen with granite counters and stainless appliances, along with original hardwood floors and tall ceilings. It’s just a few blocks from top restaurants, cafes, breweries, nightlife and more.




Kentucky now allows for Public Notices to be published digitally on LINK nky’s website. You can find public notices for the following organizations on our site at https://linkreader.column.us/search
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Kenton County Fiscal Court is seeking sealed bids for the removal and replacement of fencing at various Kenton County parks. Bid documents are available on the Kenton County website at www.kentoncounty.org or may be obtained from the Purchasing Manager’s Office, Kenton County Administration Building, 1840 Simon Kenton Way, Suite 5100, Covington, KY 41011. Bids must be submitted to the Purchasing Manager’s Office and received no later than 2:30 p.m. on Friday, December 20, 2024.
KENTON COUNTY FISCAL COURT
KRIS A. KNOCHELMANN, JUDGE/EXECUTIVE

CASE NO.: 24-CI-00362 GBIC, LLC VERSUS} THEODORE TREADWAY, ET AL By virtue of a judgment and order of sale of the Boone Circuit Court rendered NOVEMBER 19, 2024 the above case, I shall proceed to offer for sale at the Justice Center Building in
ADDRESS: OLD NICHOLSON ROAD, LOT 27 PARKER’S SUBDIVISION (W1-2-2A) WALTON, KY 41094
PVA PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: 078.02-10-002.01
AMOUNT OF JUDGMENT: $3,684.07 GROUP NO.: 215









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