BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Elmer and Elsie Ackman look at plans for making Allen House a senior center.
(Michael Snyder photo)
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Elmer Ackman and the members of the Dunham senior center are stuck sweating out another summer without air conditioning, in a single meeting hall at the top of a steep hill.
It wouldn't be so bad if the Dunham seniors didn't have to look across the ballfields of Price Hill at a much better building that is standing vacant -- the former Allen House for troubled youths.
The property is owned by Hamilton County, which put $3.5 million in renovations into it since 1987, only to let it stand vacant for the last three years. The city of Cincinnati has promised Mr. Ackman's group it can move into Allen House when it can wrest the property from the county.
But a lack of cooperation between the city and county gets in the way.
County leaders want to trade, and the city has come up with nothing of comparable worth, they say. The county has asked for help either in rezoning a Bond Hill property for a juvenile jail, for control of the Metropolitan Sewer District or for a triangle of land next to the county jail or the Woodlawn golf course.
Councilman Dwight Tillery said he has been meeting with County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus about the property for well over two years.
Mr. Bedinghaus said the issue is working its way through the administrative staffs at the city and county.
"It's absolutely inaccurate to put the blame on anybody; it's just a process that's happening," he said, noting that serious negotiations began again recently.
The larger building has a gymnasium, an elevator and a full industrial kitchen.
In March, Mr. Bain said, the commission proposed a schedule of recreation programs including day camps, after-school care, the senior citizens' center, Head Start, a teen center and a community council office.
County Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr. toured the property for the first time this week, leading to speculation that there is some movement in city-county negotiations.
The county must recoup its $3.5 million investment, however, Mr. Neyer said.
The third county commissioner, John Dowlin, said city officials are holding up the transfer because they have failed to offer something in trade.
The city and county have traded ownership of Allen House back and forth over the years.
The last transfer was in 1987, said William Stautberg, county property manager. The county had been leasing Allen House, and Cincinnati agreed to deed the property to Hamilton County if the county paid to renovate it.
The county spent $3.1 million that year, and another $405,000 in 1993, Mr. Stautberg said.
Each time the city and county have transfered ownership of Allen House, the purchase price was $1, Mr. Ackman said.
"Now the county wants the world for it," he said. "It's just a shame it's sitting there."
