BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - City and Kenton County officials pledged Monday to lobby state legislators and others for the $6.9 million needed to pay for a key element of the Fort Washington Way overhaul.
The money would cover ramps from the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge to a new Second Street in Cincinnati that would be created as part of the Fort Washington Way project. The project would help traffic flow to attractions on both sides of the river.
"I think we need to lobby heavily our (Kentucky) Transportation Cabinet and our elected officials to Frankfort," Ella Frye, Covington's economic development director, told 15 government and business leaders at a joint meeting of the Covington City Commission, Kenton Fiscal Court and the Covington Business Council.
U.S. Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, was instrumental last spring in securing $9.5 million in federal money for a direct connection between Broadway and the Taylor-Southgate Bridge, which connects Newport and downtown Cincinnati.
Outgoing Kenton County Commissioner Bernie Moorman urged Covington government and business leaders to be more aggressive in fighting for the Clay Wade Bailey connection.
Mr. Moorman, chairman of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (OKI) Regional Council of Government's I-71 Corridor Committee, said Covington officials need to "get in there and fight like hell for Covington," just as Newport Commissioner Beth Fennell does for her city on transportation issues.
"Get OKI to come to your meetings," Mr. Moorman told the group. "They're your agency. That's what Newport does. That's what Hamilton County does."
Covington City Manager Greg Jarvis offered to lead the lobbying effort and report back to the group at its next quarterly meeting. Mr. Jarvis said Covington and Kenton County leaders need to continue "looking through the state for more federal funding, as well as identify funding options from the Ohio Department of Transportation and Cincinnati."
On another issue, Jim Gilliece, president of the MainStrasse Village Association, said he hopes to see surveillance cameras installed in parts of Covington frequented by tourists by mid-1999.
The Covington Business Council has proposed putting a camera near parking lots at Fifth and Main streets in the MainStrasse area to deter auto break-ins. Cameras also would go at Second Street and Madison Avenue near the riverfront, and in Covington's East Side neighborhood, an area troubled by shootings last summer.
To help pay for projects such as the cameras and directional banners, the Covington Business Center Foundation, the council's fund-raising arm, is sponsoring a Dec. 3 holiday gala at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, complete with tours, entertainment, dinner and a silent auction.
In Cincinnati's Evanston neighborhood, the installation of a surveillance camera in an area frequented by drug dealers reduced crime at the Five Points intersection by 82 percent in four months, police said.
Before installation of the camera, Cincinnati police were experiencing constant problems with prostitution, drug dealing, littering and noise at the intersection of Montgomery Road and Woodburn and Hewitt avenues, Cincinnati Councilman Phil Heimlich said.
"I think cameras are very effective at hot spots where you have special problems with drug dealers and high crime," said Mr. Heimlich, who has supported putting surveillance cameras downtown and in residential neighborhoods.
Because of "a tremendous demand" from residents, video cameras will be installed at intersections in Mount Auburn, Northside, Madisonville and Over-the-Rhine by the end of the year, Mr. Heimlich said.
