Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Covington divided over street widening
BY JANE PRENDERGAST datel COVINGTON - A controversial proposal to widen Covington's 12th Street is back, and opponents are mounting another campaign against it.
The Cincinnati Enquirer datel COVINGTON - A controversial proposal to widen Covington's 12th Street is back, and opponents are mounting another campaign against it.
At a public hearing next week, residents will get another chance to air their opinions on the project, which calls for widening the street with a tree-lined median. The price tag: $12.5 million.
The Covington Business Council (CBC) is in favor of the idea, saying the new roadway would help spur economic development throughout the rest of Northern Kentucky's largest city. Opponents disagree, calling the project merely a 1990s version of urban renewal, a way to build a divisive moat.“It will wipe us out,” said Connie Hammond, whose husband, George, has spent 27 years building his Hammond's Service Center at 12th and Russell streets. “Hopefully, our customer base will follow us and our employees will follow us. But we don't know. Now, we've got a bird in the hand.”
The project also throws a wrench into Mr. Hammond's retirement plans, she said.
“He was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and now that's being threatened again,” she said. “We were on track to pay it off and sell it for his retirement. Now, who'd want to buy it?”
It may have appeared to some that the project was on a far-back burner, especially since one of its major proponents, former state Sen. Joe Meyer, lost his 1996 re-elec tion bid. But the project has remained on track, state Transportation Cabinet spokeswoman Robin Jenkins said Monday.
Construction is set to begin sometime in fiscal year 2001.
Mayor Denny Bowman has been among the naysayers. He wants the money — and less of it — to be spent elsewhere in the city, such as on improving Fourth Street, which he thinks should be the gateway to the riverfront.
The CBC touts the proposal as offering better access to the Madison Avenue business district as well as to hotels and offices on the river.
The public hearing, hosted by the state, is 4-8 p.m. Feb. 3 at John G. Carlisle Elementary School. The audience will see the results of environmental studies, Ms. Jenkins said.
Is there room for strangers in our homes?
St. Louis swells for Pope's arrival
The pope's schedule
I-75 gas spill should be cleared by morning rush
Riverfront commission ready top go
Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission
West plan falls short of wishes
West plan's details
Western residents, county split on development plan
Conductor Shaw called a giant of choral music
Man charged with setting home on fire
N.Ky. loses educators convention
Tax foes to battle increase for schools
Mourners make trend of wake
Actress comfy with role in 'Couch'
Colognes, perfumes can take your breath away - really
Etiquette for the over-perfumed
Ft. Washington Way closed next two nights
Hand transplanted in Louisville
2 plead guilty in slaying
Aquarium signs get attention
Beating death examined
Butler already owns favored site for jail
Covington divided over street widening
Custody war brings sea of legal paper
Developers are building 2-acre park in Blue Ash
Dogs, cats give elderly a boost
Eastgate area park-and-ride premieres
Fort Wright settles claim
Inclusion of disabled lauded
Lebanon activist's traffic-death trial to start today
Middletown sprucing up parks
Music museum picks up pace
Prison guard waives drug case hearing
Safety work will close Ohio 73
Time running out for Ky. GOP
TRISTATE DIGEST Asthma attack kills Lebanon prisoner
Trustees expected to approve contract with UC professors
