Friday, December 31, 1999
Tristaters share resolutions for 2000
Some well-known and influential Tristate residents have, with a little prodding — OK, in some cases, a lot of prodding — from Enquirer reporters.
We tapped movers and shakers in schools, the arts, city, county and state offices, courtrooms, sports, the media, and a variety of local institutions.
Here are their resolutions for 2000.
• Nick Vehr, the man behind the effort to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to town:
“My 2000 New Year's resolution is that by 2001, thousands of Greater Cincinnatians make getting the Olympics their 2001 resolution.” To get there, Mr. Vehr's Cincinnati 2012 group is planning a year-long public information campaign to get the word out and involve the community in the effort.
• Bob Taft, Ohio governor: He wants to complete work on a bill that would set how the state's $10.1 billion tobacco settlement will be spent over the next 26 years.
He would like to see the General Assembly pass a bill restricting the growth of megafarms in Ohio. As the Ohio chairman of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign, Mr. Taft said he's resolved to help Mr. Bush gain the Oval Office.
His last resolution seems to be his only non-political wish. “I also want to catch my second walleye.”
• Tom Neyer Jr., Hamilton County Commissioner and arts aficionado: These days his multiple hats include co-chairing Cincinnati Ballet's current capital campaign and steering the Regional Cultural Alliance's transition from dream to reality. Resolutions include:
“Finishing raising the $7 million for the ballet and getting the cultural alliance off the ground and stabilized then making time to enjoy them. One of the things I most want to do is bring arts and culture to their proper level here in terms of awareness, pride, participation and financial support. I'm going to help give the arts their seat at the table.”
• Joyce Coleman, president of the Northern Kentucky African-American Heritage Task Force:
She believes that as people live their lives they need to come to convictions rather than resolutions.
Her conviction is education. It is to help in uncovering African-American history and to pay homage to the foundation that African-Americans have built. It is the same mission as that of the task force she heads.
In the coming year she'll help the organization, which works in 13 counties, seek grant support so it can keep up with rent and telephone bills, and possibly pay some financial compensation to volunteers.
• Pat Arnold South, commissioner of Warren County, one of the state's fastest-growing:
She resolves to improve government communications by providing faster and easier access to public records via the Internet. She also wants to make the “traveling commissioner meetings” more productive.
• John Deatrick, Cincinnati's Department of Transportation and Engineering director and the person overseeing the Fort Washington Way overhaul: He has a big deadline to meet in 2000. The riverfront expressway needs to be done in August in time for the Bengals' debut in the new Paul Brown Stadium, and so:
“I . . . resolve to work hard to have extra days added to August 2000,” he said jokingly. The project isn't behind schedule, he said. But every day he'll feel the pressure to get Fort Washington Way open.
• Cheryl Hilvert, city manager of Montgomery: She saw her community dig itself out of the rubble caused by the April 9 tornado:
“I do not always make New Year's resolutions, but this year I did. I want to have a much better year in 2000 than I had in 1999. I pray for no more tornadoes in Montgomery.
“We have had issues with staff turnover, doing more with fewer people. We are doing some work to remodel city hall and that has created space problems. And, of course, the tornado put a lot of our planning behind — including capital improvements. So, I intend to catch things up, move our community forward and return things to normal.”
• Ed Rigaud, president and CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: True to his Procter & Gamble Co. roots and his linear way of thinking, he has a New Year's resolution that's bigger than just one year:
“I'm actually going on the three-year plan. To work more intensely than ever on improvement of mind, body and spirit.”
Mr. Rigaud's goals are geared toward the 2003 opening of the riverfront museum. He aims to become a voracious reader of 19th century history, rekindle his hobbies of playing guitar and drawing, read more about faith to bolster his spiritual side and get in shape physically. “I'll be ready for the year of the opening if I finish this three-year plan right.”
• Nicholas Muni, Cincinnati Opera's artistic director:
“It's not spectacular, but it's very important to me, and that is to achieve a better balance between professional and family life. My children are young kids (Jessica, 10, and Alex, 3) so I want to enjoy them.”
• Susan Cook, superintendent of Kenton County Schools: She made her resolution on Dec. 17, the day Simon Kenton High School had a bomb threat. Students were evacuated while the building was searched and were back in school by 10:10 a.m. She resolves:
“To continue to strive for excellence in Kenton County Schools, and to continue to support a safe learning environment, by planning and being prepared.”
• Lincoln Ware, host of 1480 Talk with Lincoln Ware on WCIN-AM (1480), 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday: As a Woodward High School senior in 1968, the Silverton native was regional champion in the 440-yard run. Mr. Ware, who turns 50 in April, vows to get himself in good enough shape in 2000 to compete in the Senior Olympics. “My goal is to win the 100 meters at the state and go to the nationals. I want to compete.”
• Susan Davis, Middletown's assistant city manager: “It's been five years since my (thyroid) cancer diagnosis. When you're first diagnosed, you start to really appreciate the ordinary things in life you've taken for granted. But when you get further out — going for treatments and finally hearing the declaration you're cancer-free — you lose sight of those ordinary things. So I'm resolving that I will again be mindful of them and will take a moment every day to appreciate something that seems so ordinary that you take it for granted.”
• John McCurley, mayor of Mason: “I would like to resolve that all local governments get along with each other. We all work for the people who live in our areas and we can all benefit if we pull together rather than work against each other. I think the best example of that is what we have done with Mason City Schools with the new joint community recreation center. By pulling together, we were able to do something positive for the community and save money in the process.”
• Malcolm Adcock, health commissioner for the City of Cincinnati: “The resolution that I have is to bring a new emphasis of prevention of disease to the health department and the programs that we provide ... and to hopefully use some of the newly available dollars for tobacco prevention to convince youth not to smoke or use tobacco.”
• Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops conductor: He worried fans in September when he had to cancel his conducting debut at Vienna's Musikverein due to an attack of vertigo (an inner ear problem accompanied by nausea and loss of balance). At the same time, he developed a painful herniated disc in his back. He resolves to:
“Lose weight and try to regain my old health. I'm on the way. It's well on repair,” he booms.
• Steven Adamowski, Cincinnati Public Schools superintendent:
Minutes after the school board agreed in mid-December to put two levies totaling more than $100 million on the March ballot, he said: “My resolution is to convince the citizens of Cincinnati to support the education of our 45,000 students by passing the levies in March 2000.” The levies would generate money to improve buildings and fund reading and math initiatives in grades K-3, as well as generate continuing funds for operations.
• Jill Kartisek, education director of the Covington-based Mental Health Association of Northern Kentucky, one of Northern Kentucky's lead agencies in serving the mentally ill: “To be open and receptive every day, learn how to be more accepting and to really just start every day positive. Some people would say I'm already good at it, but I think I can get better. All of us, myself included, can get locked in the day-to-day.”
• Charlie Luken, Cincinnati mayor: He experienced a tense first month on Cincinnati City Council — cutting millions out of the city's budget and leading discussions on the city manager's evaluation.
“My resolution is to relax and enjoy every day. If I'm having fun and relaxing, then maybe the people I come in contact with will relax, including members of the council.”
• Bryan Blavatt, superintendent of Boone County Schools, heads the largest school district in Northern Kentucky: It is also one of the fastest-growing. He resolves “to continue to focus on what's best for kids, no matter what's in the way.”
• Jamaal Magloire, senior leader of the University of Kentucky basketball team:
“My New Year's resolution is to help this team play its best basketball. I've gotten used to us having success here, and I don't want to go out with a bad season. But we won't. I'm not worried.”
• Lisa Crawford, president of Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH), a grass-roots group watching the Department of Energy and private site managers as they clean up the former uranium processing plant in Crosby Township:
The health of her community is “a number-one priority,” she said, and FRESH will continue to demand answers and accountability. “Hopefully we'll continue to get more pieces of the puzzle.”
• Richard Finan of Evendale, Ohio Senate president and one of the Ohio Legislature's most influential leaders: The Republican lawmaker resolves to help pass a bill that would fund construction projects throughout the state. He hopes to include money for the Bengals and Reds stadium projects in that bill.
Mr. Finan is also responsible for ensuring GOP candidates get elected to the Senate to help maintain his party's 21-12 edge over Democrats. As for upcoming primary and general elections, “At a minimum we need to retain the 21-seat Republican majority in the Ohio Senate.”
• Doreen Cudnik, executive director of Stonewall Human Rights Organization of Greater Cincinnati since Sept. 7: “Every day on the way to my office I read the inscription on the Hamilton County Courthouse: "The pure and wise and equal administration of the laws forms the first end and blessing of social union.' I read that inscription and I am resolved, on behalf of the many Stonewall members and supporters, not to give up this fight for equality — even in a city where some would prefer that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens remain invisible and silent.”
• Mark Mallory, Ohio state senator and co-chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, prefers not to call these resolutions, but plans:
He hopes to pass a bill that would make prison inmates study to earn a GED if they never graduated from high school. Although the bill has passed the House twice in two previous years, it has never been voted on in the Senate.
“There have been all kinds of studies and statistics that show that inmates who receive an education while they are in prison are less likely to commit another crime when they are released. It's a way to help prepare them for their release back into society.”
• Limore Shur, a former Cincinnatian and creator of the images and animation for the international New Year's Eve millennium broadcasts scheduled for the giant video screens around Times Square: “I want to free myself up from my business. I've created a great design company and it's almost self-sufficient,” he said from the Manhattan loft offices of his Eyeball Productions. “I've never really enjoyed the business side of it, so I'm really committed this year to separating myself from that end of it, so that I can free up more time to become creative outside of my business.”
• Nathaniel Jones, U. S. Court of Appeals judge, a Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce “Great Living Cincinnatian” and Urban League of Greater Cincinnati Heritage Award recipient: “I pledge to continue my efforts at increasing rationality and good faith to the ongoing pursuit of justice, and in the process, to reduce the development of cynicism that is all-too-often directed at those who act in the public interest.”
• Dianne Dunkelman, Speaking of Women's Health founder, civic leader, renowned party host: “My goal is to be more conscious about doing weight bearing exercises and taking more calcium because strong women have strong bones.”
• Gary Burbank, WLW-AM's (700) 2-6 p.m. funnyman, plans to retire Dec. 11, 2000, after keeping us laughing on our drive home since 1981. He vows to change his ways in 2000. (Yeah, sure.)
“I resolve to stop making fun of helpless politicians, journalists and barnyard animals who take themselves too seriously — excluding myself.”
With 2000 being a presidential election year, and with a brand-new Cincinnati City Council, Mr. Burbank concedes that he's likely to keep his vow for maybe a day. (Or an hour?) So he provided a bonus alternative resolution: “I promise not to yell "Fire!' in a crowded Hustler Store.”
• Ken Lawson, Cincinnati defense attorney, has been practicing law for 10 years. He resolves:
“To continue to fight like hell against injustice. I think with the things that have happened this year — with the attacks on Mr. (Derek Anthony) Farmer, with the police shootings, I've learned a lot. I think this year I was looking to slow down some. But this past year has rejuvenated a fight in me. My New Year's resolution is not to lose that fight and to continuously try to become a better lawyer and a better person.”
• Stan Grueninger of Glendale spent 17 years running a Woodlawn Oldsmobile dealership bearing his name. He coined Woodlawn's village motto, “Welcome to Beautiful Woodlawn,” founded the village's chamber of commerce and has a Woodlawn road named after him:
“I intend to encourage and mentor young business people by offering my experience. I intend to be the grandfather that is remembered. I intend to protect the preservation of the landmark village of Glendale. I intend to protect my health so I may complete these intentions.”
• Jean-Robert de Cavel, executive chef of the Mobil five-star Maisonette, downtown:
“I have the same resolution every year: To lose weight. But each year I gain. I don't want to be skinny. I don't want to be a model. I just want to find time to exercise, to be more healthy. Actually, if your health is not in danger, I think it's OK if your body shows you love good food. What is the saying? Never trust a skinny cook?”
• Courtis Fuller, WLWT (Channel 5) news anchor:
“I'd like to make better organization a personal focus this year, get my world in order and prioritize. A spiritual connection is No. 1 with a goal to strengthen my faith. I'd like to focus on family more, nurturing my marriage and my relationship with my daughter. I'd also like for 2000 to be the year I can complete a book. It would be more of a practical workbook for structuring various components of one's life on a long-term basis with topics ranging from spending habits to health issues.”
• Alicia Reece, elected to Cincinnati City Council in November and at age 28 council's youngest member:
She resolves to increase and improve health services, the platform that she said won her a council seat. “I definitely won't slip away from that,” she said. “My agenda was set by the people.”
She also intends to usher in a new age of inclusion within all city-run offices. City Hall has just three handicapped spaces and no convenient elevator, she said. The handicapped “have to come in the building like freight. I realize this building is historical and I value that. But I know if we put our heads together we can come up with something pleasing to everyone.”
• Sister Kathy Green, a Religious Sister of Mercy and regional vice president for mission services at Mercy Health Partners. She's one of the women responsible for nudging the Cincinnati health-care community, particularly the Mercy Hospitals, into the field of holistic, integrative health in the last several years:
“I just came from an ethics committee meeting, and we were doing this reflection on power and how we use power. We all have power, and sometimes the most significant power is micropower — it's the power that we yield by our presence or by a position we have. It's about how your attentiveness and presence to people, particularly when you talk about health care, can be healing or damaging.
“That's a long way of saying a New Year's Resolution for me is to be attentive to whether or not the way I am relating to another is truly facilitating healing. I want to make sure there's a level of compassion that's involved in all my encounters.”
• Stan Williams, director of small, minority and female business development for Hamilton County, divided his resolutions into personal and professional:
His personal resolution is to continue developing friendships and relationships in his family.
“In business, I'm always looking to grow for the people I'm charged to help. And I want to make sure they feel free to contact me when they have new, innovative ideas to help me help them.”
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