CPS building survey planned

        Architects working with Cincinnati Public Schools will begin assessing the condition of all district buildings early next month.

        Staff with URS Greiner Woodward Clyde and DNK Architects will conduct “community orientation meetings” at the Education Center on Burnet Avenue from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and Dec. 12.

        These public meetings are designed to explain what the district will do as it visits each school to assess conditions and how the school structure meets the school's academic needs, said Dana Mitchell, with URS.

        The district is updating a 7-year-old master facilities plan that outlines renovations, projects and new construction for each school.

        The facilities master plan calls for more than $700 million in repairs at the district's schools.

        Architects and school officials will meet with representatives at each school during the next year. A final update of the plan is scheduled to be complete in September.

Meth drug lab checked by experts

        Federal authorities are investigating a methamphetamine lab found late Monday in College Hill.

        The lab was discovered by Cincinnati police officers who responded to a house in the 4700 block of Hart Avenue about 10 p.m. for a reported rape and domestic violence. They saw the lab and called for drug specialists from the police division's Operation Street Corner and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

        Charges had not been filed Tuesday related to the meth lab. But Robin James Achoe, 34, was charged with rape and domestic violence.

        Police officials for several years have predicted that meth would soon hit here. Its popularity increases, they say, because it gives cheaper and longer highs than cocaine and can be relatively easy to make with readily available materials.

        Last month, federal and local officers busted a New Miami bar they say was the biggest meth supply house so far in the Tristate. Arrests are popping up all over Greater Cincinnati, including in Covington, Cleves, Gallatin County, Lebanon and Harlan Township.
       

Prisoner freed year and a half late

        LEBANON — A man sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison was released 19 months late because of a clerical error.

        Gerome Burns, 23, of Akron, was convicted of sexual battery, drug abuse and receiving stolen property. He entered the Warren Correctional Institution in September 1996 and should have been released in April 1999.

        Instead, prison officials released Mr. Burns two weeks ago.

        “It was an error,” said Joe Andrews, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. “We release 20,000 inmates a year. The calculation was done incorrectly.”

        Mr. Burns said prison officials admitted their mistake and apologized.

        “I was in so much shock, I didn't say nothing,” Mr. Burns said. “All I wanted to do was leave and get back to my family.”

        Mr. Burns said he didn't know when he should have been released because he did what prison officials told him. He plans to file a lawsuit.
       

Food left on stove causes $100,000 fire

        Food left unattended on a stove started a fire that caused $100,000 damage to a two-story College Hill residence Tuesday afternoon.

        Heavy smoke was pouring from the house in the 5600 block of Sugarberry Court when firefighters responded to the 4 p.m. alarm. The occupant, Cedric Powell, had put food on the stove and fallen asleep, fire officials said. He awoke, discovered the fire, called 911 and escaped without injury.
       

Uranium plant workers to get aid

        COLUMBUS, Ohio — The private operator of a southern Ohio uranium enrichment plant has agreed to reinvest $2 million in local development and obtain $18 million in bonds for payment to workers who may be laid off from the plant, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland and Gov. Bob Taft announced Tuesday.

        The deal, which must be approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, was worked out among the U.S. Enrichment Corp., the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., and the union that represents about 1,700 workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.

        The plant's future remains uncertain. About 1,400 of the plant's 1,900 workers were told in June that they would be laid off within a year as production ended. The rest of the work force would be phased out by 2006.

        However, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in October that the development of a gas centrifuge technology to enrich uranium for nuclear reactor fuel would allow the Piketon plant to stay open and, along with its sister plant in Paducah, Ky., compete in the energy market.

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