More than 350 residents of Sayler Park pleaded with the Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday to save their riverfront from a cement distribution facility.

        They packed the Sayler Park Community Memorial Center to voice opposition to a plan by Lone Star Industries of Indianapolis to build the facility on the Ohio River shore.

        “Nobody likes change. Certainly not change for the worse, like pollution, noise and all that,” said Tracy Anderson, 42, who has lived in Sayler Park 35 years. “But my big thing is the view ... I think it will just ruin the view.”

        Residents said two planned 100-foot silos at the facility, at 6381 River Road, about 12 miles west of downtown Cincinnati, would blemish the neighborhood, and the operation would pollute the air with dust.

        The corps, which can reject the project because of the effect it could have on the community, agreed to the public hearing after receiving more than 300 letters and a petition with more than 700 signatures, said Community Council President Mary Newman.

        “This would devastate our community,” she said. “Sayler Park is under a dire threat that could forever erode this wonderful community.”

        The corps is their last hope, Ms. Newman said. Residents have already pleaded their case to Cincinnati City Council, but they have said their hands are tied because the 20-acre site is zoned industrial.

        Several local and state representatives came out to show their support.

        Cincinnati Councilman Pat Dewine was concerned the development would cause further loss of city population. “I'm very concerned. If this facility is built here, some of these families will choose to live someplace else,” he said.

        Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, Councilman John Cranley and U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot spoke out against the development.

        Representatives of Lone Star said the site would go mostly undeveloped and never produce cement, but instead would be a distribution center served mainly by barge.

        Barbara Sinclair, Lone Star director of communications, said the company has not reviewed other sites.

        “We purchased the property inside an industrial corridor,” she said. “These are good people. Their issues are not with Lone Star, but with the persons who zoned the property.”

        The Army Corps of Engineers has no deadline to make its decision whether to issue Lone Star a permit, a corps spokesman said.

After the riots in Cincinnati: Continuing coverage
School funding plan worries CPS officials
CPS may lose under funding plan
Motorists taking hits in wallets
Rhodes: Levy scare is political
After the Holocaust: Starting over
Blood test can help predict infertility
Police: Woman ran previous spa
Blows to head killed woman in river
Fix-up scam reported in Butler Co.
Boy's death still probed
Campbell seniors' redone writing due today
Clinic licenses heart-assist pump for production
Earth Day events include park party
Falmouth to investigate mayor
Hamilton's North End spiffs up
Judge approves sale of some of Wilkinson's stores
Ky. on foot-and-mouth alert
Lawsuit filed in shooting death
McConnell challenger to visit
Ohio miniature railroad chugging to national fame
Popular Rodger is sacked from 'Survivor'
Queensgate crash kills 3
Sayler Park chorus rises against plant
School sale advised
Wilkens Blvd. opens
Withrow gets $10,000 for students' computer access
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report