DEERFIELD TWP. — Gov. Bob Taft and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have announced that Warren County Community Services will share in more than $35 million in federal funds awarded to 16 counties in Ohio.

        Larry Sargeant, executive director of Warren County Community Services, said the agency received more than $4 million to construct and operate a facility in Deerfield Township for elderly residents.

        The development will provide 48 apartments in a two-story building similar to developments sponsored by WCCS in Lebanon, Carlisle, Waynesville, Morrow, Franklin, Mason and South Lebanon. Construction will be completed in 2003.
       

Grant will fund police presence at apartments

        HAMILTON — A $250,000 federal grant has been awarded for the installation of a police substation at the Neilan Park Apartments on Front Street and projects designed to eliminate drug problems at the low-income apartment complex.

SHOP WITH A COP: Tyler Ferguson, 8, looks for a present for his mother Thursday on a shopping trip with Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Kayne Brown. Officers from several Northern Kentucky departments participate in the “Shop with a Cop” program, taking youngsters to buy gifts for themselves and their families. This stop was at the Florence K-Mart. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued the grant to the Hamilton Police Department and Neilan Park Apartments.

        Increased police presence there will give officers alternatives to simply arresting people, said Sgt. Steve Henderson.

        “By talking more with residents, we can try to get to the root of the problems,” he said. “This will help get the police and the community back together again.”

        In 1996, officials said, Neilan Park Apartments had the worst drug problem per capita in Ohio. But other HUD-funded programs have helped significantly reduce the drug problem, said Denise Prater, manager of the 168-unit complex.

        Dan Gorman, owner of the apartment complex, said the police substation, which will be used by officers in the Community Oriented Policing program, will make residents feel safer.
       

Prisoner adds escape to charges he's facing

        GREENHILLS — A prisoner escaped from an interrogation room at the police station Thursday afternoon.

        Larry Huff Jr., 21, of the 100 block of Farragut Road, had been picked up on a domestic violence charge and taken to the police station on Winton Road, police said. While in an interrogation room, Mr. Huff was able to open a locked door and flee.

        The suspect now faces an escape charge in addition to the domestic violence charge, police said.
       

Springfield residents can comment online

        SPRINGFIELD TWP. — Officials are urging residents to use the township's Web site, www.springfieldtwp.org, for comments regarding development of Warder Nursery Park, a 42-acre parkland parcel on Winton Road.

        Click on the Warder link, and the site will provide text and graphics presented at a recent public meeting where about 100 residents gathered to put questions and suggestions to Human Nature, Inc., the landscape design firm developing a park master plan.

        The township bought the bulk of the property from the city of Cincinnati for $750,000 in December 1999.
       

Last chance nears to take GED for 2001

        The last day of the year will be the last chance to complete the current GED test at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College in Clifton.

        The exam will be given at 10 a.m. Starting Jan. 1, a new exam kicks in, and none of the parts of the current exam count, college spokesman Bruce Stoecklin said.

        Information: Bari Ewing at Cincinnati State, 569-1828.
       

Ohio will pursue election ad complaints

        The Ohio Elections Commission found probable cause Thursday to pursue complaints about an ad that ran during the fall Lebanon City Council race, Executive Director Philip Richter said.

        The newspaper ad was paid for by businessman and former Councilman John McComb, who could face a fine of up to $5,000 if the commission finds it contained false statements.

UNION PICKETS AT AIRPORT: Chris Price (left) and other members of the hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 12 picket outside Terminal 3 at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to protest Delta Airline's decision to eliminate in-flight meals on some flights. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Two former council members and two Lebanon Conservancy Foundation officials dispute these allegations in the ad:

        • That Mr. McComb conditionally offered to give the conservancy an old building.

        • That Jane Davenport — a councilwoman who subsequently lost the election — voted to buy the building.

        The complaints will be consolidated into one hearing that will likely be in the spring, Mr. Richter said.
       

Roadside decorations illegal, but they'll stay

        Someone in the Tristate is bringing a touch of roadside patriotism to evergreen trees lining Interstate 71 — and just in time for Christmas.

        The trees decorated with patriotic trinkets are on the east side of I-71 between Ronald Reagan Highway and Pfeiffer Road.

        But they are illegal, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

        Since there is no record of anyone applying for a permit to alter or place a structure on the right-of-way that belongs to ODOT, they could be removed.

        "Apparently someone just decorated the trees without checking with us,” said Kim Patton, ODOT's District 8 public information officer. But ODOT doesn't plan to play the role of the Grinch who stole Christmas or Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War traitor.

        "We don't plan to take them down. As long as they don't create a distraction to the motorists, we will leave them there.”
       

"Average Joe' gets 4 more prison years

        A northern Kentucky man serving a federal sentence after pleading guilty to robbing 11 banks in Kentucky was sentenced Thursday to four more years in prison for robbing an Ohio bank.

        Daniel T. Schwarberg, 43, of Verona, Ky., pleaded guilty Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to robbing a bank in Springdale on July 28, 1999.

        Schwarberg was sentenced March 5 in U.S. District Court in Lexington to a prison term of five years and three months after pleading guilty to robbing the 11 banks in Kentucky between February 1998 and July 11, 2000.

        Five of the Kentucky banks were in Lexington, three were in Northern Kentucky and three were in Louisville.

        Schwarberg, who was labeled “Average Joe” by authorities because of his nondescript appearance, has admitted in court that he was the bank robber who had eluded Kentucky and Ohio authorities.

        Schwarberg was arrested on July 11, 2000, when two Lexington police officers stopped a vehicle believed to be involved in the robbery of a Lexington bank about an hour earlier.

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