Evendale officials have until Aug. 22 to put the hiring of Police Officer Stephen Roach on the village's November ballot.

        Opponents of the hiring have collected enough valid signatures to put their referendum to oust the officer to a vote.

        The Hamilton County Board of Elections checked the more than 200 names and determined at least 155 of them — the required number — were those of registered voters who live in the village, Kathy Curran, board assistant, said Wednesday.

        Now, Village Clerk Donna LeFevre will go pick up the signatures, probably next week. From there it will take a vote by Village Council for formal ballot placement.

        Mayor Douglas Lohmeier said he is considering holding community forums soon to work out the controversy over the hiring.

        “We are still committed to bringing this community together so we can move forward,” the mayor said.

        Officer Roach, 27, whose fatal shooting of an unarmed, fleeing man April 7 sparked Cincinnati's riots, quit the Cincinnati force last month and started with Evendale on Jan. 22. He was acquitted of negligent homicide last fall.

        He is now in training with a veteran Evendale officer and is doing well on the job, Chief Gary Foust said.

        Mike Harrison recognized Officer Roach when he saw him last week in a cruiser outside his bar, Wally's, on Reading Road. He asked for help with a truck that had been abandoned on the lot.

        “I told him, "Hey, you're Steve Roach, ain't you?” Mr. Harrison said. “He said yes. I had a couple of guys come out of the bar and shake his hand.”

        Laura Maupin, officer manager of the Imperial Lodge motel on Reading Road, said Officer Roach “deserves a second chance. Hey, it was an accident or whatever. He was not convicted.”

        But opponents of the hiring, many of them African-American residents, said Officer Roach has become a symbol of racial strife, and that village officials were wrong to make the decision on an emergency basis without any public input.

        Dr. Randy Cox, an organizer of the group, said some attorneys for the opponents will be meeting next week with Mayor Lohmeier and the village solicitor.

        The Village Council meets again March 7.

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