Respite center for homeless opens

WEST END - A respite care center for homeless people to stay after being discharged from hospitals has opened.

The 15-bed Center for Respite Care, 830 Ezzard Charles Drive, is run by the Health Resource Center, a health clinic in Over-the-Rhine. The center plans to serve homeless people who aren't sick enough to stay in a hospital but remain too sick to recuperate in shelters.

The respite care center is co-sponsored by several hospital groups and social service agencies, and will cost more than $1 million to run for the next four years. Some support comes from a four-year, $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Gifted-children expert to give presentation

FOREST PARK - Robert Basil will give a presentation on "The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children" at 7 p.m. Monday at The Schilling School for Gifted Children, 924 Halesworth Dr.

Basil was mentored by Dr. James T. Webb, co-author of Guiding the Gifted Child and founder of Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted

Basil's presentation, which will include a question-and-answer session, is sponsored by the Schilling Parent Community. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The Schilling School offers a K-12 curriculum and serves the entire Tristate.

For information call the Schilling School, 851-1940.

Mason buys land,

considers new park

MASON - This Warren County city is looking into making the nearly 51 acres it just purchased into parkland.

City Council approved purchasing the land from Eleanor Gould for $1.8 million during its meeting Monday night. In exchange, the city is giving Gould a life estate so she can continue living in her home on the property.

In the future, the city will hire a landscape architect and get community comment to figure out what will be needed on for the property, located on Mason Road near downtown.

The city already has 242 acres of parks.

Deerfield Twp. delays talks on development

DEERFIELD TWP. - The township zoning commission put off discussion of plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the Shoppes of Deerfield Mason-Montgomery Road at its meeting this week.

Instead, the commission decided Monday to honor the developers' request and hold off on discussions until the commission's next meeting, Dec. 8.

Tim Hershner, Deerfield's community development director, said the township might move the meeting from the township meeting room because so many residents are expected to attend.

An estimated 150 people attended Monday night.

Children's Hospital leases second MRI

MASON - Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has leased a second MRI scanner for its outpatient center that could reduce waiting times for young patients who need the high-tech scans.

Recently, waiting times for nonemergency MRI scans at the Mason office had been three to six weeks.

With the new scanner, wait times could be reduced to two days or less, said Dr. Lane Donnelly, director of radiology.

Truck driver crashes while changing clothes

LAPORTE, Ind. - A truck driver crashed his semi-trailer while trying to change clothes as he drove 60 mph on a northern Indiana highway, police said.

Terry Gilmore, 59, of Ohio, told investigators he had set his cruise control so he could change clothes while driving on U.S. 6 Monday night about 25 miles southwest of South Bend, the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department said.

He misjudged a curve and rolled the truck off the road and into two fences, police said. Gilmore was not seriously injured, but was taken to LaPorte Hospital as a precaution.

The crash caused officers to close a portion of the road for more than three hours.

A witness told investigators she found Gilmore naked when she went to check on him right after the accident.

No charges were filed in the crash, police said. A hometown for Gilmore was not available from police.