Blue Ash hires development chief

BLUE ASH - A veteran of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce will join Blue Ash as the city's first economic development director.

City Manager Marvin Thompson said the hiring of Judy Clark signals a new push to fill vacant office space, redevelop industrial sites and revitalize the downtown business district and other areas.

Clark, who goes on the payroll July 4 with an annual salary of at least $63,900, is director of economic development for investor relations in the chamber's Cincinnati USA Partnership program. She previously ran the chamber's northeast office for four years, Thompson said.

Her hiring was part of a restructuring of Blue Ash's development department, that resulted in the resignation three weeks ago of Community Development Director Lois McKnight after Thompson eliminated her job.

"It's a different world now for Blue Ash," Thompson said.

Committee wants separate YMCA levy

SYMMES TWP. - The township finance committee has recommended that a levy to build an $11 million YMCA with Deerfield Township should not be linked to general park levy.

Trustees could vote Tuesday whether to place the levies on the November ballot, and Trustee Kathy Wagner said any tax increase would not exceed the 1.85-mill park levy that expires this year.

Neither proposed levy would be permanent, but Wagner did not know the recommended terms.

"I'm happy. That way the recreational facility will stand on its own. If it goes down, it goes down," Wagner said. "If it fails, we're not putting it on again."

Symmes residents must approve the financing before plans can proceed with construction of a recreation facility, which would be run as a satellite of the Ralph J. Stolle Countryside Y in Lebanon. Deerfield trustees recently approved a letter of intent with Countryside.

Local hospitals make list of top 100

University Hospital and Mercy Hospital Anderson were among eight hospitals in Ohio and one in Kentucky to be listed among the nation's 100 "top performing" hospitals by a health care industry report.

University Hospital in Corryville was among 15 large teaching hospitals that made the list. Mercy Anderson was ranked among 20 mid-sized community hospitals.

The list was compiled by Solucient, a health care industry tracking firm, which studied data from more than 6,000 hospitals nationwide. Those that made the list demonstrated a combination of high survival rates, low complication rates and low expenses.

No Indiana hospitals made the list. The only Kentucky hospital was McDowell ARH Hospital in McDowell.

St. Catharine's pupils conduct egg drop

WESTWOOD - Eighth-graders at St. Catharine's School spent the last day before school experimenting with an egg drop.

Students, individually or in pairs, build a casing to hold a raw egg. The contraption was hoisted by bucket to the top of the school roof - about 50 feet, from where a staff member dropped it.

If the egg was intact after landing, the student got an extra science credit.

Twenty-eight students participated; 11 eggs were unbroken.