The Enquirer

HAMILTON - Sue Vance, acting Butler County Environmental Services Department director since June, has been given the job by Butler County commissioners.

Vance, a Fairfield Township mother of five (ages 2-11), had been technical services superintendent since 1995. She replaces Tony Parrott, who resigned for personal reasons June 2 after nine years heading the agency.

Vance joined the department in 1991 as a staff environmentalist responsible for air quality and landfill well monitoring.

Beekeeper named deputy apiarist

BATAVIA - Jeff Harris' qualifications for the job are impeccable.

He's been stung by as many as 30 bees at the same time. He's loved bees since he was 14 years old. And, recently, he extracted 120 pounds of honey from the two bee colonies he keeps.

So county commissioners have appointed the local man as the county's deputy apiarist, who inspects all the registered honeybee colonies in the county to diagnose any diseases or pests and make suggestions to beekeepers.

Once home to about 200 beekeepers, Clermont County has about 80 beekeepers today.

N. College Hill pay remains undecided

NORTH COLLEGE HILL - City council in this Hamilton County community still can't agree on how much, if any, to increase pay for non-union city employees.

A salary ordinance that would have given several employees raises was voted down in a 4-to-3 decision Aug. 16 and an open discussion during the city's regular finance committee meeting held this week yielded no conclusion.

Safety Service Director Jerry Thamann said he was "perplexed and surprised" by council. Thamann is hoping council will introduce an amended version of the same ordinance at its first regular meeting in September.

He said the city of some 10,000 residents has been on the low end of the salary spectrum for years "and we're falling further behind."

The proposed raises varied by position, but included a $3,018 increase for the clerk of courts, among the highest of the requested increases.

Employees affected by the proposed ordinance are part-time firefighters, the fire chief and deputy fire chief, seasonal employees and department heads.

City council will meet at 8 p.m. Sept. 7 in council chambers at city hall, 1704 W. Galbraith Road. The regular meeting was moved from Sept. 6 because of the Labor Day holiday.

Opinions sought on transportation

Residents wishing to voice their opinions about Warren County's transportation woes can now call a hot-line number.

People can leave a message on the automated voice-mail system at 695-7992 and their calls will be forwarded to the appropriate person for follow-up.

It's a chance for officials to get public feedback as part of the ongoing Southwest Warren County Transportation Study. The goal of the two-year study is to identify key bottlenecks and traffic hassles and find solutions to them.

The study also has established a Web site, www.plan4swwarrenco.com.