The Clermont County Economic Development Corp. has been advertising for the job, with a salary of at least $100,000 a year. Applications are due Friday. Organizers have $500,000 from the County for the next 18 months.

That leaves three groups working the same general space: The new group, with the tongue-twisting name ED3C, will recruit new businesses; the county development office will provide land, money and infrastructure such as roads and sewers; and the Clermont Chamber of Commerce will continue its business retention programs.

"I'm thrilled with it," said Andy Kuchta, director of the county's economic development office.

But corporate types who have pushed to ramp up the county's development efforts still aren't done. Dan Rolfes, president of Holiday Homes and one of the organizers of the informal group, said there would be more talks. His company and others have been asked to help fund ED3C but haven't committed yet, he said.

"I think the county's intentions are good, and I think they're putting their money where their mouth is," Rolfes said. "We should be in a hurry because we are missing opportunities. But I think people want to do it right."

Sex patch a step closer

Procter & Gamble Co.'s Intrinsa patch to treat low sexual desire in post-menopausal women is moving ahead at full speed.

The next step will come in early December, when an advisory committee of scientists to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will convene in Washington to review test data on the testosterone patch. In P&G's best case, that would lead directly to approval, with the product available for prescription by early in 2005.

The FDA already has cut the application time by granting Intrinsa "priority review." The patch is at the top of the drug pipeline for P&G's pharmaceuticals unit, and many hope it will be the company's next blockbuster brand.

Staying alive

In the mess that is the Florence Freedom minor-league baseball team, $25,000 can make the difference between playing baseball in 2005 or not.

A federal bankruptcy judge this week allowed team owner Northern Kentucky Professional Baseball LLC to borrow that much to fund off-season maintenance and operating costs. If the judge had upheld objections from several creditors, club owners might have had to convert to liquidation, ending all hopes of fielding a team next spring, club attorney John Schuh said.

"We're broke, it's really as simple as that," Schuh said before the hearing.

The parties eventually worked out the loan, and Schuh will continue to negotiate with a potential new investor. If he can bring contractors, banks and the city of Florence together in a deal, he could have a contract with the new buyer sometime this month to buy all of the Freedom's assets.

That buyer would include some of the current team owners, but not Chuck Hildebrant, the 20 percent owner who faces a federal investigation into how he got a bank loan to finance construction of the Freedom's ballpark overlooking Interstate 75

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com