April 2013 Monfort Heights White Oak Community Association P.O.

. Box 11342 Cincinnati, Ohio 45211 Website: www.mh-wo.org Email: mhwoca@aol.com "It's not just a community, It's our home."

What's

Inside
Local History

APRIL MEETING
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. Green Township Senior Center, 3620 Epley Road
The speakers for our meeting next week will be the Police Chiefs from both Colerain Township and Green Township, together with Pauletta Crowley from the Northwest Local School District. Pauletta heads the District Crisis Team for the NWLSD. Colerain Township Police Chief Dan Meloy and Green Township Police Chief Bart West will describe what they are doing in their jurisdictions with the District Crisis Team following the horror in Newtown, Connecticut last December. Colerain and Green are two of the largest three townships in Ohio, and each has many schools and high enrollments. Together with Pauletta and the members of the District Crisis Team in the individual schools in Colerain and Green Township, the Chief Dan Meloy police in both Townships are working to reduce the risk of a tragedy similar to the deadly incidents in a number of communities in this country over the last decade. The worst of those incidents may have been the murder of twenty young school children and six adults in Newtown, but there were an increasing number of such tragedies before then, and there have been more since. We all like to think that horrors like that are unthinkable in our own communities. But the truth is that it can happen here just as it did in Newtown. We urge you to attend this meeting to hear what is going on in our townships and our local school districtsome of which is frankly alarmingand ask your own questions to Chief Dan Meloy, Chief Bart West Chief Bart West and Pauletta Crowley.

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Garden

Tour

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Development Updates

SPRING CLEAN-UP TIME!

Saturday, April 20, at 8:00 a.m.
Don't forget that Saturday, April 20, is this spring's regular clean-up day, when volunteers led by Beautification Committee Chairperson Robey Klare will pick up the trash around the North Bend Road/I-74 interchange. Robey asks all volunteers to meet in the parking lot of St. Ignatius Church at 8:00 that morning. The job takes only a few hours and is a very visible community improvement. All the necessary equipment will be provided, including safety vests and convenient trash tongs for picking up most trash without stooping, except for gloves. Robey recommends that volunteers bring their own gardening gloves. Please give Robey a call at 481-7888 if you have any questions.

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Monforts Heights : Heights:

MONFORT HEIGHTS WHITE OAK COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.
The Association is an Ohio non-profit corporation and has been determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be an exempt organization under IRC sec. 501(c)(3). Newsletters are published during the first week of each month except July, August and December. Website: www.mh-wo.org

A GREEN TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY

some local one and two room schools in the 1920s. The consolidated school was named Monfort Heights: Monfort for the post office and Heights for the high elevation of the area. After the 1830s, while many issues and tensions arose in the U.S., including slavery and the Civil War, slavery was not a problem here because slavery was not permitted in the Northwest Territory, and Ohio had been admitted to the Union as a free state in 1803. The German immigrants who settled here were hard working and toiled on the land. As the Civil War raged on, many men went to war. Later men and boys of Monfort Heights would serve in the Mexican War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Spanish American War, and both WWI and WWII. While these major world events were taking place, life in Monfort Heights stayed pretty much the same. The farmers were tied to the land and its seasons. Spring brought tilling and planting, summer brought raising the crops, and fall brought harvesting them and preparing for winter. Life in

OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES JIM KUMMER TRUSTEE AND PRESIDENT DONNA PETERSON TRUSTEE AND VICE PRESIDENT MARIA LEONHARDT TRUSTEE AND TREASURER DAVE LOPEZ TRUSTEE AND S ECRETARY MARGARET ANGER TRUSTEE PAULETTA CROWLEY TRUSTEE JACKIE G OLAY TRUSTEE LYNNE HAMONS TRUSTEE KAREN KERST TRUSTEE SANDY MCCANN TRUSTEE BARB PIATT TRUSTEE COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS JACKIE G OLAY SUMMER GARDEN TOUR 481-5501 ROBEY KLARE BEAUTIFICATION 481-7888 JIM KUMMER WEBSITE 376-0387 PAULETTA CROWLEY REFRESHMENTS 741-4699 PEGGY LOPEZ LAND USE 662-2452 PEGGY LOPEZ SPEAKERS 662-2452 BARB PIATT COMMUNICATIONS 661-8446

In the 1800s the neighborhood called Monfort Heights was called Weisenburg. The first individuals that settled here were mostly of English and Scotch/Irish ancestry, but by the middle of the 19th century, most were immigrants from Bavaria and southern Germany. In 1900 a local postmaster named Frank Lumler opened a new post office on Burnt Schoolhouse Road (now Cheviot Road). He named that branch of the Post Office after the current Postmaster General, E.R. Monfort, who had been an Army Captain in the Civil War. The branch closed in 1905, and the name was almost lost until the consolidation of

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LOW-INCOME HOUSING PROJECT IN GREEN TOWNSHIP

We reported in our February and March issues on the proposal by the Cincinnati Metropolitan HousingAuthority (CHMA) to acquire property to build a new low-income housing project in Green Township. The project, which would have up to 50 multi-family units, was called "Option A" by CMHA. It would have involved the acquisition by CMHA of parcels on Westwood Northern Boulevard owned by Green Township and Hamilton County and some privately owned parcels, including the site of the former Beal's Total Automotive business on North Bend Road. Option A was preferred by CMHA over a "scattered unit" alternative (called "Option B") because it would permit the construction not only of the 32 subsidized low-income housing units mandated by HUD for Green Township, but also an additional 18 units of "affordable housing," which have a different financial CMHA makeup. Since our newsletter last month, there were many meetings focused on the CMHA proposal. There were several meetings hosted by CHMA at its headquarter on WesternAvenue, several protest meetings by the Concerned Citizens of Green Township, Cheviot and Westwood (a group newly organized for this purpose), and it also was the main event at several regular meetings of the Green Township Trustees. All these meetings were attended by large crowds. Nearly all the citizens in attendance objected to the development of a 32 to 50 unit low-income housing project in any one neighborhood of the Township, especially on the edge of the Township adjacent to Cheviot and Westwood, which already have many subsidized low-income apartment units. A special meeting of our Association's Board of Trustees was called on March 13 to consider the subject. At that meeting, the members of the Board unanimously authorizedAssociation President Jim Kummer to send letters to the Green Township Trustees and to the CMHA Commissioners objecting to the placement of a low-income housing project of the proposed size in any neighborhood of the Township, and to developing more than the 32 units mandated by HUD. The letters supported the Option B alternative of the scattering those 32 units throughout the Township. Opposition to the proposed development grew. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune came to a meeting of the Concerned Citizens of Green Township, Cheviot and Westwood to explain that the County Commissioners, as the officials responsible for the entire County, also objected to the Option A project. Among the Commissioners' reasons were that the location would place new burdens on already understaffed fire and police services in Westwood and Cheviot as the "first responders" to problems in the project area in Green Township, and that children living in that proposed project would be the responsibility of the Cincinnati public schools, not White Oak or Green Township public schools. However, Mr. Portune also advised the audience that a refusal by the County Commissioners to sell the parcel that the County owns on Westwood Todd Portune Northern Boulevard for Option A or to approve the zoning changes required for it might raise questions of compliance by the County with its obligations under an agreement with HUD for Block Grant funds. Those funds are important sources of funding for most of the County's cities and townships, including Green Township. The Commissioners would take action to keep Option A from proceeding only if the County's attorneys advised that doing so would not violate that HUD agreement. The necessary legal opinion was expected by Friday, March 29. Then, on Monday, March 25, the Green Township Trustees unanimously adopted a resolution opposing a sale of the Township's property on Westwood Northern Boulevard for the CMHA project. The resolution also expressed the Trustees' objections to locating more than the 32 low-income housing units mandated by HUD in the Township, and supporting CMHA's Option B concept of scattering those mandated 32 units throughout the Township. The Trustees' decision was greeted with loud cheers from the overflow crowd at the Township Administration Building. The next evening, the CMHA Board of Commissioners also voted unanimously to proceed with the Option B or "scattered site" alternative. The Option A proposal for the 32 to 50 unit development along North Bend Road and Westwood Northern Boulevard died for lack of a motion to authorize it. It is important to note that the basic issue is not dead. In voting not to sell Township land for Option A, each of the Green Township Trustees expressed serious concern about how CMHA now will implement its Option B alternative. The members of the Association's Board of Trustees share that serious concern. CMHA is facing severe budget cuts. For example, could CMHA decide that the least expensive way to place the 32 units mandated by HUD in Green Township would be to rehab two or three apartment buildings in one area or neighborhood rather than to acquire and rehab eight 4 family units or sixteen 2 family
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THE MORMON CHURCH IN MONFORT HEIGHTS

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official name of the religion commonly known as the Mormon Church.A Christian religion, members believe first and foremost that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of God. Worldwide the Church has more than 30,000 congregations. The members who live in Cincinnati's west side attend the chapel on the corner of North Bend Road and Diehl Road. Along with weekly worship services every Sunday from 10:00 - 11:10 am, the building hosts local Cub and Boy Scout troops, a daily scripture study class for high school students, activities for youth and women's groups and periodic specialty courses. These include the current Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class. Beginning this summer, the building will also serve as the headquarters for one of the Cincinnati missions of the church, one of 405 worldwide missions. In March, the women's group from the church offered workshops on thrift and self-reliance. The topics included small area gardening, preparing freezer meals, cake decorating, and couponing. These women belong to the largest women's organization in the world, called Relief Society. The purpose of Relief Society is to aid women in strengthening themselves, their families and helping those in need. The operation of the local church is managed solely by members who volunteer their time and talents for that purpose. None of the local church leaders or missionaries is paid for his work. Even the Sunday sermon is delivered by various members of the congregation so that all have the opportunity to share their own personal testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find out more about what the members of the church believe by visiting www.mormon.org or by stopping

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

by and joining any of the activities. Visitors are always welcome to attend. Members of the congregation are proud of the community in which they live. "This community is a place where family values matter and I am grateful for that," said Jean Wimmer of Monfort Heights.

DON'T FORGET YOUR POSY POWER!

Your Posy Power orders can be picked up on Saturday, April 13, 2013 between 11:00 a.m. and noon at the St. Ignatius Church parking lot on North Bend Road. Helpers will be available to load the bags in your trunk or truck. If you have any questions, please call Mary Ellen Lovett at 598-5204 or Eileen Kisker at 661-6002.

HOLD THAT SUMMER GARDEN TOUR DATE!

Saturday, June 15, 2013
Be sure to mark your calendar for the 2013 Association Summer Garden Tour. This year's tour will feature five beautiful home yards and gardens, and again offer garden and yard art and value-priced plants for sale. You can visit all of the yards and gardens on our annual Summer Garden Tour and check out the plant and art sales for only $10 (or $13 if you wait until the day of the Tour). By doing so, you also help this non-profitAssociation continue its work because our annual Summer Garden Tour is our most important fundraiser. If you would like to help man the ticket booth at one of the Tour homes that day for a couple of hours, please call Donna Peterson at 481-4091.

DEVELOPMENT UPDATES
from our March Meeting
A big Thank You toAdam Goetzman, Director of Development for Green Township, and Pat Kowalski, Chief Executive Officer for Mercy West, for their presentations at our March meeting. Adam used many photos in a PowerPoint presentation to detail the development now occurring in our Township. He explained the flow of additional employment, business and economic benefits that the emerging regional health care developments will bring. Those developments include Mercy Hospital in Monfort Heights, Children's Hospital, Christ Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital on HarrisonAvenue, Covenant Village on West Fork Road, and Wellington Orthopedic. The importance of these developments is both long term and short term. In the short term, they will provide construction employment opportunities. For the long term, they will offer permanent employment positions and an expansion of Green Township's tax base. The Township's investment in infrastructure improvements for the project will be largely paid for over time by the Township's JEDDs (Joint Economic Development Districts) with the town of Cheviot, through which employees of the new medical facilities will pay a small earnings tax. In connection with the Mercy Hospital development, the North Bend Road improvements near Mercy Health Boulevard are scheduled to be completed in June 2013. Adam then gave an overview of the other new projects in Green Township: Harrison Avenue West including a traffic signal at Sheed and Harrison. Engineering on this project should be completed in 2013, construction to begin in fall 2013, and completed in summer 2014. Wesselman/Rybolt-Taylor/Rybolt The final right-of-way acquisition should be completed in 2013, construction to begin in fall 2013 and completed in summer 2014. Cheviot Road Tallahassee to Jessup Widening Engineering for this project should be completed in 2013/2014 and the construction completed in 2015/ 2016. North Bend Road Overpass This major project involves the complete replacement of the existing North Bend Road bridge over I-74. The major reason for this is that the existing bridge does not meet current ODOT clearance requirements. (That is, the distance between I-74 pavement and the bottom of the bridge is not as high as current standards require.) The bridge also will be widened to 5 lanes, which will provide a dedicated entrance ramp to eastbound I-74 and four full lanes of through traffic. Engineering work is to be awarded in summer 2013 and the new bridge constructed in 2016/2017. Another current ODOT project, the road widening at the corners of North Bend and West Fork Road, should be completed in the fall of 2013. After Adam finished his presentation, Pat Kowalski took the floor. Pat also used lots of photos in his own PowerPoint presentation to give the audience clear views of the exterior and interior of the new Mercy Hospital, its facilities and the adjacent medical office building. Pat's exterior views included aerial photos that dramatically showed the size and location of the hospital, office building and service facilities on this large site. The hospital is anticipated to open this fall.

After his presentation with its pictorial accompaniment, Pat answered questions about the new construction, including how old Boomer Road will be used and the benefits of the hospital's grass-covered "green" roof. Both Pat and Adam answered many audience questions about these ongoing and anticipated projects.

Green Roof

OUR NEW HEAD LIBRARIAN!

We welcome Lisa Cappel to Green Township as the new head librarian of the Monfort Heights Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library. Lisa, who earned her masters degree in Library Science and Information at the University of Kentucky, began her management position at the Monfort Heights Branch just last month, on March 18. She is a native of Lisa Cappel Pickerington, Ohio (near Columbus) and has worked in the Cincinnati area since 2003 at library branches in Covedale and Miamitown. She and her husband live in Westwood with their three children. Many of our members are fond users of our local public library branch. Be sure to stop in and introduce yourself to Lisa Cappel and welcome her to our community!

KAREN'S BASKET FACTORY MOVING SALE!

Association business member, Karen Freeman, advised us that she is moving her shop. But fans need not despair-the move will be only about 200 feet northeast of its present location to the building Frey Electric formerly used as its showroom. The move, which is planned for late May or early June, will provide Karen with more flexibility in arranging displays and a better store layout. As Karen consolidates and trims her inventory of specialty decorative and gift items along with many of her baskets, customers will have the opportunity to take advantage of substantial markdowns. There will be great bargains, with many items marked down 25%, 50% and even 75% off! The sale will continue until Karen completes the move or, she says, "possibly later if I don't get my act together." This is a great opportunity to see if a special item you had your eye on may be on sale. Karen also is bringing in new merchandise every week. That makes her "moving day sale" an even more wonderful opportunity to shop this local merchant who has supported the Association for many years, and to help her keep her unique gift and craft shop in business! Karen's Basket Factory regular store hours are Monday, Wednesday and Fridays 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00 noon - 7:00 p.m. (possibly later if basket weaving classes in session-call 213-245-1100 to check); and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

LIBRARY HAPPENINGS
YEAR ROUND GARDENING Learn new ideas for planning and maintaining your garden throughout the year from the staff at White Oak Garden Center. All programs are on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. April 8, Growing Small Fruits and Berries in the Home Garden: Practical advice on making the right variety choices, site and soil choices and correct maintenance to achieve success tips and methods. April 22, Tropical Treasures: Add bright pops of color to your summer garden by adding new and exciting tropical plants and bulbs. SENIOR BOOK CLUB Meets the third Tuesday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at the Green Township Senior Center, 3620 Epley Road. April 16, Heft, by Liz Moore May 21, In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson June 18, The Day the Falls Stood Still, by Cathy Marie Buchanan QUICK CRAFTS for teens and adults Meets the second Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. Learn a new crafting skill and work on a one-hour project. Please call 369-4472 for the theme of the monthly project. For ages 12-adult. Registration is required. BOOK CLUB Meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. The title for the following month will be announced at each month's meeting. Or call the library at 369-4472. For more information on these and other library programs, call the Monfort Heights Branch at 369-4472 or go to www.CincinnatiLibrary.org. 6

2013 WESTWOOD HOME TOUR

The Westwood Historical Society is pleased to announce the 6th Westwood Home Tour that takes place on Sunday, April 28. The self-guided tour runs from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and starts at Mother of Mercy High School, 3036 Werk Road (Epworth Avenue entrance). As in past Westwood Home Tours, the featured homes mirror the diversity of styles found in Westwood. The homes reflect the different tastes and lifestyles of their original owners as well as those of the current owners and their families. Interiors are as varied as the exteriors, with something to appeal to everyone's taste. See how homeowners have repurposed found objects, blended old with new, made the ordinary unique, and dealt with architectural challenges. Also featured on the tour will be the recently renovated Westwood School and the Suburban Bell telephone building that has been acquired by Madcap Puppets and will be renovated as their new home. Tickets are $15 on the day of the tour and can be purchased at Mother of Mercy High School starting at 12:30 p.m. (homes will not open until 1:00 p.m). Advance sale tickets are $10, available from April 1 until April 27, at Henke Winery (3077 HarrisonAvenue) and US Bank Westwood-Cheviot Office (3168 HarrisonAvenue). For more information, go to www.westwoodhistorical.org, or (513) 979-1927.

A GREEN TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY Continuedfrompage 2

the winter slowed considerably. Some farmers took their crops and livestock to market once a week to Cincinnati, but most of the farms in the area were too far from Cincinnati to support a true suburb, and growth was slow in Monfort Heights until the post World War II baby boom. Cars, shopping centers and subdivisions began to replace farmland that produced vegetables, fruits and animals. Today Monfort Heights is just a 15 minute drive from downtown Cincinnati and has easy access to I-74, I-75, I-275, I-71 and the Ronald Reagan highways, as well as Northern Kentucky. It is now possible to easily and quickly access all the Greater Cincinnati area from this suburban community. Soon the new 300+ bed Mercy Hospital will be opening on North Bend Road. This development is leading to major road improvements on North Bend Road, the main traffic artery for the area. The community also supports a large number of churches of many denominations, including the Catholic, Protestant and Mormon faiths. Like its close neighbor Bridgetown, Monfort Heights is considered to be a Census Designated Area. Its residents' median income level, educational level, age and property values all are higher than the state of Ohio average. The new Bicentennial Park on Diehl Road as well as access to nearby Mt. Airy Forest offers residents many recreational opportunities. Mt.Airy is home to miles of horseback riding trails so there are several barns and horses close by. Sewers have yet to be developed on many of its streets because of the hilly terrain, and many residences still have large lots and privacy, which enhances the "rural feel" of this community despite its close proximity to Cincinnati. The community is also home to the Monfort

Heights branch of the Cincinnati library on West Fork Road. Overall, Monfort Heights is a very pleasant place to live with a short commute to just about anywhere, family friendly recreation, quiet and beautiful residential neighborhoods, access to health care, shopping, schools and churches. One can certainly understand why the residents of Monfort Heights are happy to call the community their home. [In next month's issue, we will explore the equally varied and interesting history of White Oak.] Some of the information contained in this article was adapted from A Bicentennial History of Green Township: Uncovering a Jewel in the Crown of the Queen City 1809-2009, by Joe Flickinger.

LOW INCOME HOUSING

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units in genuinely "scattered sites" throughout the Township? We don't know, but the Association's Trustees are convinced that would be a bad result both for the Township and the residents of those public housing units. The Association's Trustees, together with the leaders of the Concerned Citizens of Green Township, Westwood and Cheviot group, intend to stay fully informed about CMHA's plans and, to the extent possible, assure that Option B is implemented in a way that will best help the residents of new low-income public housing and at the same time reduce the threat of adverse impact of that housing upon our local communities and their schools, public order and property values.

Monfort Heights/White Oak CommunityAssociation P.O. Box 11342 Cincinnati, OH 45211 www.mh-wo.org

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Our Association's Regular Monthly Meetings Are Held on The Second Wednesday Of Each Month at The Green Township Senior Center 3620 Epley Road.
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