Hamilton County and local Malls offer a chance to see a Bengals game from PBS Suite

During the month of November, citizens can register for the drawing at Kenwood, Northgate, Tower Place and Forest Fair Malls. Each mall will be developing its own unique program to register people for the drawing. Those interested in more details about registration should contact individual malls directly. The drawing will be held at the November 28^th Board of County Commissioners meeting. The drawing will provide 16 winners and a guest an opportunity to see one of two Bengals games in December (December 2^nd vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers or December 30^th vs. Pittsburgh Steelers).

Hamilton County will provide the use of its suite at Paul Brown Stadium for the use of citizens selected through the drawing. The County’s suite will accommodate 16 people for each game allowing eight individual winners and their guest to attend each game. The County will also provide food and soft drinks. In the past the County has provided the suite for use by foster families, County volunteers, the County’s Employees of the Year, and volunteer instructors in the County’s employee training program.

"Hamilton County taxpayers stepped up to make Paul Brown Stadium happen," stated Commission President John Dowlin. "I’m pleased that the County will be giving something back to citizens."

"Through the drawing we will be able to give citizens a chance to see this outstanding facility in use," stated Commissioner Tom Neyer, Jr. "This is one way to say ‘thank you’ to the taxpayer who paid for its construction."

Commissioner Todd Portune stated, "Those who pay sales tax in Hamilton County made Paul Brown Stadium possible and it is appropriate they have a chance to enjoy an event at the stadium."

The drawing for the Bengals suite tickets will take place as a part of the November 28^th Board of County Commissioners meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

Through a highly competitive sale with three bidders, the County was able to achieve a net interest rate of 3.8381%. Through the bond sale Hamilton County sold $3 million of new debt for water line extension and a building renovation projects, $ 9.05 million for the acquisition of the 800 Broadway building and $ 19.545 million for the Museum Center project. The refinancing of the previous bond issues will save the citizens of Hamilton County significant money in the future. The refinancing of the Museum Center will create a savings of $2.23 million and the refinancing of the 800 Broadway will result in a savings of over $840,000.

Through the Bond Sale process, Moody’s Investors Service reaffirmed Hamilton County’s bond rating of Aa2. The Aa2 rating is one of the highest possible. Only 15% of local governments nationwide have an Aa2 or higher rating. Moody's ratings provide investors with a simple system of gradation to compare the relative investment qualities of debt.  Aa2  is defined by Moody's as bonds judged to be of high quality by all standards.

"This is great news for Hamilton County," stated County Administrator David Krings. "We are able to save money by replacing existing, higher interest debt and we receive an excellent bond rating. This all speaks to the County’s strong financial management, reasonable debt levels and the overall stability of the local economy."

Hamilton County also conducted a sale of bonds for its Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD) for both new capital projects and refinancing of previous debt issues.  Through a highly competitive sale, the County was able to achieve a net interest rate of 4.71% on the $76 million of sewer revenue bonds.  Through the bond sale, Hamilton County sold $60.5 million of new debt and $15.5 million of existing debt was refinanced.  The new debt was sold to support for the construction of new sanitary sewers, improvements of existing lines and various other system improvements. The refinancing of the previous bond issues will save the MSD rate customer approximately $880,000.  The closing for this debt issue will take place on Wednesday, November 14, 2001.

William Hinkle will also be participating in a national public safety communications forum facilitating the integration of public safety services into the intelligent transportation system.

The endowment also offers grants for Thought Leadership Forums. The organizations receiving grants will be responsible for designing, implementing and hosting two-to three-day conferences bringing together 25 to 30 participants. Topics of discussion may address any of the topics previously listed. For further information, please contact Cindy Weitlauf, Grants Coordinator at 946-4317 of go directly to the website: www.endowment.pwcglobal.com/research.asp

Winners of the regional prizes will be announced on February 21, 2002. If you are interested in participating in America Recycles Day, please call Crystal Wentz at 946-7749. Pledging can be also done on-line at www.americarecyclesday.org.

Thank you in advance for helping the Solid Waste District spread the word on the importance of buying recycled and America Recycles Day!

The new site was posted to the main web-site of Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services www.hcdoes.org  on October 1, 2001.

The new web-site is more informative and easier to navigate. The site contains additional charts, graphs, and daily updates. The air quality index and pollen and mold counts are updated twice daily. You can check on the air quality conditions in the region, access pollen and mold counts, and get information on smog alerts and general air quality. Open burning permits and the annual report are now available to be conveniently downloaded from the new site.

Visit the updated site to learn more about air quality in our region and give us your feed-back!

Eleven Community Forums were held during October at various locations around the county allowing residents to share their ideas for the county’s future. More than 400 residents participated and generated over 1,700 ideas. A special Youth Forum was held on October 9, at Paul Brown Stadium where 160 students from 32 Hamilton County high schools gathered to express their concerns for the county’s future. To accommodate everyone, the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission also conducted an online idea gathering session, which generated additional input from participants.

Commonly mentioned ideas surrounded the areas of:

Now that all ideas are compiled together from the Community Forums, what happens next?

On October 30, a group of volunteers and staff from the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission categorized ideas into fifteen areas. The categorization process will help the Countywide Town Meeting working group, Steering Team members, outreach members, and volunteers from the Community Forums, in analyzing the ideas.

The next phase of idea categorizing and goal development will come to its peak at the goal writing workshop on Thursday, November 15. At the goal writing workshop, the Community COMPASS Steering Team will create goals for the county based on the ideas from the Community Forums. The Steering Team, a committee from the Planning Partnership compiled of members from the public, private, and civic sectors of Hamilton County, oversees the entire COMPASS process.

After the goal writing workshop, the 1,000 person Countywide Town Meeting will be held on January 12, 2002 at Music Hall. At this meeting, a vision for the county will be generated and goals for the completion of that vision will be prioritized. Members of COMPASS Action Teams, which are devised from members of the Steering Team and the public, will help implement the vision and help complete the goals to make Community COMPASS a success. If you would like to attend the Countywide Town Meeting please register online at www.communitycompass.org or call 946-4405.

The Environmental Management Corporation (EMC) is a government agency under the Ministry of Environment - Republic of Korea.  Members of the Ministry of Environmental Management Corporation wanted to visit Cincinnati to gain information on how MSD handles I/I, SSO and CSO.  EMC Members had other lined up for visits but was willing to skip one or more sites in order to visit Cincinnati and learn about MSD’s advanced system and technology.

EMC is initiating an I/I, SSO and CSO Project in Korea for the first time.  This project is located in the Kyonggi Province near Seoul, Korea.  EMC is trying to upgrade water quality in four major river watersheds in Korea.  This project will cover nine municipalities of Kyonggi Province in Han River Watershed.  New sewage pipes will be installed, existing sewers will be renovated or replaced and a CSO master plan will be set up in the watersheds.

The Korean delegation was given presentations on preventive maintenance (TV, Cleaning, Tracking), sewer system rehabilitation (lining, MH rehab, emergency repair), Deep Tunnel and System Wide Model Project, which included a walk-through of the project office.  Other highlights of MSD’s presentation was to take our visitors to Betts Street in College Hill while a lining project was under-way, Congress Run Creek off Galbraith Road to see a off road Flushing Unit equipment on-site, the Waste Water Collections Facility and the Muddy Creek High Rate Treatment Facility.

Steve Donovan, Susan Moisio, Maria Turner, Steve Minges and Ann Newsom worked to organize presentations and facility tours.  Presentations were given by Jerry Weimer, Missy Gatterdam, Ralph Johnstone, Bill Beyer, Pete Schneider, Henry Chapman, Don Cuthbert (BBS), Ted Burgess (CDM) and a variety of staff members form Waste Water Collections.

MSD as well as our visitors from Korea consider this sharing of information to be quite valuable.  We were able to exchange technical as well as cultural information.  While having lunch at LaRosa’s, the Korean delegation was welcomed by Mr. Buddy LaRosa whose restaurants are part of the Cincinnati Culture.

MSD looks forward to hosting the next Korean delegation in November.

If you would like to check out the past year of Hello, Hamilton County go to www.hamilton-co.org/Newsletter/default.asp  

Have a Great Week!