By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The Kenton County Mayors’ group met at Erlanger on Saturday, and several topics of conversation were introduced.
Director of Emergency Management Steve Hensley brought up the fact that people were calling his office saying that the sirens were malfunctioning because they went off multiple times Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and he said they were doing what they were designed to do, because there were different storms that activated the sirens off 4 separate times. He said some people complained that they can’t hear the sirens inside and he said they are not meant to be heard inside. Inside people should have a code red alert system on their phones or on television, the local news channels.
“It’s important for people to take a little effort to protect themselves and their families,” he said. “And you will probably see this on the news today, the National Weather Service has called me to tell me that they determined the tornado on New Buffington, Turkeyfoot Road area was an EF1. They have been doing damage assessments and that is what they have found out. There was a lot of damage in Boone County probably from the same storm. Any tornado is bad but an EF 1 has winds from 86 to 110 miles per hour.”
He said they have a report from the hydrologist which said parts of the Ohio River went up 12 inches in a few hours.
He also brought up the searches the county does for autistic children, and said they have a data base for autistic children since they seem to be on the rise. He said there is a little guy from Crescent Springs who runs away sometimes and when he ran this last time they could tell from the file that he tended to head for River Ridge School because there is a lake over there that attracts him, and officers were able to go down to the lake and locate the child due to the information they had. They also have a file for dementia patients.
“We will be rolling this project out to all the fire departments and first responders,” he said. “Once we refine this program we can have someone come out and talk to your first responders. We are trying to make sure there is a clearly defined criteria to put into place when people are missing.”
Covington Mayor Ron Washington gave an update on his city and the I-75 project, saying that he or his team continue to drive the loop in the city to see if there are problems. He said right now traffic is backing up on Pike Street, especially in the vicinity of Herb and Thelma’s, and he was looking into if it is a glitch on the GPS system. He said he would love to see two lanes going north on Pike street but since people live there they need to be able to park on the street. Washington said he is monitoring the situation.
He said he doesn’t foresee any more closures due to the project and reiterated his stance that Covington is open for business and that there are several different ways to get into the city.
He said they are redesigning Goebel Park as an entry to the city from the Fifth Street exit. He also said that Skyline Chili has purchased the old Frisch’s on Fifth Street so there will be a new restaurant to come to when people exit the expressway from Fifth Street.
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe talked about the difficulty of trying to get to her office since the parking in the front of the building in Covington is gone. She said a lot of the services can be accomplished online, or with a phone call, but she knows some people would like in-person services. She advised people to go out to the Independence office.
“I’m going to do a little candidate class, after the questions from the primary,” she said. “I am trying to shoot for July 1, about one to two hours, trying to keep it short and sweet. These are just common sense things. I think the candidates are a good voice for how best to use the election system itself and I will send all the stuff to your city administrators. If we can’t do a class, we will do a flyer.”
She said a lot of things are changing, such as the polling places, and she said Taylor Mill Elementary won’t be a polling place because of the amount of construction going on.
Summe said she is trying to put a lot of information online because she said if residents look online and check to see how to do the task they want to do, it usually makes things easier when they actually come into the office.
She said she has her own media team, but Kenton County has also loaned Megan to her if she doesn’t have enough staff.