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Dodging raindrops?
Soaking wet but smiling, Teri Brown crosses the finish line during St. Martin’s Country Run 5K. See Sports, Page 6.
154TH YEAR ISSUE NO. 30 $1
TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014
Trial set for Ohio Co. woman accused of killing ex By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter cmattingly@registerpublications.com
CHANDRA L. MATTINGLY/THE JOURNAL-PRESS
From left, Dave Irons and Floyd Walston, members of the Amy Irons Meyer Foundation, watch as fellow member Patrick Meyer explains plans for a gazebo beside the Aurora Dog Park and other amenities for the area.
Aurora pool costs hound officials; dog park gazebo proposal floated to board
By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter cmattingly@registerpublications.com
What to do with the Aurora City pool resurfaced at the city parks board meeting, tailing discussion of plans for a gazebo next to the dog park. “Since it made the newspaper, I've had a lot of people stop me and ask about the pool,” said Aurora Mayor Donnie Hastings, chairing the July meeting in the absence of park board president Mike Peters. “It seems a lot of people support the pool.” Hastings, however, pointed out the city spends $40,000 each year on the pool, which he said is open nine weeks. Opened Saturday, May 24, this year, the pool actually will remain open through Labor Day, Sept. 1, but with reduced hours once South Dearborn Schools resume classes Wednesday, Aug. 6. That's 14 weeks. Pool manager Debbie Peters said she's considering having the pool open from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays once school starts. Currently, the pool is open noon to 5:45 p.m., weather permitting. “What I'm hearing is there's a lot of support,” said Aurora Clerk-treasurer Randy Turner. There is a leak in the deep end, but the most critical part is the edging around the pool, he said. If city officials decide to open the pool in 2015, he'd like to get that replaced this fall, perhaps with steel guttering. The pool is not losing any more water than it did last year, he said. Several years ago, engineer Bob Coghill estimated replacing the line in the deep end would cost around $25,000, added Turner, who also is utilities superintendent. Several local contractors have told him they could do that work for less, he added. But for the three months it's open, the city is losing over $13,000 per month, said Aurora City Councilman Mike Crider, who serves on the park board. Yes, but that's only half of the $80,000 the city is losing on the Aurora Recreational
LPD look for K&K robbery suspect Lawrenceburg Police are asking for help finding the suspect in the robbery of K&K Mini Mart, 570 W. Eads Parkway, U.S. 50, Lawrenceburg. The suspect is a white male about 30 years old wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt. He is also described as having a sleeve tattoo on his left arm with a demon face on the front of the arm and theatre mask on the back. There was no color on the tattoo. Witnesses also said the suspect did not have facial hair, and was about 6-feet, 1-inch and about 175 pounds. The robbery happened at about 1 p.m.
See SUSPECT, Page 8
© REGISTER PUBLICATIONS, 2014
Center, replied Turner. But the ARC is open 12 months and the pool only three, replied Crider. More like two months, replied Turner. Hastings asked if Turner or Peters, who also is street superintendent, could get dollar figures by September on what's needed to maintain the pool. Turner said they could. But Aurora City Attorney Jeff Stratman said the park board needed to decide “right now” what to do about the pool, not put it off until September. Both Stratman and Hastings have mentioned replacing the pool with a splash park, saying it would have lower operating and maintenance costs. Stratman noted it would require less chemicals and no lifeguards.
the pool a few years ago, asked Crider. Aurora received a $25,000 grant from Rising Sun to redo the baby pool, replace a pump and provide handicapped access, replied Turner. Otherwise, yearly maintenance costs have been about the same. Stratman asked how often the pool needs to be refilled due to the leakage, and Peters said the staff keeps a garden hose running, but not at full force. It was suggested she put one of the city's summer water meters on the faucet to track the usage. Aurora's pool had its beginnings in the early 1950s, when a pool association was formed, raising $42,000 to pour the pool basin by 1959, said Turner. The association then ran out of money, and turned the pavilion in the city park into a skating rink as a money raiser. Then, in 1964, a ballot “If gaming goes down, there's going to be referendum supported the city issuing a bond a lot more in the City of Aurora that goes to complete the pool, he said. down than the pool,” said Turner. Gaming already is down, said Stratman, naming the city's “fluff items” as including Three representatives from the Amy Irons the pool, the ARC and the $10,000 spent on Meyer Foundation showed the park board this year's fireworks. design plans for a gazebo and other ameni“You're going to have to make some tough ties they hope to add at the Aurora Dog Park decisions. We can't continue to do all these and trail head at Manchester Landing. Aurora things,” he said. resident Jack Sutton, executive director of Hastings asked what Aurora's pool admis- Hamilton County Parks, and his wife, Beth sion price is, and Peters replied it's $2.50 per Sutton, provided the design work pro bono, person and $30 for a season pass. She sup- said Amy Meyer's widower Patrick Meyer. plied pool attendance records through July 16 The gazebo would go right beside the bike as well as a report of income from admission trail, and a couple of nine-person benches and vending. with shading overhead would go in the dog Daily attendance ranged from a low of park, which currently has no shade, he said. three to a high of 187, not counting days the A dog agility course would go in one corner. pool was closed due to weather. The highThe foundation is seeking 501K nonprofit est attendance was Friday, June 6, with the status, he said. When that is achieved, several highest income, $881.50, on Memorial Day, corporations and businesses connected with Monday, May 31. Amy Meyer which have expressed interest in Hastings noted Aurora's admission price donating may do so. is significantly less than Lawrenceburg's or “We're looking at $50,000 (cost.) … We've Greendale's. Turner said he can't see Aurora got 10 percent of this money in the bank” going through what Greendale did, building now, said Meyer. That came “from people's a new pool, but would support keeping the pockets” and was raised in a month and a pool open if the city can afford to patch it. half, he said. Didn't the city spend a bunch of money on See POOL, Page 8
Going down
Future shade?
A jury trial has been set for Tuesday, Oct. 14, for Danielle Marie Green, 42, of 9893 Hartford Pike, Ohio County. Green, who is charged with the murder of her ex-husband Raymond Green, 62, remains jailed. After her arrest Tuesday, June 3, Ohio Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey denied bond. Danielle Green During an omnibus and pretrial hearing Friday, July 25, Humphrey set the trial date, as well as a final pretrial date of 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10. According to the affidavit for probable cause by Indiana State Police Det. Peter Tressler, Danielle Green told police she saw a loaded handgun on the nightstand next to Raymond Green sleeping in bed about 6 a.m. Monday, May 26. He woke, grabbed her and said he was going to kill her, she told police. She pushed him away, grabbed the gun and shot him five times, she said, according to the affidavit. She then reloaded, and shot him five more times after he sat up and told her she needed to die, not him, she told police. But when police came to the Greens' joint farm on a welfare check at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 28, Danielle Green told them she'd heard an altercation late Sunday, May 25, between her ex-husband and her dog, said Tressler in the affidavit. She told police she'd not seen either since. Danielle also told police she and he both resided at the property, but in separate dwellings, according to the affidavit. She granted consent to police to search the property but not to search a large silver-colored metal box, secured with a padlock, she said belonged to her ex. Both the over-the-road truck and a white GMC pickup Raymond Green drove were at the property. Asked to show him the box, Green took ISP Det. Sgt. Tom Baxter to it, located near her mobile home. Meanwhile, 'pinging' indicated Raymond Green's cell phone was located near the Greens' home May 28, according to the affidavit by Tressler. Raymond Green’s employer, Roehl Trucking Company, reported a person identifying herself as “Danielle” had called the company May 27 and said Raymond Green “had died as a result of a fatal accident over the weekend.” In a second call the same
See TRIAL, Page 8
State Rep. says port study includes Dearborn By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter cmattingly@registerpublications.com
Efforts towards a feasibility study on whether a port would survive in Ohio County or Dearborn County are not intended to circumvent the Southeast Indiana Regional Port Authority, Ind. Rep. Randy Frye (R-Indianapolis) told that board Friday, July 18. Rather, his meeting with Ohio County and some Dearborn County officials and residents
Thursday, June 26, was a movement toward something he's been thinking about for the two years since he was elected, he said. “One of the first things I wanted to do was establish a port here,” he said. The first step is a study of whether a port would survive and where it best would be located, said Frye. Personally, he doesn't care where it would go, anywhere between the Indiana/ Ohio state line in Dearborn down to the Ohio/Switzerland county line, he said. “To me, it's a regional econom-
INSIDE TODAY OBITUARIES.......................2
SPORTS..........................6-7
ic opportunity, not just for plant would offer existone county,” said Frye. ing port facilities, the site does not have the amount He thinks Ohio County/ of property Ports of IndiRising Sun has agreed ana prefers, he said. Still, to raise $75,000 toward it could be used as a loadthe study's cost, and the ing and unloading facility experts hired with those with receiving and shipfunds will tell local folks ping companies located where it ought to go. somewhere else, said “We are going to need a sizable amount of Randy Frye Frye. The SIRPA has disland,” said Frye, mencussed acquiring the AEP tioning Ports of Indiana docking facilities when the plant prefers 100,000 acres. closes in 2015. While the closing American Electric Power Tanner's Creek See PORT, Page 8
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Today: High: 76 Low 57
Wed: High: 78 Low: 58
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