Mayor’s Message: Time to Park It

Time to Park It.

The recently acquired east-side addition to the Beach Park is in need of attention.

After the city purchased the property, we hired a company to bush hog the heavy brush. While removing the honeysuckle, fencing and vines we discovered a lot of broken concrete, rocks and some broken glass scattered across the property. Public Services is not able to do all of the property maintenance that we already have in place along with turning a jungle into a grassy playground.

Thankfully, they don’t have to do it alone. Many people have told me they would volunteer to help with the park. An old English proverb comes to mind: “Many hands make light work.” When many people work together, a task becomes easier to complete and gets finished faster.

Starting the week of April 13, I will be announcing a couple of days and times (typically two-hour blocks) where we could use your help on the park. Also, you can email me (ccleves@bellevueky.org) and I will send you the dates and times as we plan them.

If you haven’t been down to the park in the past few weeks, you will be pleasantly surprised to see the house and large tree stump have been removed. This has opened up a great view of the Ohio river as you come down Van Voast Ave.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is asking us more questions on the O’Fallon Park grant application. This grant was given to us in 2023 and now they want an updated cost and exact layout of the proposed park expansion. Hopefully this means we have finally jumped through all of the hoops required by this grant. I am looking forward to getting the go ahead soon. It is well worth the trouble since we are getting this Land and Water Conservation Fund $25,000 grant.

Thanks To Everyone

In keeping with my theme in the first article, “Many hands make light work,” also applies to the I-471 gas tanker explosion. I would need this whole paper to list the name of every person from, fire departments, police departments, state transportation department, blacktop company and organizations that came forward to combat this disaster.

The fact that no one died in this event is a miracle. On March 13, a gasoline tanker truck collided with a couple of cars, caught fire and exploded several times. The gas ran into the drains and had fires coming out of the drains all along the highway. It ran down into the creek next to the Carpenter Enamel Museum and Rechtin Heating on Colfax in Bellevue. The hillside below the parking lots caught on fire.

The EPA showed up to work with the firemen in the placement of pads to absorb contaminants in the creek. There were no environmental concerns when the EPA left the scene. The fire was almost under the Memorial Street overpass. The first thought that crossed my mind was the Cincinnati fire that ruined the beams on the I-471 bridge. Fortunately, it roasted the sign on the side of the overpass but not the structure.

Because the impact from the bridge closure was still fresh in everyone’s mind, major pieces of firefighting equipment came from all over the area. No one wanted a repeat of the closing of I-471. The City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and Lunken Airport all sent large foam trucks to insure saving the overpass. Most of the fire departments sent large fire trucks capable of storing water since there are no fire hydrants on the expressway. Fire Chief Brent Schafer told me Bellevue connected 20 lengths of hose to connect to the nearest hydrant. There were firefighters from all over Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.

Then there were the police who answered the call. I saw cruisers from every city imaginable in Northern Kentucky. I contacted Bellevue Chief Jon McClain shortly after it started and he told me he was already in route. They played an important part in keeping all of the routes open for the fire trucks to keep refilling their tanks with water and keep everyone out of harm’s way.

On Saturday, Fire Chief Brent Shafer received permission from the Kentucky Transportation Department to bring me up onto the damaged area and see the restoration work by Riegler Blacktop being completed. The overpass had been carefully inspected earlier and did not suffer damage that would result in closure. There were 28 people from Riegler that came on their day off and they all seemed to be glad to be a part of this effort to reopen the highway. A couple of hours later I-471 was reopened.

It took hundreds of people coming from all over the tri-state area to make this happen. I am so impressed by the amount of cooperation and sharing of resources that were necessary to make this happen.

Easter Bunny

This year the Easter Bunny, aka Assistant City Administrator Sam Shelton, showed up with Easter eggs and many other sweet treats on Taylor Avenue (April 1). There was a photo session in 355 Taylor courtesy of Constance Sanders Photography. The Bellevue Police and Fire departments also brought eggs and stickers. Several firemen and police officers were there with a fire truck, a police four-wheeler, and an ambulance.

The city staff did all of the hard work. The staff came up with this idea, organized it and the Easter Bunny enjoyed having his picture taken a couple hundred times during this event. It was a great time for the 100 or so children that visited the Easter bunny.