Clermont Women to be Honored at Reds Game

ready ohioBATAVIA, Ohio (July 29, 2014) – Moscow residents Michele Hanselman and Linda Carter, both integral to the recovery of the village after it was devastated by a tornado in March 2012, will be introduced as ReadyOhio champions at the Reds game July 30. Hanselman will throw a ceremonial first pitch, and Carter will catch the pitch before the game starts.

ReadyOhio (readyohio.gov) focuses on helping Ohioans prepare for any disaster, said Tamara McBride with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. At the Reds game, ReadyOhio will be recognized as part of a Pre-Game ceremony, with a live public service announcement on emergency preparedness. LED screens at the stadium will direct people to readyohio.gov, where they can find more information and tips.

On March 2, 2102, an EF3 tornado tore through southeast  Clermont  County, killing three people and damaging or destroying 353 structures, including 227 residential structures.  Both Hanselman and Carter served as community advocates on the Ohio Valley Long Term Recovery Committee. “These women were a wonderful resource to the committee,” said Pam Haverkos, Director of the Clermont County Emergency Management Agency. “They provided sound advice and solutions to some difficult recovery issues.”

Hanselman spearheaded the Replant Moscow initiatives. More than 250 trees were planted by 200 volunteers at events in September 2012 and  August 2013. Carter, Vice Mayor of Moscow, also worked to coordinate volunteer groups to repair and clean up public areas.

“Having lived through a natural disaster, Mickey and Linda know how important it is to be prepared for these kinds of events, which strike with little warning,” said Haverkos. “They have and continue to be tremendous advocates for the recovery of the Village of Moscow.  Linda and Mickey are examples of what ReadyOhio preaches: Have a plan. Get involved. Be informed.”

Public Health Advisory for East Fork Lake Lifted

East Fork beachBATAVIA, Ohio (July 26) — The State of Ohio has lifted the Recreational Public Health Advisory it placed on the campground beach and main beach at East Fork Lake on June 23. Visitors were warned against swimming in the lake while the advisory was in effect.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued the advisory in late June when testing showed a higher than acceptable level of microcystin, a toxin produced by an algae bloom in the lake. For the last two weeks, testing has shown microcystin below the advisory threshold.
For testing results or more information on harmful algal blooms, visit http://epa.ohio.gov/habalgae.aspx.
For more information, contact John McManus, Administrator of the Clermont County Soil and Water Conservation District, at 513-673-0177.

Free Mammograms and Pap Tests to Women Who Qualify

Women's Health written on the roadBATAVIA, Ohio (July 21, 2014) – The Breast and Cervical Cancer Project (BCCP) is offering free mammograms and Pap tests to women in Clermont County who qualify.  If you live in a household with limited income, have no health insurance and are 40 years of age or older, you may be able to receive free medical services. Services are provided at more than 50 contracted providers throughout five counties in Southwest Ohio, including Clermont County.

Women who have been screened through BCCP and  are found to need treatment for breast cancer, cervical cancer or pre-cancerous conditions will be covered by BCCP Medicaid for their cancer treatment and other healthcare needs.

Contact the local BCCP enrollment agency at the University of Cincinnati (513-584-0053) to see if you qualify for free services.

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/Ohio-BCCP.

About BCCP:
BCCP is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state revenue funds, administered by the Ohio Department of Health, and operated by its 11 Regional Enrollment Agencies (REA). BCCP’s clinical services are available through a large network of medical providers throughout the State of Ohio. Once a woman is enrolled in BCCP, she will be scheduled for services by staff at her REA, with clinical providers in her area.

About Clermont County Public Health:
Clermont County Public Health is a local government agency that provides public and environmental services, regulatory compliance, nursing services and education/training to Clermont County residents.  Clermont County Public Health is dedicated to the mission of protecting and improving the health of all Clermont County residents.  The agency provides a wide variety of services. For more information visit www.clermonthealthdistrict.org  or call 513-732-7499.

Course in Mental Health First Aid offered July 23

BATAVIA, Ohio (July 17, 2014)  — An 8-hour course in Mental Health First Aid will be held 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. July 23 at the Child Focus Training Center, 551-B Cincinnati Batavia Pike.
The course, which will be led by Mary Makley Wolff, M.S., teaches participants how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training helps participants identify, understand, and respond to signs of addictions and mental illnesses. It is especially helpful to people who do not have a background in mental health counseling, said Karen Scherra, Executive Director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

Participants will learn:
• Risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems.
• Information on depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and addiction disorders.
• A 5-step action plan to help someone developing a mental health problem or in crisis.
• Where to turn for help — professional, peer, and self-help resources.

The course costs $25, which covers the cost of materials.

Mental Health First Aid courses have been attended by police officers, teachers, nurses, Human Resources administrators, faith leaders and other community members.

Click here for details and to register.

Classes, Workshops and Shakespeare at Clermont Parks July-August

Wilson Nature ReserveBATAVIA, Ohio (July 11, 2014) – From preschool story time to river excursions to Shakespeare in the park, the Clermont County Park District is offering a variety of activities and workshops through the rest of the summer.

JULY

July 12, 9:30 a.m., Sycamore Park: Clermont Family YMCA offers free yoga class.
July 19, 9:30 a.m., Sycamore Park: Clermont Family YMCA offers free bootcamp.
July 22, 9 a.m.-noon, Wilson Nature Preserve: Invasive honeysuckle removal along East Fork of Little Miami River in the Wilson Nature Reserve. Bring gloves; tools will be provided. Pre-registration encouraged at parkdistict@clermontcountyohio.gov.
July 26: 9:30 a.m.: Clermont Family YMCA offers free tai chi at Sycamore Park.

AUGUST

Aug. 1-3, 7, 16-17: The Batavia Theatre Project presents “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Sycamore Park. Free. The show is at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 3 and Aug. 17, and 7 p.m. on other days. For more information and performance times, to go www.bataviatheatreproject.com.
Aug. 2, 10 a.m., Sycamore Park/Wilson Nature Preserve: Hiking Basics. Join experts from Roads, Rivers and Trails Outfitter for a day of instruction on what to pack, where, and places to go. Then practice your new skills with a 90-minute hike.
Aug. 2, 9:30-10:30 a.m.; 10:45-11:15, Sycamore Park: Pet Bootcamp and Nose to Toes – care for cats and dogs, presented by Clermont County Animal Shelter.
Aug. 8, 10 a.m., Crooked Run State Nature Preserve. Crooked Run by Canoe. Journey begins at Chilo Lock 34, goes up the Ohio River for a mile and then to the Crooked Run estuary. Look for kingfishers, herons, turtles and other native wildlife. Must register by Aug. 1 Call 513-876-9013 to reserve a spot.
Aug. 13, 11 a.m. Sycamore Park: Preschool storytime focuses on snakes. Meet at Sycamore #1 shelter.
Aug. 19 & 26, 9 a.m.-noon, Wilson Nature Reserve. Invasive honeysuckle removal along East Fork of Little Miami River in the Wilson Nature Reserve. Bring gloves; tools will be provided. Pre-registration encouraged at parkdistict@clermontcountyohio.gov.

For more information, go to http://www.clermontparks.org/su2014news.pdf. (Photo above, Wilson Nature Reserve)

Field verification project to make 911 response more accurate

BATAVIA, Ohio (July 11, 2014) — Clermont County’s 911 system is only as good as the accuracy of information stored in its database. A recently completed project that entailed teams driving every road in Clermont County and inputting every data point from street name to address to yield and stop signs to hydrant and railroad crossing locations will make it easier to dispatch 911 calls correctly.

The county contracted with Digital Data Technologies Inc. (DDTI) of Columbus to do the field verification, said Kelly Perry, GIS Administrator for Clermont County. (GIS means Geographic Information System, the county’s mapping system; very similar to the mapping applications like GoogleMaps or Mapquest.) DDTI’s field verification provided the county with what is called a Location Based Response System (LBRS) dataset.

“These new layers of information provided an important improvement to our county GIS data and brought our data into compliance with the statewide standard,” said Clermont County Commissioner Ed Humphrey, an early advocate for LBRS. In 2012, Humphrey was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to the state’s ESINet Committee (Emergency Services Internet Protocol Network Steering Committee), which is responsible for making recommendations to the legislature and governor to create and fund a network across Ohio to convert phone connections for 911 centers from traditional phone lines to an Internet Protocol Network.

More than 80% of 911 calls now are from mobile phones that are Internet Protocol based, said Humphrey.  If the state funds the transition, it will include guidelines and standards for operations of 911 centers.  One of the state’s current standards is that LBRS be used in county mapping systems.

John Kiskaden, Director of the Department of Public Safety Services, said, “The new data will make mapping more accurate for 911 calls. We’ll be able to better pinpoint where the cell phone call is coming from.”

In November of 2013, two teams from DDTI started driving every road in the county, said Perry. Each car had a driver and a passenger with a controller who logged detailed data points along each stretch of road. This process took 3-and-a-half months, and it took another 3 months to process the data.

The teams logged 80,815 addresses, 4,146 bridges and culverts, 8,836 hydrants, 21,666 intersection points – and that is just a sample of the data collected, said Perry. From a 911 perspective, just as important were the anomalies – 233 ‘bad sign points,’ meaning there were no signs or words were misspelled. More than 5,000 homes did not have a posted house number, although secondary sources were used to identify numbers for all but 632 homes. In some instances, addresses did not flow sequentially, and in others, odd and even numbers were on the same side of the road. “Since we know these anomalies exist, we can better direct emergency crews during 911 calls,” said Perry.

Most counties in Ohio have adopted the Location Based Response System, which means that data points are standardized. Information is more consistent at both the state and local level, noted Humphrey.

DDTI has done field verification for more than 60 other Ohio counties. Mitch Pinkston, project manager at DDTI, said that Clermont County’s GIS data was the cleanest he has encountered. Kelly credits Christine Bussell, a GIS analyst, with ensuring GIS is as up to date as possible. As new commercial, industrial and residential building takes place in Clermont County, Bussell updates that information to keep the information current, whether it is used by the county auditor, the county Community and Economic Development Department, or 911.

The field verification project cost $466,388; of that, Clermont County paid $16,888. “Clermont County residents pay a lot in taxes to the State of Ohio, and it’s good to have some of that come back to the county,” said Humphrey.

David Uible, President of the Board of County Commissioners, said that the labor-intensive project was necessary to ensure that address information was accurate. “Our residents expect that when they make a 911 call, the response will be timely and emergency crews will be sent to the correct address. This new data will help make sure that happens.”

Bob Proud, Vice President of the BCC, agreed. “We have dedicated first responders throughout Clermont County. This additional tool will help best serve our citizens.”
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For more information, contact Kathleen Williams, Clermont County communications coordinator, at kwilliams@clermontcountyohio.gov, 513-732-7597.

County Officials Attend Statewide Opiate Addiction Symposium

COLUMBUS (July 8, 2014) – Local judicial, law enforcement, and treatment services representatives traveled to Columbus on June 30 to learn about promising judicial practices and options for opiate addiction treatment, including medication-assisted treatment, at the Ohio Judicial Symposium on Opiate Addiction.

Clermont County was among 83 Ohio counties represented at the symposium presented by the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team, and Office of Criminal Justice Services and hosted by the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities.

The event included remarks from Governor John R. Kasich, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. “We’re done ignoring the drug addicted and the mentally ill in this state. We’re not going to save them all, but in the course of trying to save one person at a time, we not only change the world, we change ourselves,” Gov. Kasich said.

“Unintended deaths from opiate overdoses are approaching a problem that is nearly double the number of highway fatalities,” Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor told the more than 800 in attendance. “I am convinced that with the collective wisdom and will of those who are gathered here today, we will develop effective strategies that will reverse the trend.”

Attendees also heard from addiction experts and a panel of judges running successful specialty dockets on drug abuse.

“It was helpful to share what we are doing in Clermont County to address this problem, and to learn what other counties are doing,” said Clermont County Commissioner Ed Humphrey, who attended the symposium. “We will be able to share that information with the partnerships we’ve developed in Clermont County, such as the Opiate Task Force, to continue to address this issue in our community.”

For example, one county spoke about the Drug Court it has established, said Karen Scherra, Executive Director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board (MHRB), who attended the symposium. Clermont County does not have a Drug Court focused on opiate addiction, she noted, which typically involves extensive contact between the court and a treatment agency.  However, the Clermont courts work collaboratively with the treatment system and could incorporate some of the drug court actions into their process.

“Clermont County has a very severe problem with opiate addiction,” Scherra said. Currently, 650 Clermont residents are being treated at the Clermont Recovery Center, which is funded by the MHRB. Many receive medication-assisted treatment to help them with withdrawal and cravings, she said. In 2013, there were 57 overdose deaths in the county, and of those, 38 were from heroin. “We are considered to be a ‘hot spot’ for addiction by the state,” Scherra said. “Because heroin is cheap and plentiful in this area, we were one of the first counties to switch from prescription drugs to heroin.”

A year ago, the county established the Opiate Task Force, which consists of representatives from law enforcement, the courts, treatment organizations, the General Health District, businesses, and families. David Uible, President of the Clermont County Board of Commissioners, is also on the Opiate Task Force. “The task force has allowed us to better understand the roots of this problem and to better coordinate  efforts to  address it,” he said.

In addition to Humphrey and Scherra, Clermont team members who attended the state symposium included Municipal Court Administrative Judge Tony Brock; Municipal Court Chief Probation Officer Joe Ellison; Common Pleas Judge Jerry McBride; Julie Frey, Director of Adult Probation for Common Pleas Court; Public Defender Dan Hannon; Assistant County Prosecutor Jason Nagel; Assistant County Administrator Tom Eigel; and Jason Maurath, TASC Director for Clermont Recovery Center.

For more information:  If you are seeking help for yourself or someone else with an addiction problem, call the MHRB at 513-732-5400 or the Clermont Recovery Center at 513-735-8100.

Public Invited to Open House July 17 on Next Phase of SR 32 Improvements

BATAVIA, Ohio (July 8, 2014) — A public open house to discuss roadway access improvements to SR 32 between Eastgate Boulevard and Olive Branch-Stonelick Road in Clermont County will be held 5-7 p.m. July 17 at the Union Township Civic Center, 4350 Aicholtz Road.

The public is invited to attend any time during the open house to view exhibits and ask questions, and give their input to proposed improvement alternatives; no formal presentation will be given. Personnel from the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Clermont County Transportation District and TranSystems will be available to discuss project alternatives, answer questions and listen to comments.

This new section of improvements on SR 32 will work in conjunction with construction now underway at the I-275/SR 32/Eastgate Boulevard interchange.

The public may also submit written comments via email to amschneider@transystem.com; fax at 513-621-2901; mail to SR 32 Study Team, TranSystems, 4555 Lake Forest Drive, Suite 540; Cincinnati OH 45242. Comments can also be left on the ODOT website http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D08/Pages/PublicInvolvementMeetingSchedule.aspx

Second half taxes to be mailed

BATAVIA, Ohio (June 3, 2014) — Approximately 45,000 second-half real estate tax bills will be mailed on or about June 9, 2014, said Clermont County Treasurer J. Robert True. The deadline for payment, without penalty, is July 9. Taxes can be paid by mail or in person at the Treasurer’s Office on the second floor of the County Administration Building, 101 E. Main Street, Batavia, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Taxes may also be paid by credit card or e-check at www.clermonttreasurer.org or by phone 1-800-272-9829.

Treasurer True said payment of taxes will not be available at local banks as in the past.

A night deposit is located at the Main Street entrance of the Administration Building for payment of taxes after hours. Taxpayers with questions may call 513-732-7254 or email us at Treasurer@clermontcountyohio.gov.

Beaches at East Fork Lake under Health Advisory due to Algal Blooms

BATAVIA, Ohio  (June 24, 2014) — The State of Ohio placed the campground beach and main beach at East Fork Lake under a Recreational Public Health Advisory as of June 23 due to a toxin produced by a harmful algae bloom called microcystin. This toxin has been shown to affect the liver at a concentration of 6 parts per billion (ppb). The latest round of sampling by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources showed microcystin levels at 8.7 ppb at the main beach and 190 at the campground beach. The advisory warns individuals who are elderly or very young and people with compromised immune systems against swimming or wading.  If you do choose to swim, there are some important health tips you should follow:
• After swimming or wading in lake water, even where no harmful algal bloom is visible, rinse off with fresh water as soon as possible.

• Never swallow any lake or river water, whether you see a bloom or not.

• Do not let pets enter the water if there is a bloom. If they do, rinse them very well.  Do not let them lick algal material from their fur.

• Do not drink or cook with untreated lake water.

• See a doctor if you or your children appear to be ill from algal toxins. If your pet appears ill, contact your veterinarian. Know the signs:

o Humans: numbness of lips, tingling in fingers and toes, dizziness, headache, rash or skin irritation, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting. If you have any signs of this, call the Clermont County General Health District to report it at 513-735-8400.

o Pets: weakness, staggering, convulsions, difficulty in breathing, vomiting.

Other activities near the water such as camping, picnicking, biking and hiking are safe. If you are picnicking, wash your hands before eating if you have had contact with lake water or shore debris.  If you plan to eat the fish you catch, remove the guts and liver, and rinse fillets in tap water before eating.

In Clermont County, drinking water drawn from Harsha Lake is treated at the Bob McEwen Water Treatment Plant. The plant uses several methods to treat the water, including Granulated Activated Carbon method, which is one of the best available technologies to remove microcystins, said Mark Day, Assistant Director of the county Water Resources Department. In addition, the water is disinfected with chlorine, which inactivates microscystins, Day noted.

The State will continue to conduct weekly sampling until the toxins have not been detected for two consecutive weeks. For testing results or more information on harmful algal blooms, visit http://epa.ohio.gov/habalgae.aspx.