Thursday, May 06, 1999
Water-taxi wait will take a year
Docking space, red tape delay plans
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — The blue mini buses of the SouthBank Shuttle have proven a huge success, but plans for an Ohio River water taxi must wait another year.
Carolyn Zink, marketing chairman for SouthBank Partners, Inc., said Wednesdayproblems with “cutting through red tape and finding proper docking locations has pushed us back to 2000 on the water taxi.
“We will have surf and turf, but not until next year,” Ms. Zink said with a laugh, referring to transportation on land and water.
Wally Pagan, executive director of SouthBank Partners, an organization formed to promote business and transportation on the banks of the Ohio River, said Wednesday that SouthBank had hoped to start a water taxi from Newport near the aquarium and Newport on the Levee to Cincinnati this summer, but no connections could be established on the Cincinnati side.
“There have been questions for some time about where the new baseball stadium was going, and that held up everything else,” Mr. Pagan said. “The only place we had to connect was near the (Montgomery Inn) Boat House, and that was a difficult site to use.
He said the group now plans to start the water taxi, as a pilot program, next spring. “There will be football in the new Paul Brown Stadium in 2000, and the water taxi has always been seen as a big stadium connector with the dining spots on the Kentucky side.”
Meanwhile, the SouthBank Shuttle, a fleet of 10 mini buses that follow a loop through downtown Cincinnati, Covington, Newport and Bellevue, is averaging about 6,000 passengers a week when there are events at Cinergy Field or Firstar Center and about 4,000 without special events.
“This is well beyond our expectations,” Ms. Zink said. “We ... have plans to expand to include places like Jillian's (at 12th Street and I-75 in Covington) in the future.”
Police, public vent anger in City Hall
Amateur chef discovers true joy of cooking
Fountain's fixing is uncertain
UC drops controversial psychoses tests
Warren church rift behind sabotage?
7 firefighters injured
Family finds home taken by tornado
Mayor 2001: The race is on
Communications levy's defeat dismays officials
Parking bargains may be cut
Safe haven for children affected by AIDS
Water-taxi wait will take a year
Just 'one question' away from 'Jeopardy' fame
Miami students try to avoid trouble
Vaccine requirement stays
Registry would track cancer trends
School board considers four to fill vacant seat
School board objects to new spending
Nun helps disabled mesh lives
GET TO IT
Area congressmen ask for smog level upgrade
Bell's just the thing for new millennium, city decides
Boone planners to consider two housing developments
Casino is bait; center is hook
Cincinnati council dumps beauty-school plan
County debates budget
Defeat crushes school officials
Error forces Ohio Lottery offline briefly
Foundry site is likely for Butler jail
House OKs $18.2B for schools
Madeira allows fitness center
Madison hails win, polishes plan
Plea agreement reached with white separatist
Police and schools plan together to avoid crises like Littleton's
Police pick off pot patch early
Reward rises for leads in Mason rapes
Rooftop hop ends with return to jail
SWAT teams sharpen skills
top school jobs open
TRISTATE DIGEST
