Speaker 1: Hi, Billy cunning in the Great American Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Speaker 1: In fact, tomorrow we've scheduled Western Southern CEO John Barrett
Speaker 1: to talk about his race on Thanksgiving morning, and also
Speaker 1: Governor Mike DeWine will be here, I think, expressing regret
Speaker 1: about allowing gambling casino in the state of Ohio and
Speaker 1: sports betting, and also what's happening with marijuana. But until then,
Speaker 1: Denise tree House is head of the Hamley County Commissioners.
Speaker 1: She runs the county with an iron grip. And Denise
Speaker 1: tree House, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Denise,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good? Did you just say the governor's coming down
Speaker 2: to run the turkey trot?
Speaker 1: Actually, John Barrett's going to invite him to run with him.
Speaker 1: But if that happens, I want pictures of that.
Speaker 3: Would you agree?
Speaker 2: I do too. I'm coming down if that's the case.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about since first I want to
Speaker 1: issue thanks to the Drea House family.
Speaker 3: Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2: I'm with baited.
Speaker 1: Breath because you know, things occur for a reason, I think,
Speaker 1: and there were many years ago you may not recall
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen seventies early nineteen eighties, when I
Speaker 1: was coming into Cincinnati back from Toledo Law School. I
Speaker 1: grew up here, but I got Toledo Law School. I
Speaker 1: had a good time there. I wanted to come back home.
Speaker 1: So I go and B Larson hires me in the
Speaker 1: Hamlet County Public Defender's office to be an assistant public defender.
Speaker 1: And from that I went to see Jerry Springer and
Speaker 1: I said I wanted to get into politics. And at
Speaker 1: that point, Jerry Springer was the mayor for the second Ideation,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.
Speaker 1: I'll call Saco Weathy and let's see if we can
Speaker 1: help you out. So I spoke to Jerry, I met
Speaker 1: Sacho Weeathy, and from that I met Don Dreehouse, and
Speaker 1: I met Carol Grow and I met PAMs and Dusty Rose.
Speaker 1: In other words, those are the head Democrats in the county,
Speaker 1: would you agree?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the old Guard, the old Guard.
Speaker 1: And they put me in the AG's office with Anthony J.
Speaker 1: Celebreezy and then William Brown and I tried cases on
Speaker 1: behalf of the age and from that I ran for
Speaker 1: political office two times, lost each time as a Democrat.
Speaker 1: But when I think about Thanksgiving coming up, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about your dad. I'm thinking about SOCCO, I'm thinking about Pam,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about Carol. And now their daughter is
Speaker 1: running Hamley County Commission. So I want to say thank
Speaker 1: you to the Treehouse family. Without all that being involved,
Speaker 1: I would not be here today.
Speaker 2: That is a lovely sentiment. Two things, though, I do
Speaker 2: not run the county on my own, just to be clear,
Speaker 2: there are three of us. And the other thing I'm
Speaker 2: treated about, what did you run for?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: I ran for state representative in the House twenty six
Speaker 1: House district and Saco says, look, if I put you
Speaker 1: in the AG's office, we want you to run for something.
Speaker 3: I said, Well, I live in Madeira.
Speaker 1: I'm a Democrat in Madeira and at the time that
Speaker 1: wasn't the most popular place to be and so I
Speaker 1: ran against Helen Helen Fix. You recall a state rep
Speaker 1: named Helen Fix. She was there for like fifteen or
Speaker 1: twenty years. And I came up with this motto, and
Speaker 1: the motto was the Fix is in, get the Fix out,
Speaker 1: vote the man, vote Cunningham.
Speaker 2: And how did you lose that race?
Speaker 1: I lost like seventy two to twenty eight, and.
Speaker 3: So on that point.
Speaker 1: Years decades go by, about five or six years ago,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a hard Voul replaced by Carriacus
Speaker 1: at Christ and so he changed offices on the second
Speaker 1: floor the building there, and so I go up there
Speaker 1: and I'm looking for Dean Carriacus's new office on the
Speaker 1: second floor of the Christ Hospital building. And I walk
Speaker 1: up to the to the administration desk. This little woman
Speaker 1: is sitting there. She had to be in the nineties.
Speaker 1: And I said, ma'am, can you tell me where doctor
Speaker 1: Dean carry Outs's new offices. She looked up and said,
Speaker 1: the fix is in, get the fix out. Both the
Speaker 1: man Voth Cunningham and I looked it and I said, amazing,
Speaker 1: I said, are you Helen, Yes, I am, he said.
Speaker 3: She said that had that slogan.
Speaker 2: Go oh my gosh, that's amazing like her that, I said.
Speaker 3: I said, this is wonderful. What have you been doing well?
Speaker 1: I retired and then I ran for the County Commission
Speaker 1: and I didn't do well, and so I just went
Speaker 1: into I voluntary. I said, can I get a picture
Speaker 1: taken with you? She said, I would love it, So
Speaker 1: I I got, I run around the desk, put my
Speaker 1: my phone up, got a picture of me and Helen Fix,
Speaker 1: and sadly she died about two years later. So then
Speaker 1: I get a call from Bill Site. You know Bill
Speaker 1: Sites stay represented.
Speaker 2: But this is what politics does, right, It's just I
Speaker 2: got to tell you it brings people together.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: So I get a call from him.
Speaker 1: But two or three years ago, said did you run
Speaker 1: against Helen Fix in like nineteen seventy eight? I said, wow,
Speaker 1: I said, how I did? She said, well, he said, well,
Speaker 1: she died and I have to do a remembrance on
Speaker 1: the floor of the House in Columbus about Helen Fix.
Speaker 1: And I gave him some you know some things I did.
Speaker 1: And and you talk about how secute his life is
Speaker 1: that there's Helen Fix, the fixes in, get the Fix out,
Speaker 1: vote the man, vote Countingham.
Speaker 3: Do you remember?
Speaker 2: Think that's a pretty clever slogan. I think that's very clever.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it would work today, but you know,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I'll play the gender card a
Speaker 1: little bit. You know, women in seventy eight weren't exactly.
Speaker 3: Like today. You ladies control everything, the county cap I.
Speaker 2: Can't condone that I mean, Lily, if you were sexispect,
Speaker 2: then you know I can't. But here we are, here,
Speaker 2: we are in a new day.
Speaker 1: You're telling me. I mean, men, we had our time,
Speaker 1: but it's over. And whenever I think about you, I
Speaker 1: think about don I think about Socco and Pam, I
Speaker 1: think about Dusty and anyway, let's go on to current events,
Speaker 1: so to speak.
Speaker 2: Oh but listen, they were such a tight knit group
Speaker 2: and they loved what they did. They just they were
Speaker 2: at the Board of Elections making sure everybody got to vote,
Speaker 2: and they just were so committed to what they were doing.
Speaker 2: That was really those were good days for the Democrats,
Speaker 2: and now they're better.
Speaker 1: But you were just a little girl then, weren't you,
Speaker 1: Like you were like five or ten years old.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, when my dad ran in sixty eight,
Speaker 2: I was five and so but I remember that campaign.
Speaker 2: I mean, we drove around the neighborhood with a bullhorn
Speaker 2: on the top of the station wagon and we sang
Speaker 2: songs treehouse songs to German music. I mean, it was crazy,
Speaker 2: and we all dressed up in red, white and blue
Speaker 2: and took photos with styrochrome you know, hats on and
Speaker 2: with the bumper stickers on the front. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: we love that stuff and we still love it. I
Speaker 2: mean it's it's in our blood. And we do really
Speaker 2: enjoy getting out and meeting people and campaigning. I mean
Speaker 2: it's it's fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like to think you're the old guard, but not really,
Speaker 1: but not compared to getting there.
Speaker 3: You're getting there.
Speaker 2: I'm getting there.
Speaker 1: The Democratic Party used to be in the Veneyards, You're
Speaker 1: now you're in the mansion House. And and now now
Speaker 1: the Republicans. The Republicans are on your lips. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: talk about issues number one. What happened Friday night was
Speaker 1: just unbelievable between you were there and I think, what
Speaker 1: can we do that more often? And you know, my
Speaker 1: running mate Rocky Boyman controls high school sports with an
Speaker 1: iron grip. We do the games here at thirteen sixty.
Speaker 1: If there could be some union or some understanding that
Speaker 1: contact high school sports with as Rocky been in touch
Speaker 1: with you about it, making this an annual event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've talked to Rocky and that's the expectation is
Speaker 2: that Friday will serve as a model for what we
Speaker 2: can do next year in years beyond. Katie Blackburn was
Speaker 2: down there as well, and so I've touch based with
Speaker 2: her also and said, you know, that was just such
Speaker 2: a great night for this community. The kids were fired up,
Speaker 2: the adults were fired up. I mean, it was just
Speaker 2: a great night. And it was terrible weather by the way,
Speaker 2: but but boy did they put a show on with
Speaker 2: the jumbo tron and the ticker tape with Saint X
Speaker 2: and Elder on it. So I'm super excited that we
Speaker 2: could get that done. And a lot of credit goes
Speaker 2: to the Bengals for reaching out the OHSAA and making
Speaker 2: sure that they were on board and then getting everybody
Speaker 2: down there. Willie. It's a huge operation when you think
Speaker 2: about the concessions and the parking and the security and
Speaker 2: all the things, and all those people down there working
Speaker 2: on that Friday night. It was just amazing.
Speaker 1: Why did come together so quickly? Because and I guess
Speaker 1: why why didn't OHSA think about it ahead of time?
Speaker 1: And why because when I spoke to you on Monday,
Speaker 1: you and Katie got it done like Tuesday morning, right,
Speaker 1: it was done.
Speaker 2: It was quick, and I and credit where credits do?
Speaker 2: You're the one that brought it to my attention, So
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for that. And then I brought it to
Speaker 2: Katie's attention and then we all work together to get
Speaker 2: it done.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I'm making a nanda.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Elder's ever going to be undefeated, untied,
Speaker 1: unscored on ever again at that point, and say next
Speaker 1: is always going to be there. But I bet there's
Speaker 1: always going to be a GCL school. I almost bet
Speaker 1: you that, or maybe Lakota West, Lakota East something, maybe
Speaker 1: Cole Raine will arrive again. Unlikely, but nonetheless, thank you.
Speaker 1: And you have more control over the stadium now than
Speaker 1: you had before. Correct, after the new lease was signed.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, yeah, and it's all part of the
Speaker 2: new lease where we said we want to use the
Speaker 2: county asset, which belongs to the taxpayers, for more than
Speaker 2: just football games for the Bengals, and so these high
Speaker 2: school football games are part of it. Concerts are part
Speaker 2: of it. You know, there's a lot that we've been
Speaker 2: thinking through, but one other thing related to football. So
Speaker 2: you know, I was contacted then after we got this
Speaker 2: all worked out, then the folks from Anderson were contacting
Speaker 2: my office. Let me take like a hundred an eighty
Speaker 2: email because they wanted their game to be played at
Speaker 2: pay Corps, and it was too late to get that done.
Speaker 2: But we need to think next year about teams that
Speaker 2: you know, are from all over the county, from every community,
Speaker 2: having an opportunity to play there. And so maybe you know,
Speaker 2: it's a Saturday with more than one game, the logistics
Speaker 2: would be a little bit easier in that case. Or
Speaker 2: you know, we got to we got to think more
Speaker 2: broadly than just you know, I was thrilled that Division
Speaker 2: one was there, uh and the champion, you know, the
Speaker 2: regional championships were played there. But we're going to have
Speaker 2: to make sure that others have an opportunity to So
Speaker 2: I'm super excited about next year and years beyond.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine starting like at one o'clock and having
Speaker 1: having four games. I got a hold of Beechwood and Covcat.
Speaker 1: They would love to play at pay Course Stadium. Let's
Speaker 1: not forget one third of the market. I would think
Speaker 1: one third of the business to the Bengals come from
Speaker 1: northern Kentucky. And why not have a Kentucky game, an
Speaker 1: Indiana game, and two Ohio games or three Ohio games
Speaker 1: in one Kentucky game. Rob Sanders and that group would
Speaker 1: love to play at pay court. And let's face the
Speaker 1: sales tax revenues generated from Northern Kentuckians as millions of
Speaker 1: dollars every year. They want to be invested. And that's
Speaker 1: even though it's not direct. Would you be open to
Speaker 1: the idea of love allowing one game to be played
Speaker 1: by maybe Cuvkath against speech Wood something like that.
Speaker 2: Well, at this point, I'm open to all ideas, but
Speaker 2: I to be clear, my focus, of course is going
Speaker 2: to be a Hamilton County and making sure Hamilton County
Speaker 2: teams get I mean, yeah it is. It is their
Speaker 2: stadium after all. But you know, open to anything. I mean,
Speaker 2: it could be more than one weekend. I mean, we
Speaker 2: need to think through this and figure out what we
Speaker 2: can do by way of Bengal schedule, concert schedules and
Speaker 2: high school football games because when people think about that stadium,
Speaker 2: they want high school football games played in that stadium
Speaker 2: and so and we wrote it into the least for
Speaker 2: a reason, right, and so now we're this is our
Speaker 2: response so far, but we need to use this as
Speaker 2: a model moving forward, and the Bengals are obviously open
Speaker 2: to it. So it's a new day when it comes
Speaker 2: to some of these different kind of events down the stadium.
Speaker 1: Now, there's several big plots between pay Corps and the
Speaker 1: Great American Ballpark that are vacant and open. I've seen
Speaker 1: the inchoir, the city in the county go back and forth.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us the status of those large plots
Speaker 1: between the two stadiums that are at this point vacant
Speaker 1: and what is your plan?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Urban Design Review Committee presented to both
Speaker 2: the county and the city last week to give us
Speaker 2: their best ideas. And this is a group that's city,
Speaker 2: the county or at the table the Bengals, the Red
Speaker 2: but we have the other retailers down there weighing in
Speaker 2: music venues, some of the retailers the Freedom Center, and
Speaker 2: so we need to take a look at this. It
Speaker 2: was our first time seeing it. So it's got a
Speaker 2: lot of residential in it. It's got some retail, commercial,
Speaker 2: it's got a hotel which I thought was interesting on it.
Speaker 2: It's got a little bit of office which I'm not
Speaker 2: sure that comes to fruition. But anyway, we've got a
Speaker 2: plan in front of us now, and so it's exciting.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm anxious to get this done right, to
Speaker 2: finish out the banks. So Lot twenty four, the biggest,
Speaker 2: has the infrastructure already built. So this is the infrastructure
Speaker 2: that lifts it out of the floodplain and creates that
Speaker 2: parking underneath. And then we need to do similar to
Speaker 2: the other lots that are still vacant, do that under
Speaker 2: build and then make sure that we've got some appropriate
Speaker 2: development on top.
Speaker 1: What is a brand new twenty thousand seat arena fit
Speaker 1: in that plan? Does it fit more at TQL or
Speaker 1: does it fit more on the riverfront which already has
Speaker 1: the infrastructure.
Speaker 2: Well, I have said all along that if we're going
Speaker 2: to build a new arena, we should take advantage of
Speaker 2: our built infrastructure, and so that is parking, and that
Speaker 2: is other assets that belong to the taxpayers, to the public.
Speaker 2: And so obviously the location down on the riverfront allows
Speaker 2: for us to use all the parking that's already built
Speaker 2: down there. I mean it's being used now by the arena,
Speaker 2: so we know it can accommodate that. And I've seen
Speaker 2: some renderings where they have taken down the old arena
Speaker 2: and then built new on that same footprint. It moves
Speaker 2: a little bit and expands a little bit, but it's
Speaker 2: down in that area. And then, of course the other
Speaker 2: two options are the space up by the Convention Center
Speaker 2: that will be made available through the reconfiguration of the
Speaker 2: Brent Spence Bridge. There's about eight acres to the west
Speaker 2: of the Convention Center that's going to be freed up,
Speaker 2: so that's something to think about. And then the other
Speaker 2: location is up by FC in the west end.
Speaker 1: And who's going to make that decision at the arena?
Speaker 1: Because I call them the masters of the universe. On
Speaker 1: one hand, you got John Barrett, You've got Casteline, you
Speaker 1: got the Brown Family, you have the banks. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, you have Carl Linder, you have the farmers,
Speaker 1: you have Jeff Birding, you have TQL the masters of
Speaker 1: the universe.
Speaker 3: Are those two going to fight with each other?
Speaker 2: Well, I hope not. I mean I hope that we
Speaker 2: can come together. And then the other you know, you
Speaker 2: left out the taxpayers. I mean, I know what you're saying,
Speaker 2: but the public, you know, should have a say in
Speaker 2: this too as to what they think. And then the
Speaker 2: other piece of this, by the way, is that we
Speaker 2: have not figured out a financial stack for this. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, in the end we need to have the
Speaker 2: financing together. We are nowhere near having that completed. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, while I think it's important to talk about
Speaker 2: the sighting of a new arena, I think it's secondary
Speaker 2: to who's going to pay for it.
Speaker 1: So if somebody with deep pockets walks up and says,
Speaker 1: if it's seven eight hundred million, I'll put in five
Speaker 1: hundred million. Whoever pays for the band calls the music.
Speaker 2: Oh well, that would that would be something to think about.
Speaker 2: That has not happened. But but you know, we we
Speaker 2: need to bring all the partners together for sure, and
Speaker 2: I've talked to both you know, Phil Castellini and Jeff
Speaker 2: Birding about these locations, and so there is a desire
Speaker 2: to do this together. And so I don't know that
Speaker 2: people will be antagonistic about it. I think we need
Speaker 2: to sort it out. But there are real positives and
Speaker 2: negatives to all of these sites, and we need to
Speaker 2: think it through as a community.
Speaker 1: You know, Charlie Lucan told me at the time that
Speaker 1: we ought to cover the Fort Washington way, we should
Speaker 1: cover that in seventy one that would gather ten to
Speaker 1: twenty acres.
Speaker 3: Is that in your plan too, to put.
Speaker 1: A cover on the top of that, which would recover
Speaker 1: a bunch of acreage.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So those are called the Fort Washington Waite Caps.
Speaker 2: That's been on the drawing board for a while. I
Speaker 2: remember coming here when I did in twenty seventeen, and
Speaker 2: Fortune was talking about it back then. It's expensive, but
Speaker 2: it has been built to do it, so all the
Speaker 2: infrastructure is there. We just need the money to do
Speaker 2: the caps themselves. And so in the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: the Chamber of Commerce, the city, and the county have
Speaker 2: all advocated to the federal government to say, hey, this
Speaker 2: would be a real benefit to the businesses that are
Speaker 2: already there, and we eate more energy down there, and
Speaker 2: we asked them to help pay for that that I
Speaker 2: can't remember. I think it was a Tiger Fund. I
Speaker 2: can't remember exactly, but we did not win that bid.
Speaker 2: But we continue to advocate to the Fed to help
Speaker 2: us pay for those caps.
Speaker 1: Oh and I got JD. Vance and we have Bernie
Speaker 1: Marina who we got John Houston. How about how about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, you know, we've we've reached out and we've
Speaker 2: we've advocated for this. You know, it's hard, Willie, because
Speaker 2: there's so many things going on right now that are
Speaker 2: really exciting by way of economic development. But you know,
Speaker 2: the one we just completed is the Convention Center, and
Speaker 2: that was the city county collaboration. And now we've got
Speaker 2: a headquarter hotel going in across the street to the south.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you've seen the site to
Speaker 2: the east where the Millennium used to stand, but man,
Speaker 2: oh man, it is amazing. The landscaping is beautiful. They've
Speaker 2: got an ice rink down there right now, there's a
Speaker 2: dog park, so it's going to be active year round.
Speaker 2: But it is just amazing some of the investments that
Speaker 2: have been made very recently by the city in the
Speaker 2: county to bring economic development to this region. So you know,
Speaker 2: we can't do it all at once because we don't
Speaker 2: have the revenue to do that. But I do think
Speaker 2: we're forging forward in a way that we haven't, you know,
Speaker 2: in the last maybe decade or so, with the city
Speaker 2: and the county in lockstep.
Speaker 3: Anise tree house. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day I'll be a Democrat again. With Soacco
Speaker 1: and Pam and Carroll and Don and Jerry and Dusty Rhodes,
Speaker 1: wouldn't that be something?
Speaker 2: It was fun with their love for what they were
Speaker 2: doing really translated out right, and you knew they loved
Speaker 2: what they were doing, and we all love that they
Speaker 2: loved doing it right. They were great for this.
Speaker 3: Community, wonderful people.
Speaker 1: All right, Denise tree House, thanks for coming on the
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham Show. We'll do it again and thank you.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Thanks Willy, God bless you.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with more memories like the Corners of My mind.
Speaker 1: A News Radio seven hundred WLW