In 2019, The Sun covered a wide-ranging number of issues in the county, including criminal cases, villages ending, corruption, infrastructure changes, the ups and downs of school districts, restaurants opening and closing, continued coverage of FC Cincinnati’s training facility, and much more.
With the year in the rearview, we look at 10 stories that commanded attention and resources. We admit, we cheated on some of these by making them broader categories to fit more than 10 stories in.
The Sun does anywhere between 300 and upwards of 650 original stories a year. Not being mentioned in this top 10 doesn’t mean the story wasn’t important or interesting. That said, if you want to stay in the loop on all the stories we cover in 2020, please consider subscribing today by calling 513-732-2511 during regular business hours or subscribe digitally here.
Before we get to the top 10, here are some honorable mention stories that you may have missed:
– The Ridge. In the village of Batavia, a potential residential treatment center spurred outrage and worry. The Ridge Ohio, a residential alcohol and treatment center based out of Milford, had originally purchased Carole and Tom Cottrill’s 1861 Inn, and planned to turn the bed and breakfast into the treatment center. No residents at the meeting spoke in favor of the center. If a theme emerged through the course of the 90-minute meeting, it was echoed by one resident, “Don’t tread on me.” By April, The Ridge backed out of the plan.
– Miller Place. One of the top stories from 2018 found a conclusion of sorts in 2019. In Union Township, the Board of Trustees approved the Miller Place development at their Oct. 25, 2018 meeting. The development entails 1,445 units on 268-acres of property. A saga that stretches back 25 years and involves a federal court consent decree, attracted an overflow of residents at board meetings, hundreds of petitions and a lawsuit from the Cincinnati Nature Center and the Union Township Committee for the Protection of Avery’s Way. Federal and state court would eventually put a halt to the plans in 2019. Additionally, Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Jerry McBride ordered the Board to send petitions to the Clermont County Board of Elections regarding a Township Zoning Referendum, which would allow voters to consider a zoning resolution amendment. The Board originally denied the petitions Nov. 21, 2018. At its Dec. 19, 2019 meeting, the Board voted to forward the petitions to the BoE.
– Calamity clash at Bethel-Tate. In March 2019, the Bethel-Tate Board of Education clashed with teachers over a policy to make up calamity days, also known as days off due to weather. According to representatives from Bethel-Tate Teachers Association, Jan. 30, 2019 and Jan. 31, 2019 were called as calamity days, and that they would have to make up at least one of those days. At the board meeting, teachers showed up in, “I am not in the union, I am the union,” t-shirts in a show of solidarity. Eventually, the teachers were notified that the District was not going to require the teachers to make up those calamity days.
– Addiction series at one million. The Sun profiled Shane Reinert, the Bethel filmmaker who started his documentary series on addiction recovery three years ago, and reached one million views on YouTube. In three years, he’s produced and uploaded 53 videos that tell the recovery stories of people from across 10 states. “It’s been amazing,” Reinert said. “The series has changed my life. I didn’t have any idea the impact it would have on me or the amount of attention it was going to get.”
10. FC Cincinnati training facility officially opens in Milford
One of the top stories we did last year was the combustible elements around the FC Cincinnati deal. Those elements included lawsuits around the city of Milford and lack of transparency, the repeated failure of the city to issue bonds regarding the practice facility to provide $3.5 million, with $1.5 million of the funds used to purchase the former site of Expressway Park, while $2 million was used to purchase surrounding properties as well as roadway access. New deals had to be re-inked by the Board of County Commissioners and the city to extend the 1 percent hotel lodging tax to ensure the deal still happened.
Despite all of that, the $30 million training facility, known as the FC Cincinnati Mercy Health Training Center, located at 707 US-50 in Milford, officially cut the ribbon in November 2019.
Club President Jeff Berding hailed the opening as a “tremendous day for FC Cincinnati.”
“Today we gather here for the next great step in our club’s development, in another massive expression of our club’s grand ambitions as we strive to embody a rising Cincinnati,” he said. “Behind us is this brilliant, new, state-of-the art and world class Mercy Health Training Center.”
9. New Richmond High School memorializes Tyler Seng
Family and friends of New Richmond High Schooler Tyler Seng, who died Nov. 25, 2019 in a motorcycle accident, memorialized him at the high school on Dec. 3, 2019.
Around 1:50 p.m., Seng was driving a 2007 Honda CBR 600 sound on Laurel Lindale Road, near the intersection of Carnes Road, when he crashed into a 2005 Honda Pilot, driven by Barbara Hilt, age 46, as she was pulling out onto the road from a private driveway, according to a crash report from the Batavia Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Seng had grown up in the New Richmond Exempted Village School District and was a junior in high school’s virtual academy at the time of the crash, according to New Richmond High School Principal Mark Bailey.
The school district canceled all high school activities the evenings of Nov. 25, 2019 and Nov. 26, 2019, and the Clermont County Crisis Response Team was at the high school on Nov. 26, 2019 to help students and staff through the grieving process.
Connection Point Church Lead Pastor, and school board member, Robert Wooten took his place behind a podium that had been set up in the middle of the gym to deliver Seng’s eulogy.
“Here in New Richmond, we live in a very small knit community, and one hurts, we all hurt, and that’s OK, because that’s what community is all about,” he said.
Wooten spoke about Seng’s love of playing football, wrestling and baseball.
“He loved to hunt, to fish, and was probably best known for being a real jokester,” he said, adding, “He will be greatly missed and pleasantly remembered.”
8. Restaurants and stores opening and closing in the county
One of the most consistently popular stories The Sun does pertains to eating establishments, whether they open or close, and 2019 was replete with both.
Frisch’s Big Boy Restaurant, located at 1052 Old US Hwy 52, which is hard to miss with the big billboard sign waving patrons to its site, closed its doors on June 27, 2019. Rumors of what will fill that space have abounded, but as of yet, no new entity has taken over. 
Less than two weeks later, the village of Felicity was rocked by the closing of the Felicity IGA, located at 412 Light Street.
Its owner, Rose Reifenberger, said it was the only option left, and said the November 2018 hepatitis A case from a store employee and the resulting negative publicity hurt business.
About 30 employees worked at the IGA. Felicity did have a new restaurant that The Sun profiled, however, in the Twins Blessed Diner, located 319 Walnut St. It boasts “home cooked food” with a daily special.
On the flip side in Union Township, Waffle House and Wahlburgers both opened in the parking lot of Meijer in Eastgate. Both had been rumored since late 2018.
In the village of Batavia, two new restaurants opened: Bean & Brew on Main Street, and Poked Yolk on Bauer Road.
7. Changes at New Richmond Schools, and a March 2020 levy
New Richmond Schools started the year strategizing about how to deal with its financials woes by consolidating schools, and cutting staff, and it ended it with a lurch toward a March 2020 9.4 mills levy.
The reason for the strategizing is that the Ohio Department of Education placed the district on fiscal precaution at the end of 2018.
Among other items involved in the consolidation plan consisted of the district downsizing to two elementary schools instead of three, cutting staffing levels across the board, and selling off the Market Street building, where the district’s administrative offices are housed.
The consolidation plan aimed at reducing spending by $3.2 million, but they still have another estimated $5 million to make up and prevent the district from going into fiscal emergency.
During its regular monthly meeting on Dec. 16, 2019 the New Richmond Exempted Village School District Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution to proceed with a 9.4 mills operating levy to be placed on the March 17 ballot.
Approval of a 9.4 mills levy will cost property owners an additional $329 per year for every $100,000 of market or appraised value. That breaks down to roughly $27 a month, or less than $1 a day.
“Tonight is a momentous board of education meeting,” Superintendent Tracey Miller said. “What we’re about to ask approval for has not been done for more than 40 years; since the year 1977.”
6. Addison saga comes to an end with guilty conviction
Another story The Sun has covered extensively since 2017 reached a conclusion in 2019. Joseph Addison was found guilty in May of regularly raping and sexually abusing one of his daughters, who was younger than 10 years old when some of the offenses took place, and guilty of sexually abusing another of his daughters.
The Sun covered the trial, where victims testified in court, including Addison’s youngest victim, then-13-years-old, who has Baxter, the therapy dog, by her side.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Scott O’Reilly, who, along with Chief Felony Prosecutor Darren Miller, tried the State’s case against Addison, is confident that Addison will “never be out again.”
“I think when you heard the girls individually testify, the [youngest victim] in particular, you could see how just courageous she was to come forward and stand up against her dad,” he said. “This is it for him, so I think she’s done a public service for everybody, and really, standing up to him for herself has got to be something strong and empowering.”
Addison was sentenced to life in prison.
5. Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Ault pleads guilty in head-on crash death
Ault, of Williamsburg, pleaded guilty in the killing of Anthony Bertram, 36, of Goshen, when he crossed the center line and hit Bertram’s truck head-on on Jan. 4, 2019.
Ault, who was responding to a call, was coming south on state Route 222 in the village of Batavia. The posted speed limit in the area near the intersection of Diana Avenue is 35 mph; Ault was driving at 55 mph, with Betram going 25 mph.
The site of the crash is now a blossoming flower memorial.
Trina and Bill Bertram, parents of Anthony, visited the roadside memorial that they maintain at the site where he was killed after a prior hearing on July 26.
Trina described the emotional toll that the crash has taken.
“It’s very hard,” Trina told The Sun. “It’s hard for all of us, for everybody that’s involved. None of us asked to be here; it’s just a situation that gets thrown at you and you have to deal with it the best way that you can. You just try to keep a sane mind, and it’s really hard.”
At that point, Ault had been a state trooper for two years, and was charged with two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter, and vehicular homicide. The former charge was dropped. Ault pleaded guilty to the second charge in August 2019.
He was sentenced to two years of community control, with driving and travel restrictions. He was also ordered to pay more than $6,600 in restitution, and participate in 80 hours of community service.
Ault entered disability retirement with OSHP in October 2019. Ault received the standard disability retirement benefits.
4. Six slayings in Clermont County; CNE grad killed in Tennessee
The county had a spate of homicide cases this year that The Sun followed and will continue to follow well into 2020.
– Jabar Ishmail was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, and one count of kidnapping on April 4. Ishmail allegedly held Kailin Jones, 25, at the Days Inn in Union Township on March 14, and then killed her.
A jury trial is set for June 1 in front of Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Jerry McBride. Ishmail faces the possibility of the death penalty.
– Bryson Michaelis and Austin Fuell were both accused of killing Kristopher Jordan Ketring in Miami Township on June 11. At the time of the shooting inside Ketring’s home on Wards Corner Road, five other adults and two children were in the house.
Michaelis and Fuell stand trial before Judge Victor Haddad on Feb. 11.
– Angelina Hamrick was charged in connection with the death of her husband, Jason Hamrick, in Tate Township. His body was found in a ditch with a gunshot to the head. Hamrick’s alleged co-conspirator and boyfriend, Michael Clark, was also charged in relation to the crime.
“It is known that Angelina Hamrick contacted Michael Clark on June 28, 2019 telling him, ‘I did it,'” court documents said.
A jury trial is scheduled for Feb. 10 before McBride.
– James Hayes was charged with aggravated murder after police said he killed Jeanette Hayes, his estranged wife, in Union Township on Oct. 23, 2019. Multiple witnesses allegedly saw the shooting and identified Hayes as the shooter.
A plea or trial setting is scheduled for Jan. 13 before Judge Richard Ferenc.
– Craig Walker was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Jeffrey Hutchins and Nicholas Hudson. The slayings occurred on Nov. 22 in Pierce Township. The slayings were particularly notable for happening at the same address that Detective Bill Brewer was also killed: On The Green at Royal Oaks Apartment complex.
Court documents indicate that Walker allegedly killed both men because he feared they were going to steal his marijuana.
Craig is next due in court before Judge Haddad on Jan. 10. 
– Nicholas Galinger, 38, who was a Clermont Northeastern graduate, was killed in an alleged hit-and-run while on duty with the Chattanooga Police Department on Feb. 23, 2019. In 2018, Galinger moved to Tennessee to “pursue his dream to become a police officer.”
According to CNN, flooding caused a state of emergency throughout Tennessee, including in Chattanooga, where a Subway restaurant was flattened by a mudslide.
Due to the flooding, Galinger was out with his training officer at 11 p.m. on Feb. 23 checking an overflowing manhole cover on Hamill Road.
That’s when police said Janet Hinds, 54, hit Galinger, and then drove off with “front-end damage.” She turned herself into police three days later.
Hinds was charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident, failure to render aid, violation of traffic control device, speeding, drivers to exercise due care, and failure to maintain lane.
She is next due in Hamilton County Criminal Court in Chattanooga on Feb. 3, 2020 before Judge Don Poole.
3. Corruption, guilty pleas, and settlements in Clermont
The year 2019 saw a number of officials in Clermont County face repercussions for their actions while working as public employees, in office, or running for office.
– Pat Manger, the former Clermont County Engineer, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of soliciting or accepting improper compensation in the amount of $3,000, and subsequently resigned his position as county engineer in June 2019.
A 112-page report by Ohio Auditor of State Keith Fabor shed light on the accusations leveled against Manger in his time as engineer. Among those accusations were that Manger used staff in the office to solicit campaign contributions on behalf of Manger during work hours and with work equipment; to pick up and transport Manger’s personal lawn furniture and yard equipment; and using county-issued fuel cards for Manger’s personal vehicle and lawn equipment.
Manger was ordered to pay $250 to a local charity after the guilty plea, and will be unable to serve in public office for seven years.
– Former Clermont County Commissioner David Uible was sentenced to six months of community control after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of tampering with records on Dec. 9, 2019.
The guilty plea stems from a discrepancy in Uible’s part petition when he was running in the March 2018 primary for commissioner. Uible was kicked off of the ballot by the Board of Elections.
Chris Hicks, a committee member of the Union Township Republican Party, filed a private citizen affidavit in Clermont County Municipal Court in July 2019 to bring the case back to the forefront.
Uible said he understands what he’s done is illegal, and he’s apologized to family and friends and the public.
“And I’ve made changes, such that this will not happen again,” he said.
Uible is forging ahead with a primary run for Ohio’s 14 Senate District against appointed incumbent Terry Johnson, and Democratic challenger Ryan Ottney.
– Carl Lamping, the county’s longtime Building Department Director, was put on administrative leave over the summer, and then his position was “abolished” in November 2019.
The reason for the merger, as explained by County Administrator Thomas J. Eigel was to “increase efficiency.”
Two positions were cut during the consultation – Lamping’s director position, and the Assistant Building Inspection Department Director position, which Eigel said was not staffed at the time of the cuts.
It’s still unclear what Lamping is accused of having done, but he was placed on paid administrative leave on Aug. 16, 2019, which ended on Nov. 6, 2019 when his position was terminated. On Aug. 23, the county referred Lamping to the Ohio Ethics Commission.
The OEC said they can neither confirm nor deny an investigation into Lamping exists.
When asked by The Sun if the reason for Lamping’s being placed on administrative leave — as well as Lamping being referred to the Ohio Ethics Commission — played into his position being abolished, Eigel did not provide a response.
– Jacob Bragg, a Columbus man, was acquitted in Clermont County Common Pleas Court of harassing State Rep. John Becker on March 19, 2019.
He was originally charged with a felony count of making terroristic threats on Sept. 15, 2018, which was later dismissed, and he was charged with telecommunications harassment, a misdemeanor.
Bragg had shared an article on Facebook about Becker, in which he disagreed with Becker’s political viewpoint, and captioned it, “Someone please kill this piece of s**t. Y’all want me to believe in government where people like this are put in power?”
Judge Jerry McBride said the State failed to make its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and acquitted Bragg on the charges.
– Ohio Township settled a lawsuit with former trustee Frank Renn on Oct. 22, 2019, wherein they admitted to violating Sunshine Laws and paid $7,000 to Renn.
On May 6 through May 10, Vogeslang and Polster met at McDonalds to discuss the village of New Richmond Nature Preserve Project. Phone calls also took place to discuss township business.
The Ohio Sunshine Act is under the Revised Code Section 121.22, and requires that public officials and public bodies to take official action and to conduct all deliberations upon official business only in open and properly noticed meetings, except in instances exempted by law.
Renn told The Sun he will get a check of $500 after lawyer costs, which he gave to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
– The Clermont County Board of Commissioners settled a lawsuit for $145,000 in July 2019 after U.S. Southern District Court Judge Timothy Black ruled the board had violated Chris Hick’s First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit stems from a board meeting two years prior, in which Hicks was tossed out of the meeting by then board president David Uible. Hicks argued that his rights were violated, and that the BCC’s rules of procedure are unconstitutionally vague, overbroad and discriminatory.
“There is a culture in Clermont County that has resulted in this track record,” Hicks said. “This case is important as it so directly speaks to a citizen being able to speak out without fear of retribution.”
– Milford Exempted Village School District settled two different cases this year. First, they settled for $28,000 with former student Steven Oliver over First Amendment rights at board meetings. They then settled for $7,000 with resident Rachel Richardson regarding executive session and minute-keeping violations.
The city of Milford also settled with Richardson for $37,000 over open meeting violations.
2. The villages of Amelia and Newtonsville dissolved
One of the top stories for the last two years in Clermont County has been the ongoing saga in the village of Amelia. After council passed a 1 percent earnings tax on people who live or work in the area in 2018, residents began filling council meetings, angered at the process of how that tax was passed, and the unresponsiveness of council and Mayor Todd Hart.
Since then, two tracks developed in how to respond: Renee Gerber’s Wake Up! Amelia group, which pushed for inside reforms, like Gerber running for mayor. Gerber ultimately did win the mayorship in the Nov. 5, 2019 General Election. 
However, the other track, headed by Ed McCoy’s Free Amelia, had a different idea in mind: dissolving the village by putting on the ballot surrender of corporate powers. Voters chose that path, too. Now Amelia will be split among Pierce and Batavia Townships.
“It speaks volumes; the people have spoken,” McCoy said. “What government needs to know is that government belongs to the people, and if you back the people in the corner, they’re going to fight, and when they fight, stuff like this happens.”
Newtonsville also had issues with a 1 percent earnings tax, as well as being placed on fiscal emergency by the State over the summer of 2019. In a much closer margin, eight voters swayed the dissolve issue for the village, which will now by subsumed into Wayne Township.
Kevin Pringle, mayor, tried a longshot bid at the Twelfth District Court of Appeals, and then to the Ohio Supreme Court, to find placing the measure on the ballot was improper, but it became too costly to sustain.
1. Detective Bill Brewer killed; Wade Winn sentenced
Undoubtedly the biggest story of 2019 happened near the beginning of the year when Pierce Township police and Clermont County Sheriff’s deputies responded to On The Green at Royal Oaks Apartment complex on Feb. 2.
It turned out to be an ambush set up by Wade Winn, who was tripping on a deadly cocktail of cocaine and LSD, along with his diagnosed bipolar disorder, causing a “drug-induced psychosis.”
Winn called 9-1-1 claiming “individuals were trying to enter his apartment.” When officers arrived, they requested that Winn put down his firearms, which were a 9mm Glock, and a rifle.
The scene was cleared, and then Winn called 9-1-1 again, claiming to be suicidal. That’s when Clermont County’s Special Response Team was called in to negotiate with Winn. Brewer was on the SRT team.
Winn shot and killed Brewer, wounded Lt. Nick DeRose, and shot at Deputies Daniel Spears, Michael Ross, and Douglas Scott, and Detective Nicholas Crouch, and Sergeant Michael White.
The stand-off also resulted in a fire at the complex, resulting in $1.2 million in damage, and 11 families consisting of 21 people, to be permanently displaced.
Facing the death penalty, Winn pleaded guilty to a number of charges, and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole to be served consecutively with 115 years.
Sheriff Robert Leahy said the office was in limbo land much of the year because of the case, and the plea deal took them out of it. Otherwise, the case was headed to a March 2020 trial.
“I want to thank this community for their love and support,” he said. “They believe in this office, and this office has responded in kind.”
Much of that support over the year included memorials to Brewer: a memorial tree in the village of Williamsburg, and a memorial tree at Williamsburg High School, a memorial swing at Batavia Township, memorial car shows, and Rep. Brad Wenstrup presenting the flag that flew over the United States Capitol in honor of Brewer to the Sheriff’s Office.
At the dedication for the memorial garden, Bill Brewer’s wife, Jamie Brewer, was moved by the community’s support.
“It’s overwhelming … I’m overwhelmed. We appreciate all the generosity,” she said.
Looking ahead to 2020, while the case may be over, Pierce Township and the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office are looking to deal with the apartment complex, which was the site of three deaths, and otherwise calls for drug use.
In the wake of Brewer’s murder, Pierce Township Board of Trustees, its police and fire chiefs, and its zoning administrator, began working with the owners of the complex to address the issues.
Changes so far have included doing background checks on tenants, security cameras, added lighting, nd monthly routine maintenance inspection reports.
David Shearer, manager of the complex, said the owners have put $1.2 million into updating the units.
Something the trustees have in their back pocket, tabled for now, is Resolution 2019-024, which determined the existence of a public nuisance. It’s been indefinitely tabled, but it’s also possible to reinstate the resolution.
The first meeting of the year in Pierce Township is with the owners of the complex to discuss progress.
Editor’s Note: In the Jan. 9, 2020 edition of The Clermont Sun, in the story, “The Top 10 Clermont County stories from 2019,” we incorrectly said that Milford Schools, “settled for $221,000 with former student Steven Oliver over First Amendment rights at board meetings.” The correct dollar amount was $28,000.
Further, in the settlement, Milford “does not admit any violation of any federal or state statue, the common law, or any of Claimant’s rights. Milford denies all such allegations made by Claimant.”
The Sun apologizes and regrets these errors.