Afternoon catchup: 5 Butler County stories you need to know today

Spoken Bicycles on Central Ave. in Middletown is a full service bike shop offering sales, service, parts and accessories but is also a craft beer and cocktail bar with rotating taps. NICK GRAHAM / STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Spoken Bicycles on Central Ave. in Middletown is a full service bike shop offering sales, service, parts and accessories but is also a craft beer and cocktail bar with rotating taps. NICK GRAHAM / STAFF

Here’s a look at five big Butler County stories today to catch up on the news:


Smelly Hamilton sewers lead to $3.5 million project for the city

Miami University planning students are developing ways to beer connect Miami's Hamilton campus with the Lindenwald business district. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

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Dan Arthur, an engineer working in Hamilton’s Department of Infrastructure, gave city council an update Wednesday on things being done to contain odors coming from sewers on Corwin Avenue that have been bothering residents.

Most of the Corwin Avenue work will happen between Freeman Avenue and Van Hook Avenue.

“The purpose of the project started out as a sanitary-sewer project only, but it has grown to include the other utilities as well,” he said.

Multiple lines tie in at the intersection of Corwin and Benninghofen Avenue, where there is a 10-foot drop within that manhole “that causes odor issues and is the main culprit with what’s going on with that,” Arthur said.

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Middletown bike shop adds outdoor bar seating just in time for St. Patrick’s Day

Spoken Bicycles on Central Ave. in Middletown is a full service bike shop offering sales, service, parts and accessories but is also a craft beer and cocktail bar with rotating taps. NICK GRAHAM / STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

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Credit: Nick Graham

A downtown Middletown bike shop and bar is getting ready for the warmer weather, St. Patrick’s Day and hopefully less restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Two glass windows were knocked out of Spoken Bicycles, 1201 Central Ave., on Thursday and replaced with two retractable windows, 16 feet of table space outside and eight feet of table space inside.

The goal, Spoken Bicycles owner Otto Bohn said, is to create “an inside/outside vibe” that’s growing in popularity throughout downtowns.

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‘I love books and I love cheap books’: Bookstore owner opening new location in Fairfield

Crystal DeGiuseppe is opening Gypsy Books on Saturday, March 13, 2021, at 1085 Magie Ave. Paperback books are available for $1 and hardback books are available for $2. MICHAEL D. PITMAN/STAFF

Credit: Michael D. Pitman

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Credit: Michael D. Pitman

Crystal DeGiuseppe would drive nearly an hour to a bookstore selling books for $1 and wished there was something closer to her Fairfield home.

The book lover since her teenage years opened Gypsy Books in a spot at Trader’s World this year while balancing her full-time job. But that only lasted a couple of weeks before a brick-and-mortar location opened, which is a familiar building on Magie Avenue in Fairfield.

“One of the selling points the property owner told me is this was a bookstore back in the ’70s,” she said of the spot at 1085 Magie Avenue most known as the original location of the Fairfield Food Pantry that moved in 2018. “They know exactly where I am so that’s been a little bit of a benefit for me.”

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‘This brings more energy’: DHL, Cintas leases finishing filling huge Middletown logistics center

Cintas Corp. recently signed a long-term lease for more than 250,000 square feet of the 75 Logistics Center in Middletown. City officials said Cintas, who will less than half of the 613,000 square-foot available, is the first tenant for the speculation building which was constructed by The Opus Group and Founders Group LLC. The building was completed in May 2019. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

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Two “world-class tenants” have signed leases in the 75 Logistics Center in Middletown, said Chris Xeil Lyons, the city’s economic development director.

The Opus Group, a commercial real estate development, construction and design company, announced Thursday that the 612,589-square-foot warehouse is now fully leased after DHL joined corporate apparel brand Cintas, one of southwest Ohio’s largest public companies, in taking space there.

yons said the two tenants investing in the Middletown region shows the strength of the location, just north of Yankee and Todhunter roads near the Middletown and Monroe city limits. She said the center is positioned near Interstate 75 and there is a workforce of more than 3 million in the area between the Dayton and Cincinnati regions.

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Fairfield’s Harbin Park could see new improvements as early as this year

The city of Fairfield will purchase a 33-acre site that would expand the city’s walking and cycling paths in Harbin Park to the west. The purchase is contingent receiving a Clean Ohio Grant that would pay for 75 percent of the purchase price. GREG LYNCH/FILE

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Upgrades to William Harbin Park that have been talked about since 2014 could begin as early as this year, according to city officials.

With the help of $700,000 from the capital funds allocated last year in Senate Bill 310, Phase 1 of a three-phase Harbin Park renovation will include a rebuilt overlook picnic shelter, replacement of the wooden shelters, a new year-round restroom facility, improved playground area, and an expanded bike and walking trail, said Parks and Recreation Director Tiphanie Howard.

The city’s portion of the capital funds is part of more than $24 million allocated to the county for projects, and Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, worked to secure funding for these Fairfield projects.

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AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...

Why you’ll soon see hundreds of butterflies at Hamilton’s Fitton Center

Lori Kay Farr, mural artist, educator, and project leader of Wings of Hope. This collaborative, community mosaic mural will be placed on one of the exterior columns of the pergola at the Fitton Center. CONTRIBUTED

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The Fitton Center for Creative Arts has announced a community project that will bring artists of all skill levels together, both locally and abroad, with a message of hope conveyed in the Wings of Hope mosaic mural project.

“All of these butterflies will be brought together and assembled as a rainbow, bursting from these flowers onto the columns at the Fitton Center. The idea is that they’ll be uplifting, offering hope that we will survive what we’ve been through,” said Lori Kay Farr, mural artist, educator, and project leader of Wings of Hope.

Her idea is to have a collection of butterflies made from single-color values, created by different artists from all over the world, including past Fitton Center students, area school students, and through open engagement.

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