You ask all kinds of questions for our feature OKI Wanna Know. Some of them are answered easily. Some, not so much. Here's a selection of both kinds in this exclusive, bonus, online-only edition of OKI Wanna Know.
Two people are confused and more than a little annoyed by a de-boarding process at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Lynne Lancaster and Joe McKibben both asked why they have to go through security again, after arriving at CVG from an international flight. Lynne says it doesn't happen at other airports. Joe adds "Why? I'm entering Kentucky, not a passenger airliner."
A spokesperson for the TSA responded to the question: “Due to the layout of the CVG airport, passengers arriving from international locations (other than Canada) process through U.S. Customs and then exit into a space where they present their checked bags back to the applicable airline. Following that, they must go through TSA screening, whether they connect to other flights or if CVG is their final destination.”
So, in short, once you get off your non-stop flight from London, laden with duty-free perfume and vodka, you may be going into Kentucky, or, you may be getting on another plane. They want to check you again.
We asked CVG about the configuration, and did not receive an answer.
I can tell you this summer I flew back from London to Chicago. We got off the plane, waited forever for our bags, and then I had to give my bag back to customs for them to inspect before I could take it to check it with the airline for my connecting flight to CVG. And then, after all of that, I had to go through security again to get on my flight.
After a seven-hour flight, with however many delays, it's exhausting. I get it.
At least we don't have to remove our shoes when going through security any more. The Transportation Security Administration dropped that rule earlier this year.
From one airport to another
Rick Boyer noticed something near Lunken Field, along Kellogg Avenue, a.k.a. Route 52.
"I frequently drive past "Jack's" Rt. 52 Auto Parts, whose sign out front is obviously an old drive-in theater. Searching around the interwebs, I can find very little info about the history of this establishment."
That sign is a classic metal sign from the heydays of neon and argon advertising. (Fun fact: if it glows red or orange, it's a neon sign. If it's blue, it's argon.) It's a big blue circle with "Rt. 52 Drive In" in white. Vintage photos show a stylized hamburger on the top corner of the sign, but that was painted black sometime after May 2019.
A more modern addition across the equator advertises the car part business that occupies the site today. it covers part of the original name: Flying Saucer.
It's easy to see "drive-in" and think of a big lot with cars parked in a field facing a large movie screen showing some classic cinematic treasure like Robot Monster or Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. At one time there were more than a dozen drive-in theaters in the Cincinnati area. Today in Southwest Ohio, you'll find them in Hamilton and Amelia, and that's about it.
But the Rt. 52 Flying Saucer Drive In was not a theater.
Let's go way back.
The manager of reference and research for the Cincinnati History Library and Archives says the earliest mention of the address she found is in a story about how kids weren't bused to school and it was dangerous for them to walk.
Jill Beitz says "A 1952 story about a fire says there were no buildings there. I did find out that that area of town was once called Fleettown — a neighborhood I've never heard of."
Then she says from 1956 to 1959, it was the site of The Piccadilly Grill. That was a locally owned chain. There were locations in Over-the-Rhine and Avondale.
From 1960 to 1964, it was a drive-in restaurant called The Flying Saucer Drive In, and by 1965 it was vacant.
"The owner seemed to have a few legal issues, so perhaps that is why it went out of business."
Our own search though newspapers of the time indicates in February 1962 the owner was charged with selling malt beverages to youth. In July 1961, there was a hearing on delinquent taxes. Those were paid by January 1962, according the paper.
In April, the liquor license was suspended for... anyone? Anyone?
Selling alcohol to youth.
Now down Kellogg Avenue, to I-275
Joseph Kinskey asks if there has ever been research or a proposal for a bridge between the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge and the Combs-Hehl Bridge. "Always seemed odd there isn't a bridge between those two," he writes.
No.
That's according to transportation officials on both sides of the Ohio River.
Jake Ryle with KYTC says it's likely for a number of reasons, including the topography.
"A bridge needs to connect two sides of the river, and there isn’t really an option for a good connecting road on the Kentucky side of the river that could accommodate that type of traffic."
The closest thing to a study in Northern Kentucky, Ryle says, was a possible “outer loop” between I-71 and the AA Highway. That was looking at maybe building an east-west connection south of I-275. "It did not include any sort of bridge crossing over the Ohio River. No funding has been provided for any further detailed design from that study."
ODOT's Kathleen Fuller agrees.
"Between the topography, the lack of viable connection points, and the necessary right of way, the cost would likely outweigh the benefit," she says. "It really wouldn’t serve motorists or the residents who live on either side of the river very well."
Fuller also can answer a question from Steve:
Is there any link between "Old 74" in Eastgate, and I-74 on the west side of Cincinnati? Why is it called "old 74"?
She says that one goes way back to the 1920s, when there was something called the Intercounty Highway (ICH) System. The original State Route 74 reached from Cincinnati to the Peebles area. The route is now called State Route 32.
"The change or renumbering was the result of the construction of the interstate in the early 1960s," she says. Those federal highways got priority over state and county roads.
"However, when the state started to relocate sections of SR 32 between Mt. Carmel and Batavia, it was done before the SR 74 designation officially fell off, so rather than call the sections that were still in use Old 32, they opted for Old 74," she adds.
Outstanding in the field
David Stubenrauch asked about a field in in Warren County. He says it's on the other side of SR 63 from the casino, and it's fenced in, with a few small buildings.
"Is it related to the nearby prisons, or to the old water treatment site a little further up, which could be another question sometime?"
Right the first time. And partiallly right on the second half.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections says "those buildings are part of our water treatment plant at Warren Correctional Institution."
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