The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 22

Friday. July 29, 1983 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER METRO B-7 Boone To Keep Heat On Marijuana Farms Ohio Breaking New Ground With Trade Office In Africa Kenner said. Deputies are talking to the man, whom Kenner refused to identify. No arrests were made. Both cases are being taken to the grand Jury and names are being withheld until then, Kenner said.

The deputies' largest raid was made Monday when 507 plants and 4 pounds of processed marijuana were confiscated at thefarm of Richard Stephenson, 32, 5415 Ky. 20, Burlington. Boone County Sheriff Elmer Wright estimated the marijuana's street value at $300,000. SINCE THE raids started about 2V weeks ago, the sheriff's office has been getting numerous tips. "We can't keep up with them," Kenner said.

Some of the calls are false, he said, but they are following every lead. The program began when Wright began getting omplalnts from citizens in the community, who were worried about the use of marijuana by young people. There's a lot of marijuana in Boone County, and every Kentucky county, according to Kenner. "It's Kentucky's biggest cash crop, even bigger than tobacco," he said. BY DAVE BEASLEY Enquirer Reporter Boone County sheriff's deputies plan to keep stalking the carefully hidden marijuana crops in the county until harvest time, Deputy Sheriff Ron Kenner said Thursday.

Deputies rooted up two more crops Wednesday, bringing their take to more than 1,500 plants, with a street value of about $1.3 million, he said. They went to a farm Thursday off Bellevue Road, Petersburg, on a tip that there was a two-acre field of marijuana plants. "When we got tnere about 11 a.m., the field already had been disked several times and spread heavily with manure," Kenner said. "That's okay with us; fecause our main objective is to of tt." 'It's right out she told us, and pointed out the back," he said. There was a seed bed that had been planted by her brother, The latest raids were made Tuesday.

About 9:30 a.m. deputies went to a field on Bellevue Road about four miles out of Burlington near Middle Creek Road. There were 32 young plants, about two feet high, Kenner said. The field is owned by a Middletown, Ohio man and is rented to several individuals, he said. THE SECOND raid was made about 5 p.m.

at a home on South Fork Church Road, about 3V4 miles west of US 42, near South Fork Church. "We told a woman In the trailer, who was breaking beans, that we heard they were growing marl-luana," Kenner said. Hospital Not Needed, Study Says By JACKIE JADRNAK Gannett News Service COLUMBUS-Once it was called the Dark Continent, seen by American eyes through a veil of strangeness and suspicion. But Ohio is preparing to symbolically tear aside that veil In a $1 million gamble that could result in either a spectacular waste of taxpayer dollars or a gold mine of trade. Either way, Ohio is going to be a pioneer in opening the first state overseas trade office in Africa, committing $500,000 for each of the next two years to operate in Nigeria.

The problems are legion, but Ohio officials are hoping success in the venture could put them ahead of other states In developing trade in an area which until now has been given only cursory treatment. First, though, they have to overcome occasional government instability, difficult and expensive living conditions, bureaucratic barriers to foreign trade and low foreign currency reserves. THE PAYOFF could be Jobs in Ohio. For every $1 billion worth of products a state exports, it can expect to create 30,000 to 50,000 Jobs locally, according to Phillip Code, head of the International trade division in Ohio's Department of Development. To survive in the age of a global economy, states have to leave their Obackyards to find business, he says.

Ohio, third to California and Texas in exports, sends more than $18 billion worth of products to international markets every year. In turn, 66 German, 44 British, 25 Japanese and eight French firms have operations within Ohio's borders. Searching for new markets, states are turning their eyes to developing countries, where people have the desire to build and the money to buy. In a time when a number of countries can make equally attractive products, being there first can make the difference in getting the business, Code contends. "AFRICA IS one of the most strategic places In terms of minerals.

We need to be thinking about that," Code says. People say it's a difficult area. But when England was thinking about coming to Plymouth Rock, I'm sure they had problems there, too." Other states have thought about setting up shop In Lagos, Nigeria, where Ohio is breaking new ground this year, but scrapped the Idea. "That's been put on the back burner, because It's really essential to have a sufficient quantity of trade developed before we can put an office there," says Patricia Van der Voord, manager of export development for Michigan. "Foreign offices are very expensive.

We can't have one sitting there with no activity." Michigan already has offices in Tokyo and Brussels and considered opening one in Sao Paulo until Brazil started closing Its borders to imports, she says. "All of the Third World countries are high priority," Van der Voord adds, "but every one has cash flow problems." ALAN PARTF.R, director of New York's division of international commerce, agrees. "In Africa, you're talking more of potential than of immediate return," he says. New York, which has offices in London, Wels-baden and Tokyo, is pouring much of Its efforts into persuading Industrialized countries to Invest in the state. "We're clearly looking at some Third World countries," he adds.

"But any time you're dealing with developing countries, many have difficulties paying for the goods because they don't have enough currency." An Ohio businessman found that out for himself. Allen C. Patrick, head of Patrick Plus Associates, a Columbus architectural and design firm, went Into Nigeria in 1976 to design and oversee construction of that country's prison system. Since then, he's also designed a small community, some housing projects and hotels up to $340 million worth of construction. But the past couple years he's had trouble getting paid, at least in American dollars.

The problem Is that Nigeria doesn't have enough In its account with Chase Manhattan Bank to convert its money to U.S. currency, a situation that developed as the oil glut hit world markets. NIGERIA, WHICH has relied on its oil reserves to bring foreign money Into its country, was left In a financial squeeze when prices fell. But Patrick is optimistic that the price of oil will rise again, putting Nigeria back on its financial feet. "In terms of timing, this might be the best time to open an office there," he says.

"The American presence In Nigeria In not all that great. If you establish an office when things are tough, knowing the Nigerian people as I do, they will see that as a commitment and appreciate It," Patrick says. "That could put Ohio In a leadership role In arranging contacts." But firms have to be willing to enter in Joint ventures. Depending on the type of business being done, Nigeria requires that firms' native ownership range from 40 to 100. Patrick's operation there has become 40 Nigerian-owned.

With Nigeria already Importing $16 billion worth of goods, 7.8 of them from the United States, Ohio will be fighting to get a bigger piece of that pie, according to Code. "They import annually 1 million metric tons of wheat, and Ohio farms have not contributed one ounce of that," he says. As the country develops Its infrastructure of roads, dams and pipelines, Ohio can sell materials and equipment to aid that development, he says. BY EDWARD A. ADAMS Enquirer Reporter Warren County does not need a hospital, according to a study accepted Thursday by CORVA, the regional health-planning agency based in Cincinnati.

The study, which is only advisory, rejects a proposal by Miami Valley Hospital for a 100-bed hospital near Lebanon. That proposal calls for a structure that would cost $18.2 million to build and would open by 1986. The study was prepared by Block, McGibony and Associates of Silver Spring, Md. It says that projected development of the county and public desire for a hospital are not enough to Justify its construction. The study can be used by the Warren County Health Planning Committee and Ohio Department of Health, which have final approval of any hospital built In Warren County.

Factors ranging from accessibility to hospitals, Increases in health-care costs and physicians' dislike of a hospital all outweigh any reasons to build the hospital, the study says. Warren County is the largest Ohio county without a hospital within its borders. The study backs up a 1979-80 CORVA study that concluded the eight-county area It administers needs no new hospitals. "It Is cheaper to expand existing facilities outside the county than build new hospitals within," said Man-dell Bellmore, president of the consulting firm. Physicians surveyed said they generally do not want the hospital built, and would not use it if it were constructed, the study says.

Police Subdue Armed Suspect GOSHEN Armed with knives and a steel rod, a Goshen Township man who was accused of assaulting a township employee, held more than 25 police officers at bay for 2Mi hours before he was arrested In his home. No one was seriously injured in the Incident. Larry McHenry, 29, 1929 Main was charged with felonious assault and assault. Cincinnatian Held In Rape Of Teen- Ager The family with two dogs, A Cincinnati girl told police early Thursday that she got a ride in Price Hill from a man who took her to rural Boone County and raped her. The 17-year-old said her assailant picked her up at Warsaw and Glenway Aves.

They drove to the Verona area, where the attack occurred at knifepoint, she said. MaJ. Don Stamper, commander of criminal Investigations, Boone County Police, said the girl sprayed the man with chemical Mace, got the knife and stabbed him several times. She ran through a woods to a nearby house and called police. two cats, two goldfish and two cars can get two discounts on Prudential Auto Insurance.

"I believe she stabbed him pretty deeply in one arm," Stamper said. "There was a lot of blood." He said he believed the man drove himself to Providence Hospital, Cincinnati. Detective Jesse Baker, in charge of the Investigation, meanwhile had alerted area hospitals, and Cincinnati officers arrested a suspect at Providence. Stamper Identified the man as Randy Grimes, 29, 5636 River Cincinnati. Stamper said Grimes is a janitor for a board of education.

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