Fundraising is going public
6-week trial detailed sex scandal that ended his political career, marriage.
John Edwards’ GREENSBORO, N.C. — campaign finance fraud case ended in a mistrial Thursday when jurors acquitted him on one charge and deadlocked on the other five.
They were unable to decide whether he used money from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress while he ran for president and his wife was dying of cancer.
The 6-week-long trial detailed a sordid sex scandal that ended Edwards’ political career, but prosecutors couldn’t convince jurors the candidate masterminded a $1 million cover-up of his affair with his most trusted aide.
Completion is expected in 2014, Ervin said.
Engineering documents are being prepared now for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to allow the project to go forward. Permits are also needed from the City of Dayton and Miami Conservancy District, said Carrie Scarff, deputy director of Five Rivers MetroParks.
Ervin said he hopes the signature project will increase the pace of downtown development and fire up enthusiasm.
“Downtown Dayton’s economic development strategy is focused on strengthening the core of our entire region,” Ervin said. “This strategy hinges on creating an exciting downtown environment that will attract and retain the young, talented workforce needed to build Dayton’s new economy.”
The Greater Downtown Dayton Plan is the multi-pronged economic development initiative and blueprint launched in May 2010 aimed at creating a more vibrant, thriving center city.
Fundraising for River Run kicked off in the summer of 2011 with a $1 million challenge grant from the James M. Cox Foundation, the charitable arm of Cox Enterprises and Cox Media Group Ohio that includes the Dayton Daily News, WHIOTV, WHIO-AM/FM, Springfield News-Sun, Hamilton JournalNews and the Middletown Journal, as well as other publications and broadcast outlets in southwest Ohio.
“Rivers always have been the lifeblood of great cities,” Ervin said. “RiverScape MetroPark has been so successful in bringing people to the river. Now, River Run will get people into the river. And it is only the first step in a comprehensive plan for future river development in our community. After we finish this project, we plan to look at further development of the entire length of our downtown river.”
Ervin cited the examples of cities that have invested big money into waterfronts as a revitalization strategy. Three that resemble Dayton are Oklahoma City, Okla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Hartford, Conn. Oklahoma City spent $54 million along the Oklahoma River. City officials said they’ve gotten a $700 million return on that investment, Ervin said. In Dayton, $38 million has been spent to enhance downtown’s riverfront since 1999.
Donations for River Run have been steady. In November, The Dayton Foundation announced a $200,000 grant. In May, local law firm Thompson Hine, LLC announced that it will contribute $215,000.
The River Run work includes the removal of the hazardous Monument Avenue low dam and the construction using large boulders of two structures spanning the Great Miami upriver from the I-75 overpass. Each structure will have two passageways with drops: one slower passageway for canoes and a faster white water passage for kayaks.
With the low dam gone, paddlers can launch on the Mad River in Eastwood MetroPark and take a seven-mile paddle without takeouts from the Mad to the Great Miami and Carillon Historical Park. The project is designed to allow people to fish, sunbathe and enjoy the river downtown. “We see this as really taking on the concept of becoming a river town,” Scarff said. “It’s starting to blossom. This is a key part of it. This community has been working its way back to the river for decades. RiverScape has captured the community, and there is support for it.”