Rick Hines : Making a Commitment to Community
Here's the problem with Rick Hines. He's a private person yet loves to be involved for the betterment of the community. Hines does not like being in the spotlight.
So, you can imagine the reaction when Hines discovered that Kathy Groob, a chronic loser in political campaigns, posted a website against him in the spring of 2010 to "expose Rick Hines."
In the time he has lived in the Old Seminary Square, Hines has made himself available for a number of projects for the good of community and
for Covington KY.
Rick Hines launched a daily page at Facebook called "Old Seminary Square" that is updated daily, even on weekends and holidays.
Involved in another page at Facebook page which documents life in the city called "Covington Kentucky USA."
Created a daily news and information website for and about Covington.
All, mind you, for free --- without compensation.
Then there are the acts of kindness toward his neighbors:
Just recently, he'd passed out bottles of Kentucky wine to some of the neighbors.
And gave a neighbor has new leaf blower for keeps, after the neighbor asked to borrow it.
In the past, Hines has:
Lent out his garage so that victims of a fire in a group of rowhouses could store their belongings.
Made a large financial donation for the upkeep of Farny Park, the only resident on the street to do so. And paid for his own garden fence, even though a grant from the city was supposed to cover the expense. Rick Hines wanted the grant money to be used elsewhere, since he could afford to
pay for the fence.
Made a donation and launched an online effort to help restore those burnt-out rowhouses.
During the summers, he made sure that the planters on the sidewalks got plenty of water. Paid for weed killer to take care of pesky weeds peaking through the sidewalks, spraying the Russell Street sidewalks from 12th Street to Eighth Street on the a regular bases.
Then, there's the other acts of personal kindness:
Made sure that a senior citizen had her sidewalk cleared of snow.
Showered a resident with gifts after she was hospitalized.
Gave a young couple a gift for their newborn child.
Just a few of many acts of kindness.
So, why did failed politician Kathy Groob start a website against Rick Hines?
Can you imagine a next-door neighbor having you investigated?
Groob, in a revival of Richard Nixon, had Hines investigated and found record of a bankruptcy caused by a business failure back in 1989. She gleefully posted the court documents online at her site aimed at Hines, a private person.
Several web companies removed her site against Hines for being malicious, but Groob obsessively jumped from webhosting company to webhosting company until she found one willing to post it under certain conditions. She was forced to remove most of the offending information.
Groob bombarded governmental agencies with demands that they investigate him; even attempting to use political influence, albeit to no avail. She posted his social security number, has home addresses and other personal information.
Why?
Because Hines reluctantly reported her to the city's code enforcement office after discovering a drainpipe secretly tucked under her backyard fence, funneling gallons of water from her rooftop onto Hines' property which could have damaged the foundation of his house.
Groob had ignored a written request six weeks earlier to do something about it.
In retaliation, Kathy Groob also started a vicious disinformation campaign against him in the neighborhood and throughout the city.
Groob has pulled many other tricks to "get Rick," too many to bore you. But she failed in all of them, just as she has failed in her own political campaigns and those she has worked for. So inept, that she was reportedly recently removed as executive director of the political organization that she had founded.
Keep in mind that
Kathy Groob is a political operative, paid to smear opponents, and used that experience in an attempt to get Rick Hines.
Going after other neighbors
But Rick Hines isn't the only one that Kathy Groob has attempted to bully in the Old Seminary Square neighborhood.
She got into a tiff with a neighbor, and Groob ended up calling the neighbor a "freak" and others "weirdo people."
Others were called "jerks," and launched a name-calling campaign against another neighbor.
Kathy Groob tried to shut down the neighborhood's Old Seminary Square home tour because attendees dirtied the floors of her house.
She would chase cars down Russell Street to the stop sign to yell at drivers who she thought were going too fast.
Good gosh, does she care at all about her neighbors?
Well, the neighborhood doesn't seem to care about her. When Groob tripped herself up on the neighborhood Facebook page, she got a thorough thrashing by some page followers -- and nobody came to her defense.
Groob also posted a demand that neighbors not go to Hines' Old Seminary Square at Facebook -- and nobody paid attention to her.
Her name-calling has been used beyond the neighborhood
Groob and Crew were recently caught posting a comment at an Enquirer blog, calling newly-elected Covington Commissioners Steve Frank and Steve Casper "ivory tower Nazis." [ LINK ] Both Casper and Frank are of Jewish heritage.
She has long-used newspaper and political blogs under assumed names to go after those who she perceived to be opponents. [ LINK ]
And Kathy Groob seems to enjoy threatening political writers and bloggers when they called her out on her conflicting, pandering political stands. [ LINK ]
No one in Northern Kentucky politics will forget the creation of a slander flyer against Jim Daley's opponent. The Daley campaign insists Groob did the amateurish flyer, she denies it. [ LINK ]
In conclusion
In Kathy Groob's unique history of attempted bullying and smearing, the actions against Rick Hines should not be surprising.
Kentucky political writer Jake Payne explained it this way:
"In my opinion, she's (Kathy Groob) just one of the bitters who can't deal with accomplishing jack shiz politically in her old age. She's one, giant hypocrite."
In 2008, Groob cried that people in her recently-departed but longtime neighborhood didn't vote for her in the State Senate race.
Can't imagine why they would do such a thing.
About a month after losing that "should have won" bid for Kentucky State Senate, Groob announced she was getting out of politics.
Prominent Northern Kentucky attorney and political blogger Marcus Carey wrote this after her announcement:
"Let's hope that the lessons they've (Groob) learned teach them to play nice instead of trying to destroy other people. Success much more often follows from a charitable heart than a vengeful one, as their record of failures will attest."
Mr. Carey, she still hasn't learned.
Written in the third person by the next door neighbor. This page was created in early 2011 in response to Groob's site against Rick Hines.
Several web companies removed her site against Hines for being malicious, but Groob obsessively jumped from webhosting company to webhosting company until she found one willing to post it under certain conditions. She was forced to remove most of the offending information.
In retaliation, Kathy Groob also started a vicious disinformation campaign against him in the neighborhood and throughout the city. 