Tuesday, April 13, 1999
Road may be named after commissioner
Fox key part of Butler Co. project
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD — The man who smoothed the legislative path for the new Butler County Regional Highway could be honored by having the roadway named after him.
The highway connecting Hamilton to Interstate 75 will be named for former Ohio legislator Mike Fox, Butler County transportation officials announced Monday.
Officials of the county's Transportation Improvement District (TID) said Mr. Fox's efforts in creating the TID and helping to arrange financing for the new highway were greatly appreciated.
“It's a fine idea. Without Mike Fox, I feel certain there would not be a TID and a regional highway,” said Ronald Reynolds, TID vice chairman. “For the future of Butler County the highway is tremendously important.”
TID officials said they are seeking and expect approval of the highway name recommendation from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).
Mr. Fox said “It's quite an honor. I'm very touched by it. It's always nice to be part of something that is important to community and successful.
“This was a dream I first worked on when I first went to the legislature in 1975,” said Mr. Fox, a former chairman of the Ohio House Education Committee and a 22-year veteran of the General Assembly. “I wanted to get around a lot of the red tape and procedures,” he said of the almost three-decades-long process for getting the highway started.
Mr. Fox, a Butler County commissioner who helped create the TID as a state legislator in 1993. He won election to his commissioner's seat in November.
The TID was started as a cooperation of local governments and private sector money to cut through red tape, build roads and secure $158 million bonds for the Butler Regional Highway.
It also built and opened the $24 million interchange with I-75 at Union Centre Boulevard in 1997.
Greg Wilkens, executive director of TID, said the new highway is ahead of schedule and should be open to the public in late fall.
“If the good weather holds we can go full bore. The project is 60 percent complete and about 37 percent of the contract time has lapsed,” Mr. Wilkens told other TID members.
In other TID action, the board voted to accept contractor bids for road projects including the widening of Muhlhauser Road from the current two lanes between Ohio 747 and the recently opened section of Muhlhauser.
Road work will begin May 1 and is to be completed Oct. 1, TID officials said.
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