MIDDLETOWN — Closed-door negotiations among several local governments have cleared the way for Middletown Regional Hospital to move to Warren County.

        “I feel like the hospital will move,” Middletown Mayor Robert Hill said Monday.

        Warren County Commissioner Mike Kilburn said he is convinced the hospital wants to come. “It appears the hospital has made their mind up to build a new facility in Warren County.”

        The hospital still will not confirm it is moving to Union Road just east of Interstate 75, saying a decision will be made by week's end. The other option to address Middletown Regional's quick growth is to rebuild on-site, but it is landlocked on 26 acres.

        “Nothing has changed,” spokesman Brian Clifford said Monday.

        But details of the proposed development have become clearer. The hospital campus will be 280 acres, Mr. Kilburn said. It will sit between Greentree and Hendrickson roads on Union, which will be moved and widened into a boulevard, he said.

        The hospital has said it will serve the same area

        whether it moves or not, but the new location would put it closer to Monroe and Warren County patients and further from most in its traditional core area — Middletown.

        Mr. Hill, Mr. Kilburn, Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox and others met last week to resolve several points of contention. The results:

        • Middletown, which wants to annex the new hospital, has agreed to share revenue from the site with Turtlecreek Township, which controls the land. The city also says it will promise to never again annex Turtlecreek land.

        “I shouldn't have any problem with this at all,” Turtlecreek Trustee Dan George said Monday.

        The township's only remaining concern, Mr. George said, is that an industrial park — which had been part of the proposed project — not be built in Turtlecreek.

        “We're saying no to that because there's an aquifer and other problems out here,” he said.

        • The city also has surrendered to Warren County over sewer service to the new Hunter subdivision that both governments wanted to handle.

        That issue resolved, commissioners will welcome the hospital into the county, Mr. Kilburn said.

        “It may be the very best thing we've ever participated in,” he said. “Warren County's not going to have any expenses. We're not going to pay a dime.”

        • Middletown, which has lines closest to the new site, will provide sewers there.

        In spite of the city's concessions to make the move happen, residents would mostly prefer that Middletown Regional remain in its current, central location.

        “I don't approve of the move,” said native Frank Latimer, 76, an Armco Steel retiree who lives on the west side. “We're far enough from the hospital now.”

        The mayor, too, is less than enthusiastic about the Warren County site, but says the city has little choice.

        “I feel like the (hospital) board has made up their mind,” Mr. Hill said.

        The only remaining catch may be the need for a new interchange on I-75. Middletown, the hospital and others are sponsoring a study to justify an exit near Greentree. State and federal authorities must approve new interchanges.

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