LEBANON — City Council took two steps toward entering the telephone business Tuesday, voting 5-0 on measures to borrow up to $1 million and to buy equipment for planned local phone service.

        “We're excited to be able to provide telephone (service),” City Manager James Patrick said.

        City-run phone service has been eagerly anticipated by residents and businesses long forced to pay long-distance rates for calls to Cincinnati, Dayton and even other parts of Warren County.

        Lebanon would be one of only about a dozen cities in the nation to offer phone service, according to industry experts.

        The final aspect of the city plan — a contract with Cincinnati Bell to provide the dial tone on city-owned lines — has not yet come to council. However, it is expected to provide basic toll-free service to areas as far south as Northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana, and north to Dayton, for $28 a month.

        The city is aiming to start service by early 2002, Mr. Patrick said Tuesday.

        Telephone service would be just the latest offering of Lebanon's $13 million telecommunications system. It already provides cable TV and/or high-speed Internet access to more than 3,000 of the city's 7,000 households.

        Despite its success in low ering residents' cable rates by a third, however, the system has been a financial burden on city government. After more than two years of operation, it is close to meeting operating costs, Councilman Mark Flick has said, but it is a long way from making a dent in its startup costs.

        Adding equipment for phone service could cost up to $1 million, but income from it should repay the investment in less than four years, Mr. Patrick said.

County invites Graham crusade
Teens say revenge is reason for violence
Erica searchers hope computer likeness helps
Miranda rights: Do kids get it?
Typical reading of Miranda rights
Luken and Fuller say more cops are needed
RADEL: Tarbell draws line on graffiti
Council ballot will get new look
Murder warrant issued for Over-the-Rhine man
Xavier students, staff back to work
Bicentennial group plans history project
Cincinnatians headed to U.N. racism conference
Congrats
Lebanon closer to phone service
Local Digest
Monroe district finances solid
Monroe's next goal: New schools
Museum to showcase Shaker craftsmanship
New Lakota school to be flexible
School reforms urged
Pileup injures at least nine
Auction helps fight plant
Covington lawyer gets itch to run
Creationists converge on Boone Co.
Dental-care kits donated to schools
Ludlow residents revive community journalism
Cuyahoga property values restored
Kentuckians' paychecks come from buying American
Man convicted of complicity in death of girlfriend's father
Man pleads guilty to 1989 murder