LEBANON — Lebanon City Schools can move ahead with plans to build a new high school on Drake Road after Warren County commissioners agreed Thursday to let the city annex the site.

        The commissioners had delayed a decision on the annexation request last month after neighbors raised concerns about storm-water drainage and traffic.

        “If our board denies this annexation, we're just causing problems for every taxpayer in the Lebanon school system,” Commissioner Mike Kilburn said. “This thing is bigger than us.”

        The district already has bought the 90-acre parcel in Turtlecreek Township, just northeast of the city limits, and the township trustees said Thursday they cannot provide utilities to the site.

        The commissioners told Superintendent Bill Sears in March that the district needed to address residents' complaints, and Mr. Sears did so by holding two community meetings.

        “We've been very pleased with the response of the schools,” neighbor Mary Lou Harmon reported to commissioners Thursday.

        Not everyone was satisfied.

        “You're putting a school on the most dangerous road in the county,” said Tom Lutmer, who has lived on Drake Road for 50 years.

        Nonetheless, the commissioners unanimously approved the annexation, allowing the district to proceed with its plans. The $32 million high school, to replace the one on Miller Road, will be funded with a $50 million bond voters passed a year ago.

        The school will be built for 1,400 students and could expand to accommodate hundreds more. It's needed, officials say, because of the rampant growth in Lebanon and the surrounding area.

        The bond also will pay for an elementary school that was originally to be built on Drake Road, too. The district decided that would be a tight fit, however, and instead is negotiating to buy 26 acres on Ohio 123.

        In other action Thursday, the Humane Association of Warren County asked for a county contribution of $1 million toward a $2.8 million expansion of its shelter.

        Mr. Kilburn said he would support giving $100,000 a year for 10 years, but Commissioners Pat South and Larry Crisenbery said they couldn't commit to a figure.
       

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