HAMILTON — Butler County commissioners, anxious to complete the Interstate 75 interchange at the Michael Fox Highway, will ask Ohio Gov. Bob Taft for help.

        The $8 million project would be financed completely with local funds, but state approval is being delayed until results of a regional study of the I-75 corridor, which is expected to be finished early next year, are available.

        The project would also connect Fox Highway (Ohio 129) with Cox Road. County and Liberty Township officials say it would open several hundred acres to industrial and commercial development.

        The commissioners said Thursday that they will ask for a meeting with Gov. Taft to ask him to do whatever he can to speed up the project.

        The commissioners also approved a resolution Thursday emphasizing their strong support for the project. Commissioner Chuck Furmon, who proposed the resolution, said the longer the project is delayed, the longer economic development in that Cox Road area is delayed.

        “We're losing a lot of potential businesses,” Mr. Furmon said.

        Liberty Township Trustee Bob Shelley said commercial developers inquire daily about the availability of property around Cox Road and the Fox Highway.

        The county and Liberty Township plan to finance the project through tax increment financing, a tool that uses property tax revenue to help pay for a project.

        But until the state approves, construction cannot begin.

        The current “mall war” among developers competing to attract upscale retail to four proposed open-air centers off I-75 illustrates the need to move quickly to capture commercial development, Commissioner Mike Fox said. He and other county officials are concerned that Butler could lose out in the bid for an upscale mall to Deerfield Township in Warren County.

        In a move to give Butler County a possible edge, the commissioners sent letters Thursday to officials of Nordstrom Inc. and National Amusements Inc., which owns Showcase Cinemas, encouraging them to come to Butler and providing information about the county.

        “We're telling them, "We want you here, and we're willing to go to great lengths to get you here,' ” Mr. Fox said.

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