By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - As public hearings began Wednesday on a controversial proposed interchange, Butler County commissioners confidently said they will have enough votes next week from a regional transportation board to put the project on the long-range planning list.

Placement on the Ohio-Kentucky-Regional Council of Governments list is a key step to getting state transportation officials to approve the Liberty interchange east off the Michael A. Fox Highway at Interstate 75.

Butler commissioners and the director of the Butler County Transportation Improvement District, Rick Bailey, have been telephoning OKI board members, urging their support.

"We have 14 votes so far and there's 28 members; but we don't think they will all be there, so we figure we have enough," said Commission President Courtney Combs

On Wednesday, OKI held the first hearing of two scheduled this week. The 6 p.m. meeting at OKI's headquarters in Queensgate drew few people from the suburbs but one at 6 p.m. today at Liberty Township Hall, 6400 Princeton Road, is expected to attract hundreds of proponents and opponents, including Mike Monett of the Dayton Sierra Club.

Mr. Monett, who led opposition against a proposed mega-mall in Monroe, called the interchange "irresponsible growth" at OKI's meeting Wednesday.

The interchange has passed air quality control and financial constraint tests, a hurdle necessary to be placed on OKI's list, according to an OKI staff report released Wednesday.

But a major opponent of the interchange is Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley, who says existing suburban areas should be revitalized before new ones are built on farmland.

Butler leaders sent a letter to OKI board members Wednesday demanding they reject Mr. Cranley's statements and "repudiate his policy."

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.