By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A $2.5 million outdoor theater featuring a Civil War drama might be built on Butler County owned land on Ohio 4 in Fairfield Township.

Butler County officials believe the outdoor drama could be a big tourist attraction and help draw more businesses and revenue.

"It's important for the growth of high-end jobs for a community to have quality cultural facilities and arts activities," Commissioner Mike Fox said.

Sterling Uhler, a member of the steering committee for the project, presented details of the proposal to the commissioners Thursday.

"It's a great idea," Commissioner Courtney Combs said. "This could give Butler County national exposure."

Mr. Uhler, a former Fairfield mayor who has been active in community theater, initiated the idea about three years ago. He has served on a committee of Fairfield residents that formed to explore the proposal.

The committee had planned to locate the theater in Fairfield, but decided the city had no site large enough and isolated enough to screen out traffic noise and lights that would ruin the Civil War ambiance on stage. There also were concerns about the noise of cannons and rifles disturbing nearby residents.

The proposed 90-acre site on Ohio 4 is owned by MetroParks of Butler County and is northeast of the Ohio 4 Bypass.

The steering committee wants the commissioners to provide the $2.5 million construction cost, approve a 3 percent lodging tax on eligible cities and townships, acquire 59 acres east of the proposed theater site, and create a Butler County Convention and Visitors Bureau to handle revenue from the lodging tax.

A $100,000 grant that Ohio Rep. Greg Jolivette, R-Hamilton, helped obtain pays for a study of the proposed theater being conducted by the Institute of Outdoor Drama at the University of North Carolina.

The study, expected to be completed by the spring, will make recommendations for the theater's site, construction, operation, finances and marketing.

The theater could open as early as spring 2005, Mr. Uhler said.

The theater would have a seating capacity of 1,000 to 1,200 and would present the as-yet-untitled Civil War drama 60 to 80 times between May and September, said John Lawson, a theater steering committee member.

The drama would focus on Civil War events in Southwestern Ohio, including runaway slaves, Morgan's Raiders and a pair of Oxford sisters who spied for the Confederacy.

He said the drama would have an attendance comparable to Tecumseh in Chillicothe, which draws 64,000 annually, and Blue Jacket in Xenia, which draws 40,000.

The estimated ripple effect on Butler County's economy is $5 million a year, Mr. Uhler said.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com