By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Widening the Ohio 4 Bypass was put on the fast track Friday by Butler County transportation leaders.

They also will continue pursuing an Interstate 75 interchange for Liberty Township.

NEW DIRECTOR

John Fonner, of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce's CincyTech USA technology staff, was offered the job as Butler County Transportation Improvement District director Friday. The former transportation planner for the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments said he would make a decision on the $92,000 position by Monday.

The Butler County Transportation Improvement District board voted unanimously Friday to push ahead on fixing Bypass 4, which County Engineer Greg Wilkens has called "the most congested highway" in the county.

Liberty Township trustees were concerned that a new push for the $20-million bypass widening would sidetrack the Liberty interchange, also a $20-million project that would connect I-75 and the Michael A. Fox Highway (Ohio 129) with Hamilton-Mason Road.

Christine Matacic, Liberty Township trustee and acting administrator, voted for the resolution proposed by Hamilton City Council member Ed Shelton.

"We've got both (the highway projects) on the fast track," she said.

Added Liberty Township Trustee David Kern after the meeting: "We'll just have to take them at their word this is not substituting their project for our project."

Shelton argued that both projects could be priorities at the same time, because they have different funding sources.

Bypass 4, a four-lane 1970s road skirting east of Hamilton and Fairfield, would be improved with local government funds, state aid - if available - and money from the Joint Economic Development District and tax-increment financing districts encompassing the Wal-Mart and new Target store at Bypass 4 and Princeton Road in Fairfield Township.

The transportation board plans to apply for bypass funds from the Ohio Transportation Review Advisory Council by May 7. In the fall, the state will announce its list of funded projects for 2006-2011.

Fairfield and Hamilton councils, and Fairfield trustees, will be asked by May 7 to pledge a total of $10 million for the local match, Wilkens said.

The Liberty interchange would be built primarily with local funds from a Joint Economic District and tax-increment financing district east and west of I-75. But the joint economic district agreement with area developers won't be completed until late summer, Matacic said.

Shelton said the bypass widening would spark economic development in Hamilton, Fairfield and Liberty, West Chester and Fairfield townships. He has said the clogged bypass has "choked" Hamilton's 150-acre industrial park off Hamilton-Mason Road.

"With all the traffic congestion, and the economic development, Bypass 4 is one of the most important projects we have," Shelton said.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com