By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WYOMING - The city's Recreation Commission will recommend that council drop plans for a 6-mill tax increase to build a $20.8 million recreation complex after many residents opposed the plan at two public hearings that drew about 400 people last month.

Vicky Zwissler, a councilwoman who sits on the commission, Monday said the recreation panel's conclusion "is going to be to place no levy on the November ballot."

About 30 people spoke at each of two public hearings, many of them against a proposal that would cost the owner of a $250,000 home - the median assessed value in Wyoming - an extra $525 a year in property taxes.

"Even the supporters of the proposal had difficulty with the breadth of it," Zwissler said.

The commission is scheduled to present its report, which grew out of a recreation master plan completed in 2000, to council May 17.

Zwissler said the commission decided last week not to push for the complex, which included $16.6 million to build a community center, $2.4 million for a new municipal pool and $1.9 million to renovate a high school athletic field.

Instead, the report will urge that the school district handle fixing the field but that the 32-year-old city pool be replaced as soon as possible.

Dave Kelly, a resident who passed out 150 fliers against the plan at one of the hearings, said Monday that he was happy with the decision.

"It was just more than a small community like Wyoming can afford," said Kelly, principal at Hooven and Elizabethtown elementary schools.

The commission also will review plans for the community center, which would replace the Recreation Center at 1 Worthington Ave. and Civic Center at 9940 Springfield Pike, Zwissler said.

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E-mail loakes@enquirer.com