By Perry Schaible
Enquirer contributor

LEBANON - A $2.2 million expansion project proposed by the Warren County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities was received skeptically Tuesday by the county commissioners.

"I'm shocked at the total - totally shocked," said Commissioner Larry Crisenbery. Commissioner Mike Kilburn said he knew renovations would be necessary when they agreed to lease Urbancrest, an old Lebanon church, but he was "dumbfounded" by the cost.

"We've got to be sensitive to the voters on how we spend levy money," he said. "I just want to make sure that we're not going to build something that we can't fund."

The board, which serves about 1,000 people a year, is funded with money from a 2002 levy.

The commissioners plan to meet with officials within the next week to discuss the project.

"I'm disappointed that they would say those things in public session," said MRDD Superintendent John Lazares. "They know me better than that. (The board) has been fiscally responsible for taxpayers' money. We don't do anything extravagantly."

The expansion project would include a center for severely handicapped individuals who cannot tend to themselves as well as space for early intervention and therapy programs.