Butler Tech eyes Liberty Twp. site
Two others Butler County sites also being considered
Friday, May 09, 2008
LIBERTY TWP. – Butler Tech board members are considering building a bioscience learning facility and online education center on a 20-acre site here.
Liberty Twp. Board of Zoning Appeals is scheduled to vote Tuesday, May 13, on a variance that would allow construction of a school at the corner of Liberty Court and Wyandot Lane, just north of Lakota East High School.
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"Our primary interest is being in the center of the health industry, which obviously is growing tremendously up the I-75 corridor," said Robert Sommers, Butler Tech chief executive officer.
Butler Tech's board also is considering at least two other sites, one in West Chester Twp. and another in Liberty Twp.
Plans submitted to the township call for 50 full-time employees at an average salary of $60,000. The new school would serve more than 600 secondary and adult students.
The new school would relocate the Butler Tech portion of the Greentree Health Science Academy in Monroe, Sommers said.
The relocation would add increased visibility and provide Butler Tech with easy transportation access to all the schools it serves, Sommers said.
Butler Tech's board is scheduled to meet Tuesday, May 20, to discuss the various site options and a decision could be made next month, Sommers said.
Caroline McKinney, the township's economic development director, said the site north of Lakota East would work well, given the amount of high school students the facility would be serving.
A bioscience learning facility also would be an asset to the private sector.
"From an economic development standpoint, I think their facility could be a great tie-in and compliment all of the growing medical sector that we're attracting to the area," McKinney said.
