Here’s a look at five big Butler County stories today to catch up on the news:
Municipal Brew Works to open second location inside Spooky Nook in Hamilton
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Municipal Brew Works will open a second Hamilton location inside the coming Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill indoor sports and convention center facility, officials said today.
The brewery became the first tenant to sign with Spooky Nook, officials said. The $144 million facility, which at 1.3 million square feet is to be the largest indoor sports complex in North America, is scheduled for completion around the end of this year.
“We think this will be a great partnership and provide an entertainment outlet for the many visitors The Nook will bring into Hamilton,” Jim Goodman, owner of Municipal Brew Works, said in a news release.
Man pleads guilty, sentenced in death of woman found hidden in barrel in Middletown
A Middletown man accused of killing and woman and hiding her body in a barrel in Middletown has pleaded guilty to some of the charges and was sentenced today in Butler County Common Pleas Court.
William Slaton, 35, was arrested June 30 after Middletown police discovered 21-year-old Cecily Cornett’s body in a barrel at his home in the 3200 block of Yankee Road. He was charged with murder, felonious assault, four counts of tampering with evidence, involuntary manslaughter, three counts of gross abuse of a corpse and assault.
Slaton had previously pleaded no contest to all the tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse charges, which all were felonies.
Could this rendering be the future of Hamilton’s historic CSX rail station?
Will Hamilton City Council next month approve spending $600,000 to move the historic CSX station along Martin Luther King Boulevard two blocks north of its current location? Council members on Wednesday seemed conflicted about that question when told about their options.
That $600,000 spending by the city would not include the later costs of rehabbing the station’s two buildings so they could be brought back to use for something, perhaps an Amtrak passenger station, City Manager Joshua Smith said. The city hopes to receive grants and donations from the public to lower city government’s costs.
Smith told council CSX has given Hamilton until March 31, 2022 to move the station or see it demolished.
West Chester library expansion takes another step forward: What it would include
Credit: NICK GRAHAM / STAFF
Credit: NICK GRAHAM / STAFF
Credit: NICK GRAHAM / STAFF
The MidPointe Library System will proceed with an architect’s plans and cost estimates for expanding the West Chester branch, a project that could cost the township as much as $5 million.
The trustee meeting room was packed Tuesday, mainly with seniors anxious to hear about a possible library expansion that could provide gathering space for them and other groups in the community.
Trustees Ann Becker and Mark Welch had a brief, lively debate over whether a project like this requires or should have voter approval. Welch roughly calculated the cost of a 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot addition at $3.6 to $4.8 million.
Butler County man sentenced for starting New Year’s Day Jeep fire with wife, her children in home
Credit: Butler County Jail
Credit: Butler County Jail
Credit: Butler County Jail
A Middletown man has been sentenced to a decade behind bars for starting a fire that spread to a house with his wife and her two children inside on New Year’s Day.
Maston Leamon Murphy III, 36, was indicted in February by a Butler County grand jury on four counts of aggravated arson and one count of arson, all felonies.
Murphy was accused of setting his wife’s Jeep on fire. Flames spread to the house while she and her children were sleeping inside.
AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...
PHOTOS: Inside the construction progress at Spooky Nook indoor sports complex in Hamilton
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Media was invited to tour the Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill complex under construction Friday in Hamilton.
The sports complex side and convention and hotel space combined will be more than 1 million square feet when completed. Mill One, which is pictured, will feature a fitness center, climbing and adventure center, hardwood courts, sports courts, turf fields and more.
Mill Two by the river will be the conference center and will feature 233 hotel rooms, 16 conference rooms and 60,000 square feet of tenant/ lease space.