MASON — City Council has taken steps to ensure that a provider of assisted living services for mentally handicapped adults and developmentally disabled children stays put.

        Community Options Inc., which is owned and operated by Councilwoman Betty Davis and her four children, will receive a 100 percent tax abatement on real property for seven years. The deal is worth more than $98,000.

        Ms. Davis, Mason's former mayor, admitted to the awkwardness of having her company go to council for a tax break.

        The 19-year council veteran excluded herself from council discussions on the abatement and abstained from the 6-0 vote last week to approve it.

        “The process was strange because as a council member, I have to be so cautious of any kind of appearance of impropriety,” she said. “It's a much more difficult process than if I was just any other business owner in the community.”

        Vice Mayor Jim Fox added: “I tried to look at (the abatement proposal) as objectively as possible. It was a move that made good business sense, whether or not Betty Davis was involved. Had she not been involved with the business, my decision to vote in favor of it would have been the same.”

        Community Options, founded in Mason in 1994, plans to move its headquarters from Tradewind Drive to the Tri-Way Industrial Park just off U.S. 42. The company will build a 12,600-square-foot facility — double the size of its current one — to fulfill its operational needs and accommodate future expansion.

        The new facility, valued at just under $1 million, will house 25 employees. Ms. Davis said the company promises to create 12 jobs by 2003. The average yearly salary for an employee at Community Options is $35,000.

        The company has an annual payroll of $875,000 and projects that it will increase to $1.4 million in the next three years.

        The company had been considering sites in Deerfield Township, Blue Ash and West Chester, Ms. Davis said. She added Community Options wants to break ground at its new Mason site in March and have construction completed by September.

        Community Options' annual compensation to Mason City Schools for the term of the abatement has not yet been determined, but city officials say Mason will receive $25,717 in revenues by retaining the company.

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