9/20/2012 - West Side Leader
     

RICHFIELD — Township voters will be asked once again to support a replacement road and bridge levy in the Nov. 6 General Election.

The 2.3-mill levy, Issue No. 58, is an increase of 1 mill over the current 1.3-mill levy, which expires at the end of this year, according to township officials. The five-year levy would cost about $70 a year for the owner of a home valued at $100,000, according to township officials.

The levy was on the Aug. 7 Special Election ballot, along with the township’s fire/EMS levy. The road levy failed, with 52 percent of voters against it, while the fire levy passed.

Township Trustee Laurie Peters Gilmore said township officials think the low turnout for the Special Election may have led to the levy’s failure. There were 160 no votes and 146 yes votes, according to the Summit County Board of Elections.

“It was real close,” Gilmore said. “It could have gone either way.”

Now the township must pass the levy this fall to bring the collection up to where it needs to be to continue to maintain the township’s roads and bridges, Gilmore said.

The increase is needed because of dropping property values, which has resulted in lower tax collections, she added.

Also, several years ago, the levy had been reduced when tax collections were up. The road levy was a 1.5-mill levy that was reduced to 1.3 mills and approved by voters in 2007. Now trustees hope residents will remember that and approve putting a little more toward the levy.

Gilmore said the levy helps pay the salaries of the three Service Department employees.

“It also buys salt and buys trucks and equipment,” she said. “When we do road repairs like crack sealing and hot patching, it pays for that. We just did a major culvert pipe replacement on one of our roads and it pays for the piping and gravel necessary to do that. Any road resurfacing projects we do, that’s the major source of funding.”

No projects have been on hold as a result of the need for more funds, but Gilmore said projects in the coming year would be affected if the levy were to not pass.

In the most recent collection year, the levy brought in $186,984. With the increase, it would bring in $322,042, according to township officials.

Gilmore said no elaborate campaign is planned this election season, but she didn’t rule out the use of a handout to residents to explain the need for the levy increase.

Should the levy not pass, Gilmore said the township would need to be back on the ballot in 2013.

“We would have lost a year of funding, so we’ll have to look at what our options are at that point,” she said. “I hope people will see the need for it. In the past we’ve adjusted it down when property values increased, and we run a pretty tight ship with the whole township and whole department.”

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