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Township may try shorter fire levy
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - May 13, 2009)
Township may try shorter fire levy
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Chardon Township residents are likely to see a three-year levy for fire and rescue services on the November ballot.
Trustees were unanimous last week in deciding that a three-year levy may be more palatable for residents, considering the economic climate.
The three-year term would be a change from what voters were asked to approve in November 2007, when trustees placed a 3.5-mill continuing levy on the ballot. Voters turned down that issue, 1,707-1,125.
Trustee Michael Brown said he investigated three-year and five-year levies as possibilities for providing money for the township's contract with the Chardon Fire Department.
With either one, he said, he did not consider the revenue from an ambulance-billing program, because it has traditionally fallen short of projections. The township was forced to provide $50,000 from the general fund last year to cover the cost of the service. Mr. Brown said the township averages about $38,000 a year from the ambulance billing.
He said counting on the ambulance billing was much like trying to figure your annual income but counting on winning $5,000 from a lottery.
If the township went with a 2.75-mill, three-year levy, Mr. Brown said, it would show only a $15,800 annual deficit. With a 2.5-mill, three-year levy, he said, the deficit would amount to $114,000. A 3-mill, five-year levy would provide a little cushion for the township, he said, and would provide a $56,000 surplus over the five-year life.
But reducing the five-year levy to 2.75 mills would produce another deficit of about $191,000 over that same time, he said.
He said each mill provides about $153,000 annually for the township.
Mr. Brown said he looked at the numbers after meeting with fire department officials and officials from the City of Chardon and Claridon Township, other communities served by the Chardon Fire Department.
He said that meeting indicated that the fire department was attempting to reduce its costs, including no increase in staffing at this time.
In addition, Mr. Brown said, the department seeks $80,000 a year from each community to cover its expenses for replacement of large equipment. Mr. Brown said the township may ask the department to decrease that commitment until economic conditions improve.
Trustee Steven Borawski said he understands the need for the capital-improvement funds, considering that an ambulance can cost as much as $220,000.
Mr. Brown said the Chardon Fire Department has one of the lower pay scales of any department in Geauga County.
Mr. Borawski said he would agree with 2.75-mill levy for three years.
Trustee Chairman Charles Strazinsky said he also could "totally agree" with a three-year term for the next levy. He said much of the blame for the defeat of the last levy was a flier filled with misleading and erroneous information put out by a former trustee before the vote.
Mr. Brown said he also has asked the fire department to consider allowing a township representative to sit on the fire department's board of trustees.
"We're investors in this corporation, so it makes sense to be kept up to speed," he said.
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