Senior-services levy renewed

Staff report

WARREN

Trumbull County voters overwhelmingly decided to continue the services provided through the four-year-old Trumbull County senior-citizen services levy, which raises $2.3 million annually, for another five years.

Paul Heltzel, Trumbull County commissioner, said the services provided by the levy have become important to the county’s large senior-citizen population because they help senior citizens stay independent enough to remain in their homes.

The 0.75-mill levy pays for a variety of services for people age 60 and over such as transportation, home-delivered meals, chore services and a senior neighboring program at the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office that provides grass cutting and snow shoveling.

Seniors especially appreciate the $1.50 to $2 rides and prescription-drug assistance, Heltzel noted.

Two additional levies that passed Tuesday were the 1.9-mill continuing Hubbard Public Library levy and the 3.75-mill Lakeview schools levy.

Library officials said passage of the levy would allow funding for the library to become stable, hours to be restored, the materials budget to be increased, children’s programming to be restored to former levels, home-bound service extended, and public access computers made current.

In Liberty, the township’s 2-mill, additional, 5-year capital-improvement levy was failing at press time. It would have funded infrastructure improvements such as roads and sewers.