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Berlin Township voters reject levy for new firetruck by 1 vote
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Berlin Township officials know “every vote counts” isn’t just an old saying.
Voters rejected the township’s 2-mill, additional levy for a new firetruck by one vote: 213 to 212.
The levy lost 212 to 211 when ballots were counted May 4, the date of the primary election.
Five township residents cast provisional ballots, which the Mahoning County Board of Elections finished counting Thursday.
Of the five, one voted in favor of the levy, one against it, and three voted on other issues and/or candidates but not on the township fire-tax measure, said Joyce Kale-Pesta, the board’s deputy director.
The levy’s margin of defeat was three-tenths of one percent, 50.18 percent against and 49.88 percent in favor.
The board will do a hand recount of all ballots cast on the issue, Kale-Pesta said. Issues that pass or fail by one-half of one percent or less are subject to automatic recounts.
The board will meet at 8 a.m. Monday to certify the results of the May 4 primary and schedule the Berlin recount, Kale-Pesta said. The recount will take place within 10 days of Monday’s meeting, she said.
The levy was to raise $87,535 annually for five years, or $437,675 over that time, to pay all but about $50,000 of the cost of a new water-pumper firetruck.
The remaining cost would come from the fire department’s operating budget. The department’s only pumper truck is 25 years old and in need of repair work, Berlin Township trustees say.
If the recount doesn’t change the outcome of the vote, the fire-tax levy will be back on the ballot in November, trustees say.
Provisional ballots are cast by those who move into a precinct or fail to change their voter registration location within 30 days of an election or are unable to provide proper identification when voting and are later able to do so at the elections board.