Mathews to place emergency levy on Nov. ballot

July 19, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

VIENNA

Mathews Board of Education unanimously approved placing a five-year emergency levy on the Nov. 6 ballot that would raise $680,000 each of the five years, if approved.

The amount of the levy is yet to be determined by the Trumbull County auditor, but district Treasurer Brian Stidham said he believes it will be 4 to 5 mills.

Superintendent Lewis Lowery said the district’s decision this summer to spend $140,000 on repairs to its septic system demanded by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was just one of the expenditures that have necessitated submitting the levy to the voters.

“We have many structural needs in this district, such as roofing for all three buildings and parking-lot repairs,” Lowery said. “Spending the money on the [septic] system means we have less to spend on other needs.”

Lowery had hoped to convince the OEPA not to impose the repairs because the system is to be replaced by a Trumbull County sewer line extension in two years, but the agency refused.

Last month, a spokesman described pollution emanating from the system as “an unsafe and unsanitary situation that cannot continue.”

Stidham, who released the district’s five-year financial forecast through 2017 Wednesday, said a levy approval is the only way Mathews can maintain a positive fund balance the next five years. If approved, the school district could begin collecting revenue from the levy next year.

Without the additional revenue, the district will face more than a $3 million deficit by the end of fiscal year 2017, according to Stidham’s projections.

The vote Wednesday was the first of two required by state law. The board will conduct the second vote in a special meeting July 26.