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Three big Trumbull County renewal levies all get approvals
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The way the renewal levy for the Trumbull County Board of Mental Health and Recovery was displayed on the ballot caused frustration for the mental health board, but officials spent additional advertising money and deployed extra personnel on Election Day to help voters who may have had trouble finding the measure on the ballot.
In the end, the levy that provides much of the funding for mental-health programs and treatment programs for drug- and alcohol abuse, was approved 62 percent to 38 percent in complete but unofficial voting.
The approval ensures that the $3.3 million in annual funding the levy provides will continue.
April Caraway, executive director, said the board spent extra money on television and newspaper advertisements, sent personnel to 20 of the largest voting precincts in the county with signs showing them how to find the issue on the ballot, and sent postcards to voters in several of the larger communities.
The board discovered about a month ago that a “header” that identified the levy as being for Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery was not there, as it was for two other countywide renewal levies.
At first, it seemed the problem might doom the chances of getting approval for the 1-mill levy, Caraway said.
Without the header, she feared people might not read far enough to understand what the measure was for and just vote no.
CHILDREN SERVICES LEVY ALSO PASSES
Another countywide levy also passed Tuesday — the 0.8-mill, 10-year renewal for Trumbull County Children Services. Voters approved it 69 percent to 31 percent. It raises $2.7 million annually.
Children Services underwent several investigations — administrative and criminal — and made substantial changes after a child was raped by her biological parents during a visit at the agency offices in 2011.
The current executive director, Tim Schaffner, said he has provided the public with large amounts of data about the agency’s progress and areas where it needs to improve since he became director in April 2012.
The agency works with abused and neglected children and their families.
CAREER CENTER LEVY ALSO APPROVED
Another levy that was nearly countwide was the Trumbull Career and Technical Center’s 2.4-mill, 10-year renewal, which passed by 65 percent. It raises $6,029,023 annually to serve about 1,000 students from 19 school districts through career and technical programs.
One Trumbull County district not voting on the levy is Howland, which sends its students to the Ashtabula County Technical & Career Campus in Jefferson.