After school levy defeat, South Range contemplates next move

NORTH LIMA

South Range school district will take the next few months to decide whether to put a levy in front of voters again to help fill a projected $700,000 deficit in two years.

Superintendent Dennis Dunham said the district will make a decision by Jan. 1 on whether to put the matter on the ballot in May.

“We knew it would be a challenge for us just based on the last election,” Dunham said. “I think everything is on the table. There are certain things that I’m not, would not be willing to do in terms of being looked at as spiteful. We’re going to do things that are reasonable, that we have to for us to balance our budget in 2017.”

Voters in Green and Beaver townships defeated the matter 1,659 to 1,067, 60 percent against the levy, according to unofficial vote totals from the Mahoning County Board of Elections. Voters rejected a 10-year, 3.9-mill operating levy that was set to generate $707,500 annually for the district. It would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home $136.50 a year.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.