Austintown park levy, two road levies officially on November ballot

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

Trustees took the last step to get three levies on the November ballot.

Township officials maintain those three levies have lost millage due to inflation through the years. Trustees unanimously approved putting them on the ballot.

Township residents will have a 0.8-mill park levy in front of them this November. An addition of 0.4-mill would provide an additional $200,000 annually, and Austintown Parks supervisor Todd Shaffer has said that if approved, he would pursue a new playground project estimated at $57,000.

The two road levies would be for 1 mill and 1.5-mills. Mike Dockry, township administrator and road superintendent, has said that the additional 0.5 mill and 1 mill would bring in an additional $850,000 annually for road work, or equal to eight miles of paving.

Owners of a $100,000 home currently pay $14 a year for the park levy and $31 combined for the two road levies each year. If approved, the park levy would then cost those same homeowners $28 a year while the road levies would then cost those homeowners $83 a year.

Dockry provided The Vindicator with a list of the tentative roads to be paved this year, totaling 40,366 feet of paving to cost about $750,000. Dockry said that work usually is approved once Boardman approves its paving program in early July. Austintown participates in a joint paving program with Boardman and Canfield townships.

“If the bid comes in higher than estimated, then we’re going to have to make some tough decisions,” Dockry said of the tentative road list.

Trustee Jim Davis said that list is put together based on an estimate of what work was done last year.

“Once we get the bids in, we can look at adding additional roads if there is additional funding,” Davis said.