Austintown asks residents for additional revenue

June 28, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Township residents will be asked to pay additional money to fix roads and bolster police department operations in November.

Trustees on Monday agreed to put these levies on the general-election ballot: a five-year, 1-mill additional levy for road repairs, and a 1-mill additional police levy for maintenance of police department motor vehicles, equipment and personnel for a continuous period of time.

Ken Carano, trustee chairman, said both levies will help make up for a loss of state funding – an issue all Ohio cities and townships are facing.

Administrator Mike Dockry said Austintown already has four continuous police levies generating $4.3 million annually and two five-year road levies generating $1.1 million.

Each levy will generate $614,966 annually, Dockry said. The owner of a $100,000 home will pay an additional $35 per levy per year.

“Nobody likes levies, and nobody wants to pay taxes,” Carano said. “I tell everybody every time someone asks me, ‘I can cut your taxes in half. Just tell me what [service] you don’t want because the taxes are here to pay for those expenses and things that are happening.’”

Carano encouraged residents who have questions to contact one of the trustees or the administrator to get the answers.

In other business, Jim Henshaw, senior center director, announced the center is “rapidly approaching” the 2,000-member mark.

“I can’t believe the amount of growth we’ve been seeing,” he said.

In February, Henshaw said the center broke the 1,800-member mark.