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EDITORIAL
Two levies worth supporting
Yellow Springs voters should have no problem deciding
how to vote on the two Greene County issues appearing on the March 2 primary
ballot. Issue 6, which would provide funds for senior services, and Issue
7, the Greene County Children Services levy, are both vital issues that
voters in town and throughout Greene County should support.
Issue 6, a 0.8-mill, five-year replacement levy,
would generate $2.449 million annually for the Greene County Council on
Aging, a nonprofit organization that provides support and services to elderly
Greene County residents. Funds generated from the levy would make up 93
percent of the council’s budget, the organization reports. Most of
those funds would be used for the council’s Partners in Care program,
which is open to any Greene County resident 60 years and older who needs
assistance to continue living at home. According to the Council on Aging,
since 2000, 2,195 referrals have been received, and more than 1,400 have
received some form of assistance.
The levy would replace an existing levy that expires
at the end of the year. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 house
$28 a year, an increase of just over $4 since the levy was first approved
in 1999. Without the levy, the Council on Aging could not do its important
job.
A number of Yellow Springs residents have written
letters to this paper offering compelling reasons why villagers should support
Issue 6. They note that the levy funds much-needed services in Yellow Springs
through the Yellow Springs Senior Center and Friends Care Community. According
to local supporters, the levy is the largest source of funding for senior
citizen services in the community, providing $125,000 a year for local programs.
The levy provides funds for the Senior Center’s
transportation program, which served 61 people in 2003; the center’s
homemaker program, which served 27 local residents last year and supported
11 homemakers who helped elderly villagers; and the center’s support
staff. The levy also supports Friends Care’s Home Assistant Program,
which, according to levy supporters, worked with 225 local seniors and caregivers
in 2003 and provided funding for the program’s coordinator, Andrée
Bognár. The program connects Yellow Springs seniors with the Partners
in Care program, which helped 58 villagers remain in their homes last year.
This levy is making a difference in Yellow Springs.
The other county levy on the ballot is Issue 7,
a 1-mill, five-year replacement levy for the Greene County Children Services
Board, a county agency that provides care, protection and placement of abused,
neglected and dependent Greene County children. It would cost the owner
of a $100,000 house $35 a year.
The replacement levy would generate approximately
$3.061 million a year beginning in 2005. Those funds make up about 34 percent
of the agency’s budget. The agency receives 49 percent of its budget
from the federal government. But the levy is even more important because
local funds help the agency secure federal funds. “Without our local
dollars, we would not be able to draw down federal dollars,” said
Rhonda Reagh, the Children Services director.
The Children Services Board offers services through
five programs: family assessment, family support, group homes, foster care
and adoption services. According to a fact sheet on the levy, last year
the agency served 3,326 children and 1,636 families. In 2003, the agency
also took custody of 91 children and completed 12 adoptions. Last year,
the agency received 20 referrals from Yellow Springs, Ms. Reagh said. The
agency works with the Yellow Springs Police Department, the schools and
the Community Children’s Center, she said. Families and children in
the agency’s programs may be assessed by Yellow Springs psychologists
or may receive medical assistance from the Wright State Family Medical Center.
While the senior services levy and the Children
Services levy serve distinct communities in Greene County, they have at
least one thing in common: they help county agencies make life better for
Greene County and Yellow Springs residents. The levies will not cost property
owners much, but the programs provided by the Council on Aging and the Children
Services Board have a real and lasting impact.
—Robert Mihalek
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