Fire department levy placed on November ballot

By Lauren Heaton

During a special meeting on Aug. 24, the Miami Township trustees unanimously agreed to officially place on the Nov. 8 ballot the tax levy that generates funds for the Township fire department.

The five-year, 3.8-mill levy renewal would generate $443,000 a year for the fire department. A homeowner whose property is appraised at $100,000 would pay $380 a year.

Voters will decide whether they want to support an increase in revenue for Miami Township Fire-Rescue, which will help the department fulfill the goals in its 10-year strategic plan.

The trustees held the special meeting because the resolution placing the levy on the ballot had to be turned into the Greene County Board of Elections by Aug. 25.

For the past five years, the fire department has been operating on a 3.8 mill levy, which generated approximately $350,000 a year. Both fire department personnel and the trustees agreed that an increase in the budget was necessary in order to continue to provide local residents the services they have come to rely on.

Fire department personnel have said that an increased budget would allow MTFR to spend about $39,000 a year for better EMS coverage and higher recruitment and retention benefits for volunteers and staff, as well as $23,000 to hire a new full-time support staff member. The strategic plan also allocated $44,600 a year for the purchase of a used quint or other fire engine to replace one in the department’s fleet.

The trustees said at a meeting in August that virtually all of the personnel support mentioned in the plan would be covered by funds from a renewed levy, and that the only part of the goals in the strategic plan that was significantly reduced was funds to replace MTFR apparatus. The trustees said that the department did not need more vehicles than it could man, and in the case of concurrent emergencies, MTFR could rely on mutual aid for assistance.

The MTFR strategic planning team introduced a strategic plan at the beginning of the year based on a 4.2-mill levy, which would have generated $479,000 a year. The trustees, however, said that they could support the plan with a slightly lower budget, and in July, both the trustees and the department agreed on the 3.8-millage rate.