ThisWeek CW 02/05/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/02/02/township-places-fire-levy-on-may-ballot.html
Madison Township will seek voter approval in May of a 5.25-mill fire levy to build a new fire station on land near Blacklick Estates.
Township trustees unanimously approved certification of the fire levy at their Jan. 21 meeting. If approved, the levy is anticipated to cost residents about $180 a year per $100,000 worth of property valuation.
Chief Robert Bates believes it would generate enough funds to build and maintain the new station and to replace aging equipment at the township’s existing two stations for at least another eight years.
The new station, which is estimated to cost $3.6 million to construct, could be built at 3232 Noe Bixby Road. An abandoned apartment complex there was torn down in 2013 as part of the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp. land bank program.
According to the agreement with the land bank, once the township has an approved use for the land, the land bank will sign it back over to the township at no cost.
“If this works out, it will be such a win for the community. We figure this is about 50 cents a day for taxable property of $100,000,” Trustee Victor Paini said.
“The new facility will add another medic at the north end of town, which is crucial because right now, when we send our Hamilton Road or Canal Winchester medic to Blacklick Estates, it can be time-consuming, especially getting over the bridge at rush hour. This would significantly decrease response time and should also cut down on mutual aid coming from other departments.”
Currently, the department has two medics covering the approximately 25 square miles that make up the township’s coverage area.
According to Bates, the number of runs has nearly doubled since the last time the department asked for a levy in 2002.
“Last year, we wound up with 6,285 incident runs compared to 2004, where we responded to 4,242,” he said. “We haven’t added any capacity in the 14 years I’ve been with the department.
“That figure does not include the nearly 900 runs our mutual-aid partners ran for us last year,” he said. “We really think, with our projections, that we won’t need to come back to the taxpayers for eight more years if this is successful. The last levy we went out for was in 2002, and like this levy, we promised not to come back for at least eight years, and here we are just now coming back.”
Bates said that besides the additional strains and expenditures from increased runs, the department is suffering from cuts in state funding it used to receive.
“This will restock our budget carryover, which is important because we get our tax settlements only three times a year: spring, summer and fall,” he said. “So we have to stretch from November to March, and we’ve been eating into that carryover over the years, in part due to changes in state funding and in part due to economic development incentive agreements.
“Altogether, we’ve been losing about $1.8 million over the past couple of years, which adds up quick.”
Trustee Gary McDonald, who lives in Blacklick Estates, said he’s heard from neighbors who wonder why they pay taxes to Madison Township when they see Columbus fire personnel responding so often to their calls.
“I think this will be a huge benefit to our residents,” McDonald said. “Knowing that they have the best possible safety services closer to them … which may also provide discounts to their insurance premiums.”
However, both McDonald and Paini said they recognize that times are tough for many families, and that it will be up to the voters to decide the levy’s fate.
“We’ve hit our tipping point, possibly already passed the tipping point, so we have to do something,” Paini said. “But in a tight economy like this, I know it might be hard for people, so it’ll be up to the voters to decide if this investment is worth it to them.”