Liberty Twp. seeking fire levy renewal

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The Liberty Township Board of Trustees is requesting the renewal of an existing tax levy to continue to provide for fire and EMS services in the community. During its meeting on Tuesday, the trustees approved a resolution establishing the language that is to be submitted to the Delaware County Board of Elections for inclusion on the November ballot.

The levy, which was originally passed in 2013 and was renewed in November 2017, is for a rate of 5.6 mills and would be first collected in 2024.

According to the language for the resolution, the tax is for the purpose of “providing and maintaining fire apparatus, appliances, buildings or sites therefor, or sources of water supply and materials therefor, or the establishment and maintenance of lines of fire alarm telegraph, or the payment of firefighting companies or permanent, part-time, or volunteer firefighting, emergency medical service, administrative, or communications personnel to operate the same,” among other purposes.

Liberty Township Trustee Bryan Newell told The Gazette it’s important for residents to understand the levy is a renewal and everyone’s portions paid to the levy will be reduced with the renewal as a result of more residents now paying into the pool.

“We will also maintain the portion of the levy that the state contributes because we have run the same levy for so long we are grandfathered into receiving that money even though the state no longer provides that subsidy for new levies,” Newell added. “This is all possible because of our fiscally responsible management of levy dollars and the other funding we bring in through soft billing, grants, and our EMS partnership with the county.”

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.

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