Geneva Township fire levy passes
The levy will used predominantly to pay the Geneva Fire Department for fire coverage.
'I'm happy as I can be. I want to thank all the township residents that voted for it,' Geneva Township Trustee Tim Mills said.
He said it is great that the township will continue to get fantastic service from the Geneva Fire Department.
The township reduced the levy to 1.75 mills after a two-mill levy failed three times, Mills said. He said the township decided to reduce the levy in hopes of providing a better chance at passage.
He said he is not sure why the levy failed three times, but thought maybe the .25 mill reduction may have helped this time.
The two-mill levy provided the township with some extra money to assist the Geneva Fire Department, but the new levy money will leave a couple thousand of dollars extra, Mills said.
He said he understood people don't want to pay taxes, but the coverage provided by the Geneva Fire Department goes beyond what the township could provide on its own.
Mills said the Geneva Fire Department provides a lot of extras as well. He said the department provides education opportunities through the schools, helped remove snow from roofs during the Thanksgiving weekend snow storm and even assist people who have locked themselves out of their vehicles.
Mills said the township would have had to reduce services if the levy had not passed. He said money that goes to other services, especially road maintenance, would have had to go to fire services.
In addition, the township would have had to buy fire trucks and turnout gear, Mills said. He also said the response time would have been a problem, as a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds.
County-wide, Ashtabula County Board of Elections Director John Mead said there were no issues.
'Everything went really well,' he said.
Mead said no issue on the ballot was close enough to trigger an automatic recount.
According to unofficial results, voter turnout was 13.7% for the election.
Mead was thankful for the people who came out to vote and for the poll workers, who were on the job this election, he said.
'We'll do it all again in November,' he said.
By Friday, the board of elections had 728 people vote early at its Jefferson office.
Mead said the board received 44 more early votes Saturday and 46 Sunday.
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