Two road levies likely to be on November ballot for Litchfield Township

LITCHFIELD TWP. — The Litchfield Township trustees adopted two resolutions to put a renewal and an additional levy for roads on the November ballot during their meeting Monday. The first is a 1-mill renewal levy that has been on the books since the late 1990s, Trustee Mike Pope said. This is a five-year levy that brings in $65,800. This amount of funding is inadequate to properly take care of the roads, Pope said. Lately, the township has not been able to do much ditch work and has been using older equipment that needs more maintenance. Also, over the past few years the township has fallen behind on sealing roads, which makes them deteriorate faster. "We've been really getting every penny out of our nickel that we've spent so far," he said. "With inflation and everything else, the cost of everything, we're not keeping up. I mean, if I could purchase stuff (with) 1996 or '97 prices, with that levy when it was first put on, I would be all right." Pope said Yost Road was recently put out to bid and came in as a $510,000 paving project. "You could see where $65,000 doesn't go real far," he said. "That was Yost Road. That was to do 2.4 miles of road, and we take care of 19.2 miles of roads in the township." The 2-mill additional levy is intended to support the renewal levy. It would raise $203,200 and would also last five years. This funding will be used by the road department for road repair, resurfacing, snow plowing, salt and more, Pope said. The next step is for the levies to be submitted to the Board of Elections. This must be done 90 days before election, so the deadline for the November election is Aug. 10 at 4 p.m. "We're going to ask the township residents if they would pass it," Pope said. "If it passes then we'll be able to keep good roads in the township, which helps improve the property values. If not, we'll just have to do with what we got, what we can work with. I mean we can't just print money." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.