Council on Aging levies going on ballot

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Board of Commissioners Thursday approved resolutions to place levies critical to the future of the County Council on Aging on the November ballot.

The commissioners approved resolutions that would put two replacement tax issues – one an 0.2-mill levy and the other an 0.25-mill levy. The levies would replace current tax issues of the same millage that are due to expire in the coming months.

The decision was made to replace the current levies, which bring in approximately $192,000 a year, so that more tax revenues could be generated to pay for rising costs and increased use of the Council on Aging facility and services, Executive Director Cindy Wood said.

Without the revenues from the levies, Wood said, the agency would have to close its doors. “I’ve told people, ‘look, if these levies fail, we close,’” she has noted, adding that, unlike many people’s perception, the Council is not a county agency and receives no funding from the commissioners.

Wood has said the Council on Aging has done everything it can to cut costs since she became director three years ago. “Two months after I took this job, we started hacking away,” she has said, including cutting the staff from 12 people to seven.

The problem is state and federal budget cuts are decreasing the money the Council on Aging needs to provide needed services in the community. That’s especially crucial with the Baby Boomer generation now becoming senior citizens.

Both of the original levies have been on the books for more than a decade. The 0.2-mill levy was first passed in November 1987, and has been renewed every five years since then, with a replacement levy approved in 2006. The 0.25-mill levy was first passed in November 1997 and has been renewed twice.

Getting seniors out to vote will likely be critical, both the commissioners and Wood feel, since they’re the ones who benefit from the services provided by the Council on Aging. That could be a problem, since there isn’t all that much on the November ballot that would bring voters out in large numbers.

Now that the commissioners have approved placing the issues on the ballot, County Auditor Nancy Dixon will now have to certify the amount generated by the replacement issues prior to them going to the Van Wert County Board of Elections.

Also Thursday, the commissioners also discussed an energy-saving project contemplated for the Common Pleas Courthouse and other county offices, including the Sheriff’s Department and County Correctional Facility.

The commissioners are planning to select one of two firms to do the energy-saving portion of a project that also calls for renovating the Common Pleas Courthouse. That decision could come as soon as this coming Tuesday.