{"id":198450,"date":"2025-10-18T00:31:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=198450"},"modified":"2025-10-19T20:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:59:05","slug":"council-on-aging-has-two-replacement-levies-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/10\/18\/council-on-aging-has-two-replacement-levies-on-the-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"COA has a pair of levies on the ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just two of the 15 issues on the November 4 ballot in Van Wert County are countywide issues, and both are senior citizen levies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council on Aging has placed a pair of replacement levies on the fall ballot \u2013 a .25 mill levy and a .20 mill levy, with Delphos Senior Citizens receiving 16 percent of the .20 mill levy.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Council on Aging Executive Director Kevin Matthews lists the many services offered by the agency. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Appearing at this week\u2019s Meet the Candidates event, sponsored by the Van Wert Chamber of Commerce, COA Executive Director Kevin Matthews noted the private, non-profit agency is in its 50th<\/sup> year and he said it was originally funded through the Older Americans Act. However, those funds ceased within a couple of years, meaning a new source of revenue was needed to continue offering services to older adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the agency\u2019s current annual budget is approximately $525,000 but this year the current levy brought in $303,000, all while the COA deals witn inflation and increased needs. Overall, about 60 percent of COA\u2019s budget comes from levy dollars, with the remaining amount generated via fundraisers and contributions. The Council on Aging does not receive any funding from the county or the city and no direct funding from the state or federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert County\u2019s population totals approximately 28,000 and just under 8,000 are senior citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of those people come to us, they need transportation services, we operate the senior center, we have chore services in the home, outside chore services and Medicare assistance,\u201d Matthews explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t charge for services and a lot of people ask why we don\u2019t charge \u2013 if we put in place a fee for services, it really just excludes the primary group of people that we assist, which are just seniors that are struggling to get by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Transportation is the biggest need in the community, according to Matthews, and he said the COA transports seniors up to 50 miles for appointments, with some of the levies funds going toward that service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $16 annually and $32 annually for the owner of a $200,000 house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good value,\u201d Matthews stated. \u201cIf you look across the state, 78 counties have senior citizen levies and this county is the second lowest in the State of Ohio per capita of people. If you look at some of the neighboring counties \u2013 Paulding has a 1-mill levy, Williams County has a 1.75 mill levy, Putnam County has a 1-mill levy, Auglaize has a .85 mill levy, so you\u2019re getting good value for the services they\u2019re getting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews added than anyone 60 or older in the county benefits from the levy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Just two of the 15 issues on the November 4 ballot in Van Wert County are countywide issues, and both are senior citizen levies. The Council on Aging has placed a pair of replacement levies on the fall ballot \u2013 a .25 mill levy and a .20 mill levy, with Delphos Senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-01 13:51:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198450"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198537,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198450\/revisions\/198537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}