{"id":34270,"date":"2013-01-29T07:46:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T12:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=34270"},"modified":"2013-01-29T07:46:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T12:46:25","slug":"aquatic-center-levy-language-criticized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2013\/01\/29\/aquatic-center-levy-language-criticized\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquatic center levy language criticized"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert City Council unanimously approved placing a 1.2-mill, 25-year tax levy on the May primary ballot that would fund construction of a new aquatic center for the community during its regular meeting held Monday evening in Council Chambers.<\/p>\n

The levy was not without its critics, though, as local resident Jerry Mazur said he felt the city\u2019s current plan to use any excess funds left over from the center\u2019s construction for general parks improvements and maintenance, instead of just for the aquatic center, was a mistake (see editorial on this issue on the Opinion Page)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
City Council Health Service and Safety Committee Chair John Marshall gives a report on a meeting on nuisance buildings Monday evening. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think the voters are voting for a swimming complex,\u201d Mazur said, noting that private groups and individuals have already pledged at least $1.2 million to provide maintenance and capital projects. \u201cWhy would you need this pork?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Don Farmer took exception to the \u201cpork\u201d comment, noting that there \u201cmight not be a dime\u201d left from the levy after construction of the aquatic center is paid for. The mayor also added that he feels using any leftover money to maintain other city parks is appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe our community here supports our parks,\u201d the mayor said, adding, \u201cI feel it is a positive on the ballot to have our other parks included, along with the aquatics center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilman At-Large Stan Agler noted that, while he had some concerns about whether the aquatic center funding was \u201ctied down adequately,\u201d he feels any excess funding could also be used to pay down aquatic center debt and also for capital projects for the center.<\/p>\n

Fourth Ward Councilman Pete Weir did explain that City Council would control what that money is used for and would decide what would be an appropriate use for any excess funds.<\/p>\n

City Auditor Martha Balyeat said she felt using money from an aquatic center levy would be similar to the city\u2019s use of street improvement tax funds for administrative salaries, even though the Auditor of State\u2019s Office has approved such use.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal feeling is, if you\u2019re asking for money to build a swimming pool, if there is any excess, the excess should be used only for the swimming pool,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

City Council later unanimously approved placing the tax issue on the May primary ballot, but changes could still be made in the ballot language up until the February 6 filing deadline.<\/p>\n

Also Monday, City Council continued a discussion on nuisance buildings, with Council members reviewing preliminary legislation prepared on the topic. Another meeting of the Health Service and Safety Committee is planned prior to taking legislative action.<\/p>\n

Council also approved a then-and-now certificate, while Balyeat said department heads are beginning to work on the city\u2019s permanent budget for 2013, a copy of which should be available for a Finance Committee meeting scheduled for Monday, February 11.<\/p>\n

Property and Equipment Committee Chair Jeff Agler also requested a committee meeting related to a request from Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming related to legislation to continue with online auctions of excess and obsolete city equipment.<\/p>\n

Legislation was also prepared to rescind a Community Reinvestment Area agreement with the former Butler\u2019s Bakery, as well as a resolution to allow the city to participate in the latest round of Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) grant funding.<\/p>\n

Council further discussed lengthening members\u2019 terms to four years and resetting Ward boundaries to better reflect current population distribution, as well as the possible annexation of unannexed property within the city limits.<\/p>\n

Legislation was also prepared to allow for bidding on construction of a new concession stand at Smiley Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert City Council unanimously approved placing a 1.2-mill, 25-year tax levy on the May primary ballot that would fund construction of a new aquatic center for the community during its regular meeting held Monday evening in Council Chambers. The levy was not without its critics, though, as local resident Jerry Mazur […]<\/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-34270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 11:23:50","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\/34270","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=34270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}