Oct. 9—KINGSVILLE — Residents will vote on a levy increase for the Kingsville Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services.
If approved, the levy would increase the current levy from $2.5 to $4 million, generating an estimated $174,000 per year.
The levy would last five years and charge a homeowner $140 for every $100,000 of property value.
The current $2.5 million levy raises about $85,000 annually and expires in 2025.
If passed, tax money from the new levy would be collected in 2025 and distributed to the municipality starting in 2026.
Jim Branch, chairman of the Kingsville Township Trustees, said the levy will only apply to Kingsville.
“We tried the Northeast Ohio Fire District,” he said. “We were part of that and we tried to pass the levy twice as part of the fire district — with Monroe Township and Sheffield Township.”
Branch said the city pulled out of the fire district.
“We were told by a number of residents that they did not want to be part of the fire station,” he said. “By voting against the levy twice, we were told they didn’t want to be part of the fire district. So some of them told us, ‘We’d rather just pay this money to Kingsville Township.'”
Branch said the money from the levy would be spent on purchasing vehicles.
“Our newest vehicle will soon be 10 years old,” he said. “We really need to look at how we’re going to replace these vehicles and keep them up to date.”
The newest vehicle is an ambulance from 2015. The newest fire truck that the municipality owns was purchased second-hand and dates from 2008.
Branch said the backup ambulance and fire truck are from 2003 and 1999, respectively.
The council would also use the money to make improvements to buildings and staff, he said.
“We currently have a 16-hour part-time workforce,” he says. “We always employ two part-time people from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. We would like to expand that to 24 hours. We would like to cover that time slot from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.”
Branch said the fire department will still have only a few full-time employees.
“I don’t think it’s feasible for us as a small fire department to have too many full-time staff unless we’re talking about chief or positions like that,” he said.
