BEAVERCREEK — Beavercreek voters said yes when asked to chip in additional funds for the city’s streets at the March 15 primary election.
As of press time Tuesday, March 15, voters electing to support the levy led the way at 53 percent, while 46 of voters were against the levy.
Issue 1 asked voters to approve a 2.6-mill renewal levy and an .8-mill addition. Upon approval, taxpayers will pay a little more than $100 per $100,000 of appraised property value annually. The five-year levy would will bring in about $4.4 million to the city each year.
“This continues the high-level, efficient street levy services that we’ve been providing for many, many years,” Beavercreek City Manager Mike Cornell said before the election took place. “Even with approval of this levy, we still remain the 23rd lowest of 24 communities in terms of overall cost of local government (in Greene and Montgomery counties).”
The levy funds “all aspects of street maintenance,” according to Cornell. The levy would will partially fund the city’s annual paving program; fund snow removal and ice control; roadway repairs and pothole patching; traffic signal operation and sign maintenance; pavement markings; roadside drainage and storm sewer maintenance; street sweeping, roadside mowing and landscape maintenance; and maintenance and replacement of fleet vehicles and equipment, according to city literature.
Cornell said the new-money request comes with “normal” increases in operation and repair costs.
“It does represent 69 percent of the revenue for the street levy fund,” he said.
The city has two other street levies that make up the remaining portion of that fund: a 2-mill levy that funds the physical “bricks and mortar” street repairs and a 1-mill levy that funds capital and operational expenses, according to Cornell.
