Wednesday, August 18, 1999
Mount Healthy asking for lower levy for fire service
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MOUNT HEALTHY — Residents will be asked to approve a five-year safety levy in November that would lower taxes and pay for fire service in the city.
Residents now pay 2.5 mills to help fund the service, which includes the salaries of part-time firefighters and purchase of a firetruck.
The replacement safety levy would lower the amount to 2 mills. City officials say the higher millage, voted on five years ago, is no longer needed and was sought to help pay for a new firetruck.
The replacement levy, if approved, would generate about $118,000 a year. The current levy generates about $148,000 a year. The replacement levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $70 a year, compared with the current levy that costs the same homeowner $87.50 a year.
“The original levy was designed to buy equipment and pay part-time personnel,” city Safety-Service Director Tim McInerney said. “We don't need to buy another fire engine. The bulk of the levy last time paid for that.”
The part-time firefighters are essential to staffing the fire station 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, both Mr. McInerney and Fire Chief Tom Harris said. There are not enough volunteers to have four fire fighters on station during those hours.
“It pays for four people to be on station during the week,” Chief Harris said. “Evenings and weekends are covered by volunteers.”
The 2.5-mill safety levy passed easily in 1995. Mr. McInerney said officials will begin forming a committee soon to start the campaign.
The levy would continue to pay the part-time firefighters — who are paid from $6.50 to $11 an hour — and eventually purchase a new ambulance for the fire department.
Mr. McInerney and Chief Harris said the ambulance dates to 1988; vehicles should be replaced every eight to 10 years, he said.
But keeping the part-timers on duty is paramount.
“We want to be able to keep our station open,” Mr. McInerney said. “It's good for us to have part-timers on station because they also do a lot of educational programs. And they coordinate with the volunteers to make sure the equipment works.”
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