It is unusual for township trustees to visit each other’s meetings, but Oct. 1, Chester Township Trustee Ken Radtke attended the Auburn Township Trustees meeting to make a special request.
Editor’s Note: This story was corrected to reflect the health district’s 0.2-mill levy funds about one third of the health district’s operating budget, not one half, according to Ken Radtke.
It is unusual for township trustees to visit each other’s meetings, but Oct. 1, Chester Township Trustee Ken Radtke attended the Auburn Township Trustees meeting to make a special request.
Radtke, who also serves as chairman of the Geauga County Health District Advisory Board, asked trustees and residents to support the upcoming five-year, 0.2-mill health district renewal levy issue on the Nov. 6 ballot.
“It will cost only about $6 per $100,000 of property value, and for that, we get a lot of services,” Radtke said. “This levy supplies about one third of the health district’s operating budget.”
The trustee said besides monitoring and testing septic and sewer systems throughout the county, the health district provides vaccinations and immunizations, pregnancy testing, newborn home visits, school and senior services, tests for food and water safety, and many other vital services, especially in the rural communities.
“I just want to make the voters aware,” Radtke said. “This ballot issue is a mechanism that gives the voters an opportunity to voice their opinion.”
Auburn Trustee P.J. Cavanagh said in the past, the health district would assess each township, which often cost the communities tens of thousands of dollars. About 20 years ago, the district began asking for levies to fund the district.
“It’s in the Ohio Revised Code that we have (a county health district),” Cavanagh said, adding he believes levies are a better funding tool because the individual voters decide how much to provide.
“It’s had a pretty solid run. I hope it continues,” Cavanagh said.
Auburn trustees asked Radtke whether it is appropriate for townships to pass resolutions endorsing the upcoming levy.
“Chester trustees had that same discussion,” Radtke replied. “We asked our prosecutor, Sheila Salem, whether it’s appropriate and we’re waiting for clarification. In my opinion, it’s appropriate for a board to endorse it, if it is unanimous.”
“You’re pretty much speaking for all of us,” Auburn Trustee Mike Troyan added.
Auburn Trustee John Eberly recently attended a health district meeting and said he believes a levy is the fair way to go.
“You get more services for the money you pay,” he said. “Assessments are not a good deal. For what we were paying, we could have sent our residents to the Mayo Clinic. It was especially steep for those of us in the western tier (of townships). The number of people served in Auburn Township was not many, compared to what we paid in dollars. We’ve had a levy for 20 years. Why deviate from that?”
Trustees took no formal action, but all three gave vocal support of the levy.
In other discussion, Road Superintendent Emerick Gordon and Eberly said some homeowners were upset recently when the township replaced their concrete driveway aprons with asphalt during road resurfacing.
“Ninety-five percent of the driveways in our township are asphalt,” Eberly said, adding the township cannot afford to replace concrete aprons and county guidelines call for replacement with asphalt.
Gordon explained using asphalt makes it possible for road crews to keep the driveway entrance even with the new road surface, eliminating a big bump and possible car damage when people drive in.
Eberly recalled one man who dug up his new asphalt apron, only to realize he had made a mistake. He called the township and asked for it to be paved again.
“We had to say, ‘Sorry. We do it only once,’” Eberly said.
Radtke added, “In Chester, we had a street with a few homes that all had concrete drives. We had them sign a release and they managed it themselves. They paid for concrete and we paid them what the asphalt would have cost.”
Gordon said concrete aprons are likely to have a bump of up to four inches when a road is resurfaced. Using asphalt, road crews can smooth the asphalt apron to match the new road thickness.
In other business, trustees set the official Halloween trick-or-treating for Oct. 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.
