By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Voters in Crawford County apparently had no qualms about signing up again for another five years of the 2.75-mils Criminal Justice System Services levy. In its first time on the ballot for renewal, the levy had the support of more than 62 percent of the voters.
The levy passed in the unofficial count, 7,360 to 4,459, and that was good news for Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent who saw it as tacit approval of what his office and deputies are doing.
“I hope so, I mean we’re here to serve the people. It looks like we’ve got a lot of support here tonight,” Kent said. “It’s going to keep us at the same levels as 2009, but it’s going to allow us to stay proactive on a lot of the crime.”
The levy provides $1.4 million of the Sheriff’s Office annual budget of $2.3 million. Although Kent and the County Commissioners did not conduct an in-depth campaign for the renewal, the first-term sheriff made it clear keeping the levy on the books was critical to his department continuing to make headway.
“Well I don’t know that we’re catching up, but we’re certainly taking a proactive approach. We’re catching people now doing the crime in progress instead of being reactive and that’s how I want to stay,” Kent said. “We’re results driven out there and I want to continue to stay that way.”
Three township levies were also on the ballot and all passed even more convincingly than the Criminal Justice System Services levy. A 1.0-mil renewal levy in Bucyrus Township passed 249 to 96. A 1.0-mil replacement levy in Cranberry Township passed 398 to 84; and a 3.0-mil renewal levy in Jefferson Township passed 434 to 138.
The complete unofficial tally by the Crawford County Board of Elections for the entire ballot in Crawford County can be found here on www.crawfordcountynow.com on the Local News page and the Election News page.