By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford County Health District levy failed in its bid for additional monies during Tuesday’s General Election.
The five-year .85-mill levy was defeated soundly with 5,571 votes against the levy, and 3,286 votes for the levy.
County Prosecutor Matt Crall explained what options the county health district and townships will have moving forward.
“The way the Health District is funded the city of Bucyrus has a contract to pay a portion of the Health District Costs, and the townships are currently assessed through their real estate taxes. Their portion as determined by state formula, if there was a levy that would change that,” Crall said. “So their options would be to continue the path that they are currently on, seek another levy, and there is also a third option of combining with other health districts. Right now Galion has a City Health District which could combine as the city of Bucyrus did, and there are also provisions in the law that allows county health districts to merge, and some people at the state level encourage that.
“That isn’t entirely up to me. It is up to the District Advisory Committee, the County Commissioners, city officials. But it will take a lot of work together to figure out how to proceed.”
Had the levy passed it would have provided an estimated annual revenue of $445,215.98 for the townships and City of Bucyrus.
Currently, the health district is subsidized by the townships and the City of Bucyrus. However, the townships are feeling the strain of paying for the health district while also trying to maintain local services on a reduced budget.