Voters in Avon and Avon Lake have until July 9 to register to vote in the Aug. 7 special elections in both communities.
The two cities are the only ones with issues on the ballot for the special election.
A pair of levies for the Fire and Police departments will be put before Avon voters, according to Finance Director Bill Logan.
The two five-year issues were last approved in 2006.
“The millage stays where it is,” Logan said. “There are no additional taxes involved here.”
The half-mill police levy is expected to cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 approximately $15.26 a year. The police levy, which was first approved in 1984, generates just less than $370,000 a year.
The fire levy, which is also a half-mill issue, would assess homeowners of $100,000 properties about $11.51 annually, according to Logan. The Fire Department levy is much newer, having been on the ballot since the city authorized a full-time department in 2003. It raises about $273,400 annually.
Tax revenue generated by both issues is used to purchase equipment and vehicles for both departments. None of the revenue produced by either levy goes to pay salaries, Logan said.
In Avon Lake, voters will decide issues including a 2-mill firefighter-paramedic levy expected to generate
$1.65 million a year for five years.
If the issue passes, owners of homes valued at $100,000 would pay $61.25 a year in taxes, which is a hike from the $38 they are paying now in annual taxes from a 1.25-mill levy.
The issue is a replacement levy, which City Council approved this spring rather than a renewal of the smaller issue, which was first approved in 1977 when Avon Lake was among the first area communities to offer paramedic services.
The 1.25-mill levy generated about $890,000 in 2011 and wasn’t seen as adequate to generate enough money for the paramedic fund’s expected budget of $1.5 million.
The issue pays salaries and benefits for eight of the department’s 25 firefighter-paramedics, as well as costs of ambulances and medical and safety equipment.
A replacement levy was considered unlikely earlier in the year before Council determined there was no other viable option for meeting the paramedic budget.
Avon Lake voters will also decide charter amendments that would grant executive session rights to the city’s Board of Municipal Utilities, and another that would prohibit the board from meeting on the same dates City Council meets.
Anyone wishing to vote in the special election in either city who is not registered to vote may do so 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the Lorain County Board of Elections offices at 1985 North Ridge Road, Sheffield Township. The board will have extended hours July 9, the final day to register, 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information on voter qualifications, visit www.loraincountyelections.com or call (440) 326-5900.
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.
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