AW To Place Half Percent Income Tax On November Ballot
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
A week after the Anthony Wayne Schools’ 3.3-mill emergency levy failed in a special election, the board of education voted to place a five-year, 0.5 percent earned income tax on the November ballot.
A 0.5 percent earned income tax would raise about $3.4 million, said treasurer Kerri Johnson. If it passes in November, employees who live in the district would see the .5 percent of earned income deducted from their paychecks starting in January 2009.
The earned income tax was proposed by board member Ron Disher, who believes the tax would be more palatable to those living on a fixed income.
However, by Tuesday morning, Johnson had received negative e-mails from residents opposed to the income tax – or any tax. A property tax has failed in three consecutive elections, she said.
“I don’t think people realize the cuts we’ve made. We haven’t found a penny since I got here. Everything has been created through reductions,” Johnson said.
Superintendent Dr. John Granger said 18 of the 19 positions vacated due to resignations and retirements this year will not be filled. In the past two years, a total of 52 employees have left, including 33 teachers. Only one position – band instructor – was filled.
Dr. Jim Fritz, director of curriculum, outlined for the board how teachers and specialists within the school district will be reassigned in order to balance out classroom sizes and fill vacated teaching positions.
As parents and children were registering at Whitehouse Primary School on Tuesday, Kelley McMurtrie was hanging posters on her bulletin board in room 310. After spending more than eight years as a reading intervention specialist, McMurtrie was reassigned to a fourth-grade teaching position.
“I always wanted to be in a classroom, so for me, this is a blessing,” she said, adding that her class list will include several of the students she’s tutored since second grade.
The primary schools will lose all math and reading intervention specialists, most of whom will be taking on classroom assignments like McMurtrie.
“We’ve cut $2.9 million in spending – mainly because we have 52 less people than we did two years ago,” Granger said. “We’ve reached the point in reducing services to the children.”
Those services will also be strained, Fritz said, because the district will have an anticipated net gain of 160 students this year, boosting classroom sizes to 26 at the primary schools.
“When there are three or four more students in the classroom, teachers will be spending less time with each student,” Fritz said. “We hear about losing teachers, but we’ve lost teachers, cooks, maintenance people and teacher’s aides – that does affect the quality of the district.”
The board will meet at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 19 to pass another resolution for the Lucas County Board of Elections to place the tax on the ballot.
Sheriff James Telb Discusses Monclova Township Safety
BY KRISTEN SCHWEITZER — MIRROR REPORTER
Sheriff James Telb addressed the Monclova board of trustees at its August 6 meeting concerning the Lucas County sheriff’s patrol of the township.
“As the township has grown over the years we haven’t really increased patrol – crime has actually gone down in the township,” Telb said.
Currently, if a citizen wants to meet with an officer, he or she must call one of several numbers in order to get an officer to come to the substation in the township; otherwise, the substation is not staffed.
“We want the vehicle and the officer in the township, but we don’t have that officer sitting,” Telb said.
The township, which does not have its own police division, relies on the Lucas County sheriff for safety.
The state of Ohio gives the country sheriff the full police jurisdiction in all the municipalities, villages and townships within Lucas County.
Gary Kuns, township trustee, discussed the possibility of assigning an additional full-time officer to the township.
Telb said he feels the township is in good shape now with the amount of patrol, but as more commercial areas develop, the more crime might rise.
Kuns said he wants residents to inform him if they feel they are not getting adequate service from the sheriff.
“The most important thing that I want to hear and see is how well we can make our cooperative efforts work,” Kuns said.
Also at the meeting, the trustees:
• Heard Gary Kuns Jr., zoning commission chair, discuss how the land use plan was still in need of changes.
• Approved funds to send a Monclova firefighter to an annual emergency apparatus symposium at the Ohio Fire Academy.
• Approved a contract with Toledo Edison for the installation and service of streetlights in the villas at Deer Valley and Fallen Timbers for a period of 10 years.
• Approved moving $5,000 within the fire levy to pay unforeseen expenses.
• Approved the proposed layout for lighting in Crystal Ridge, plats two and three.
• Approved the purchase 1997 Pierce aerial ladder truck from a Utah fire department at a price not to exceed $195,000.
The board appropriated $100,000 in funds from the Joint Economic Develop-ment Zone revenues and $95,000 from the general fund for the purchase.
• Set a public hearing for Monday, August 18 to consider a zoning change from M1 industrial to C2 general commercial in the Triad Business Park on Monclova Road.
The next regular meeting of the Monclova Township trustees will be on Monday, August 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the township building, 4335 Albon Rd.
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