Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

I think it's okay if we start a little bit early. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance, please.

Is it 6 o'clock? It's not. Two minutes.

It's all right.

No, we have to start at 6. You have to start at 6. We could do the pledge. You could get sued. Let's start the meeting at 6.

My apologies. We'll wait the two minutes. We'll be safe. We'll be safe. All right. We'll wait the two minutes.

But thank you for standing up. Exercise. Exercise.

Mr. Chairman, I believe it's time.

All right, let's do that again. All right, here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, I pledge allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, let's call this meeting to order. It's a special meeting for today, July 9th. And Mr. Campbell, let the record reflect, all trustees are present. And so right before we go right into public comment, tonight is specifically about the safety services levy. That's all we're allowed to talk about for this specific special meeting. If you want to talk about anything else, that's fine. But we can't talk about that. We have to do that at our business meeting. So the only thing that the trustees are allowed to talk about tonight is our special meeting for proposed safety services levy. And I'll preface with this. I'd like to try to be very respectful to our school board. They have a meeting at 7 PM in one hour. So if we can, you all take as long as you want. Each person is allowed five minutes of comments. And if all of you want to come up and speak, that's fine. But let's just say 10 of you speak or 12 of you speak. Well, 10 times 5 is 50. That's 50 minutes. So I'd like to try to be out here by 7 PM. If that's OK, just for a second. But if not, hey, it's OK. You all take as long as we need. We'll take as long as we need. And they can go downstairs. I'd like for them to be able to have their normal room and conduct business at 7 p.m. if that's okay. If it's not, it's okay, too. It's okay. So with that being said, so tonight we are talking about Resolution 2026-44. It's the Together Police and Fire Safety Services Levy. And, folks, the floor is yours. If anyone would like to come up and speak, you've got five minutes. Yes. And it's going to be the same for everyone. State your name and address for the record. I do have one person. Is there anyone else? Did you need to roll call for the record? Oh, I said all trustees are present. All trustees are present. Perfect.

Yes, sir. Yeah, we're good. We're good. Cards. Cards helps me.

Oh, okay. Apologies. So please, to make it easier for records, just if you could fill out a card, and then we'll come by and collect them. And then it makes it easier for Mr. Campbell to do the records. All right, perfect, perfect. Okay. All right. And so let's go here. Okay, perfect. No particular order. Ms. Linda Wilson, you can come on up. The floor is yours. And just, again, state your name and address for the record for Mr. Campbell.

Linda Wilson, 558 Old Orchard Drive.

And the floor is yours. You've got five minutes.

Okay, so I'm just here to say that... I'm just having a problem with continued more money and more money and more money. I mean, I always, I always, I'm okay, I always vote for the fire and police, always. Always MRDD, I always vote for that. But there just comes a time when I have no control over more and more apartments and then we need more and more police, we need more and more of this. I have no control over all those things being built and the resources that they need. And I was just telling Mr. Becker, you know, I mean, not that it's anybody, you know, I work four jobs to pay bills. Actually, my electric is crazy. Everything is so much more expensive. And like I was telling them, I sent my daughter to private school, Catholic school, because I didn't want her going to public school. You know, so I'm sending money that way. not even for my own kid. So, you know, I've got a lot of seniors that live on my street, you know, and they're living paycheck or budget to budget, and I just think that it's nothing personal to the police and the fire. I mean, we need them, but I'm just, especially nowadays. But it's just on and on and on.

sucking the life out of out of me anyway i mean i can't i can't afford it anymore so thanks okay thank you and then uh oh familiar face uh mr jackson sir the floor is yours please you have five minutes to state your name and address the record jeff jackson 508 dr drive

Mr. Chairman, I got a couple questions from Mr. Becker. And I don't wish you any ill will, sir, but I'm going to use an example of a morning you're out collecting your trash details. If you should so happen to fall over and have a cardiac arrest when you're doing that, how many minutes do you have before irreversible brain damage occurs? I have no idea. Four to six minutes. And if you were out doing that, and that happened to you, and luckily someone saw you fall down, called the fire department, would you not want as many people there as possible to help you? Of course I would. Absolutely. And I can't understand how you can vote against the fire lady. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. You have four to six minutes. The fire department, I can't speak for the police department. I never worked with a police officer, but I'm sure it's similar. Time and people is what it's all about. Whether we're doing a cardiac arrest, whether we're having a house fire, it's all about time and people. Getting there quickly is the right of mind of people to do the job and save the patient's life or home. You mentioned corporate America, and let's do hiring freezes. Come on. This isn't corporate America. This is public safety. The people in this community depend on these two groups of people to take care of them. And for you to be a trustee and to sit up here and say no to supporting these two groups is disgraceful. I'm sorry. It's despicable. You know, I cannot understand how you can sit up here and with a happy face and look at the people that elected you and say, oh, sorry, figure something else out. We can do corporate America. We can do a hiring freeze. A hiring freeze? They don't have enough people now. They have stations with two people in them. You know what that means for you laying on the side of the road? Dan, little Johnny fell and scuffed his knee up, and that station's out putting a Band-Aid on his knee while you're laying in the ditch dying. There's nobody coming for another five or six, eight minutes. That's what it means. If you put another person, they have three people in every station, minimum. At least you have somebody to first respond and try to resuscitate you. Again, I'm no ill-willing issue, but that's the bottom line. Everything is about time. I just like the clock running. The clock's ticking. As soon as you keel over, or a patient keels over, the clock is ticking. Your child chokes on a jawbreaker. Grandchild chokes on a jawbreaker. What are you going to do? What's the first thing you're going to do?

Call 911?

911. There you go. What happens if that station's busy? I've watched my grandchild die. It's horrible. It is horrible. And to be there on the scene with your grandchild or anyone's grandchild, helpless. It seems like three hours before they get there. Sorry about your grandson, sir. Thank you. Four to six minutes is a very long time. And if there's not anybody in that fire station, you're going to pass that four to six minutes. And that's horrible. These people bust their behinds every day. I was looking at some numbers. I didn't get to review them real well. But the amount of calls they're making, the amount of times that those stations are empty, 48s, 50s, 52s, and 53s have two people in them. Many, many days, Johnny with a scraped leg, and by all means, they needed their help, that's good. But the person that's a critical patient is gonna die without intervention, may not have that choice. And the only thing I can ask of you is put your personal objective aside. You're well known as the ultra conservative, That's your opinion. That's fine. But look at the big picture here, which is the Citizens of Union Township that deserve and should be up here demanding that these fire stations are staffed to the fullest level possible. And I know that takes money. It's $1.9 million to put on 12 people. That would put three people in those four stations. That's a lot of money. What's your life worth? I hope you consider that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Jackson. Uh, next I got, uh, Ms. Denise camps. Is that correct? Hey, Ms. Denise name and address for the record, please.

Thank you. Um, I've been part of union townships.

Could you just state your name and address for the record?

Oh, Denise camps 7, 8, 7 Clough Pike. I've been there since 1982. Yes, ma'am. So I'm one of your long-term residents. I don't know what the rest of you look like on social media. I know Mr. Becker does a lot on social media. I think you're going to have a losing cause trying to get this, because everybody's upset. You gave a tax abatement to a group now that you're saying you need safety police and fire on. I think you need to look a little bit more creative and go back to the builders and ask them to maybe put in a police substation, maybe a fire department over in that section and have them pay for it and not the taxpayers who are already angry that you're giving out all these tax abatements and you keep putting apartments where people aren't going to be paying for them. So that's my suggestion. You look more outside of the box, have the people pay for it who are going to take more of who have caused more of the issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Camps. Okay, next I've got also from Mary Face, Ms. Dawn Phil. Please, come on, Ms. Dawn.

Thank you.

I think you know the routine. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.

My name is Don Leota Phil. I live at 781 Deer Valley Drive. First, I just want to say very briefly, my stepdad was a police officer. My mom was a communications officer. I respect what you all do. And thank you for your service. But we're here tonight to talk about the financial issue. So please bear with us a little bit. Not even sure where to start, but just to tag on to what this lady said. The Claremont County, Claremont County released the Claremont County Housing Study in July of 2025. And they made some recommendations in those studies, okay? One of the things that they did recommend was that builders not be incentivized Stop giving long-term property tax breaks to developers, especially those building high-end or high-density housing. One of the other recommendations that I made is to require new developments to contribute to schools and infrastructure, utilities, police, fire, and EMS. As we grow, we put pressure on the community. And yes, the equipment's getting more and more expensive. We know and understand that. This is when we go to buy a vehicle, used or new, we're paying for it as much as we did 10 years ago. I want to remind some of the folks here that we live in Union Township, not Liberty Township. The average income here is $85,000 a year. Actually, some people say 80,000. That's the median household income in Union Township. It's mostly middle class. Those are the people suffering the most because they make too much to get benefits such as low-priced housing or subsidies. These are the people working your four jobs. There's a lot more of them than I think you all even realize because most of the people in the township get paid $100,000 a year or more. And in fairness, part of that is due to the risk that you assume in your positions. but they're paid exceptionally well. The middle class here is struggling, as this woman referred to. I have neighbors who live behind me, good people who worked hard all their lives, can't afford to replace their roofs. One of them has a collapsing garage roof, and one of them has a chimney which has been tarped for six to eight years because they can't afford a fixer. You have middle class people in Union Township now going to food banks to supplement what their income can't cover, because for the past five to 10 years, everybody has taken more and more and more from those people, and they have no more to give. So unless we're trying to drive out our middle class, we need to think a little bit more about the township revisiting its expenses. I know Corey's worked exceptionally hard, Mr. Wright, trying to cut back on expenses. The problem is some of those things weren't done three years or five years or eight years ago. we've had a lot of levies we can't keep paying more because people are maxed out the next step will be for people to start moving out of the township which a lot of people this year are starting to talk about more and more moving out of the township because they can't afford it joe if we lived mr dills if we lived in liberty township our average income would be 120 per year per household the people here are doing it with 85. When the builders come in, the builders build what they want to build. Not what we need. We need affordable housing. But instead, they come in and spend money on high-end housing or hotels that we can't even afford. $400,000 is a reach for most middle-class people here. With regards to the apartments... We've had problems with those, okay? You all have to work hard to resolve some of the issues. Any multi-family housing unit that creates a hardship for a police or a police firing EMS needs to be built back. immediately for the extra services in time. If that doesn't resolve it, they need to be fine. I hope your codes are up to date in that regard. If that doesn't work and it's a subsidized housing unit, then you all need to get with the Claremont County Metropolitan Housing Authority and engage HUD accordingly, because that nonsense is not safe for our community. And when our officers are already strapped for their time, They do not need to be spending garbage time taking care of issues that shouldn't even exist. That's not fair to our officers. That puts too much pressure on our officers.

Ms. Still, you're at the five-minute mark. Could you just go and wrap it up? You're at the five-minute mark. Absolutely. Thank you, Ms.

Finally, as much as Mr. Wright has worked on cuts, we all need to go back to the drawing board. One of the things that needs to be cut are recreational expenses. We spent a million dollars on a playground, windshields for pickleball, a Dora walk trail, a mall vision. We don't even own the mall, $350,000. Police, fire, and EMS branding. Very creative, very cool. We don't live in Liberty Township. We live in Union Township. Unless you want to drive out your middle class, people now are on the verge of losing their homes. Don't ask us for the money. You all have it. Use your pot money. Use the money from the sales of the Greenland because you're selling the Greenland because it costs money to maintain. Use the $600,000 and $700,000 and $800,000 from the lots you're selling, which, by the way, were probably bought with taxpayer money. You have the money. You find the money. We're not going to pay for any more. We're done. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Hill. Thank you. Thank you. It's the last card I have. Does anybody else have a card they'd like to speak? Yeah, please come up, sir.

Two more.

There's two more. Perfect.

Yeah. OK. OK. Go ahead. All right. Hey, Mr. Jones. Yes, sir. I saw one other one there. There's two more. Say it again? There's two more. They're bringing them up. Oh, I got you. I got you. Please, please. Yeah. I got you. Thank you, sir.

Lisa, you probably won't let the school board know.

All right. Okay.

All right. No particular order. Mr. Jack Frank, sir, go on up. Sir, just state your name and address for the record, please.

Jack Frank, 5068 Sandville Drive. Perfect. You have five minutes. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you.

Uh, I've lived here since we bought the property in 86 and began to build a house. And I have to tell you, enjoyed it so much. My kids, my daughter lives behind me. All the services have been great. I got to know Stan Dimeling as our children went to the same school. And so every time I happened to pass. Stan's truck, I would just notice that, you know, everything's very modern, very recent, very up to par, as you would hope for your safety services. But I own a small petroleum distribution company. I have AmeriCom product. I supply the one at Summerside, an old 74, where you will find me out there as I'm president of our small company. And you'll see me with a weed whipper in my hand and a truck that has 279,000 miles on it. my wife's an accountant for our company she taught me this years ago and i don't want this to come across confrontational because at my age what i've learned is you guys have so much you can teach me, and I have stuff I can teach you. Why do I say that? I'm in business and I've been bonded by the state of Ohio for the last 30 or 40 years as a fuel distributor. So like your certifications that you guys have all earned in your lifetime, I've earned a certification to distribute motor fuel through the state of Ohio, meaning I have tax collection agency, blah, blah, blah. And what I would say to you, if we combine my business experience and my wife's comments which as an accountant, she said, anytime you audit, you find something. So I would say this, as a small businessman, if I came in as a guest to either police or fire, would I find that you have taken the time to ask every person who gets a paycheck from that entity what their thoughts are on what they, how can we do more with what we have? Is there ever been that? Paycheck stuffer. If not, take a note. Secondly, what if you cross to other departments because you're all in the same boat, you're asking for more money, and these guys are just telling you, why don't you make do and adapt like we do? I'm not here to ask you for money. Tomorrow I'm not going to expect any of you, Mr. Dills, I don't need you. I'm not going to ask you to come and help me switch the nozzle. I'd do all that myself. And I don't expect you guys to do jobs that are below you, but have you asked the Union Township? Think about how wide has anyone asked, how can we do it with less? Because what if we just said to you, no, you've got to do it with less? What if we Donald Trumped you and said, enough's enough? If you're here illegally, if you're doing scams and that kind of stuff, you're going to get caught and you're going to get kaboomed out of here. You were kind enough, Mr. Becker, to give me a few minutes before. I said I liked it, but enough's enough with getting on next door and every entity, school board member, police chief, mayor. I mean, that's not the community that I thought we were building where everyone's under indictment. We have attorneys living in Indian Hill that are representing they live in Adams County so they can get a taxpayer paycheck. And what is their position? Judge. Well, I'm just a lawn mower and I feel like I have more integrity and I could teach. Give me one day. I'll donate it. Come with me. Let me jump in your vehicles. Is there any vehicle that's older than five years old? Because my vehicle is a 2007. And guess what? I'm president of the company. I have to find the stations. I have to maintain the relationship with Marathon. I have to stay insured. I have to police the trafficking of the loads across from the terminal where they load. 24-7, 365, we have product movement. And if you go right now in Mystery Shop, the Marathon Station, or any station we serve in the area, you're going to hear high integrity. I mean, I am cleaning up these sites so that when you pull in, I'm planting the plants. I'm sweeping up the mess. I'm keeping the tanks in compliance. The fire department should be happy with that. Therefore, we don't pose a safety threat. We're on it. We have alarms. We have systems. I'm saying, We didn't ask for any subsidies. We're a small business, but how do we do it? Are we that genius that I'm not town, I'm not Zika, you know, how do we do it? So my suggestion to you guys is, have you farmed your own data? Have you guys, you three, said to them, have you farmed your own data? You know, my wife's an accountant. You know what, if you sent her a bill, she'd get a check out and write it so fast, and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, do we even owe it? You know, we have a right to slow the process down and right now guys, don't be surprised that we're asking for accountability. So my point to you is enough's enough. And again, I hope I come across well because I have a strong interest in representing township as this vacancy is going to come up. I'd like to be considered a candidate and I'd like to bring some real common sense and community grounded

values to what we're doing and Mr. Frank you are at your five minutes I know thank you very much appreciate it overall I give you a 9.5 thank you sir yeah all right all right next I got uh Terry Hopkins is Terry Terry Hopkins come on sir Sir, you state your name and address for the record, and then you've got five minutes. The floor is yours, sir.

I am Terry Hopkins. I live over there at 4133 Fernwood Drive off of Hawthorne. I'm in here just fact-finding. I've never been in one of these meetings before, and I'm about 10 years from retirement, and what I am looking to find out is whether or not I can afford to remain in New Township upon retiring. And, you know, I live in a house at a little three-bedroom ranch that, you know, is quite marketable. And I'm just getting my ducks in order to find out where we're at. We absolutely do need the police and the fire department. I appreciate all your efforts and what you do. But, again, I'm just fact-finding and see where I stand and being able to afford to live here. I don't want to find myself in the street from being taxed out of a house. So that's what my point is here for, and that's the statement and question I'm wanting to present to you all. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Mel, sir, the floor is yours. Mr. DeWitt?

Melvin DeWitt, 3902 Banks Road, Union Township. As in many cases, I have mixed emotions about this levy. It's definitely not hidden. I'm prejudiced for our two safety services. However, I must say that when it comes to my wallet, my wallet doesn't even attract moths. So my wallet says no. However, my emotions do say yes, both because of my loyalty to the safety services departments that we have and to my experiences on the fire department running life squad now. I have been on several runs where we, the team, that I was with did save a lot. However, I've also been on a few where we weren't on time, we didn't have the proper equipment, we didn't have the proper training. That does take money. And I want everybody to realize both cases, empty wallets, and what we need in our safety services, and that's equipment, training, and time. We don't always have one or more of those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. DeWitt. Next, I have Miss Jen Plummer. Miss Plummer, name and address for the record, and you have five minutes. Go ahead, ma'am.

Jen plumber four, five, six, seven Elmont drive. And I have lived in a union township for about the last 20 years and I am a nurse by background. And one of the questions that I had was if, if the township bills directly for the runs that they make through nine one, one.

Uh, so yes, Mr. Right, you want to take that question? Pause that for a second. Yes, sir. So we bill for 911 EMS calls. We bill for ALS and BLS calls. We balance bill non-residents. We actually will. We just passed legislation to balance bill and hard bill non-residents.

So we're a resident in Union Township. They are not balanced bills.

They're not balanced bills. They just bill their insurance. Correct.

Okay. That's helpful to know. Yes. My entire life, I've always voted for every tax levy, elderly services, children's services. schools, but to echo the sentiments of other residents, I don't know how people in our community are doing it. I'm lucky enough to be a nurse and make a good salary. We can't cover our groceries, our Duke energy bill and everything else. So I think any creative problem solving that can be done around billing, I applaud you on going ahead to balance bill the non-residents. I do think that's a fair step, any creativity that we can come up with to find alternate sources. We have a lot of elderly people in this township and they do need those services, but I honestly don't think that the majority of the community can afford it. So again, thank you for your service. Happy to try to help problem-solve or troubleshoot alternate funding sources, managed a care management department in a large hospital system for over 20 years. I just would like to see more creativity and perhaps subcommittee discussion around other options besides just going for a levy. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Paul. Ms. Dora, please come on up. Hey, Dora. What is yours?

I'm Dora. I live at 832 Deer Valley Drive. Hello, gentlemen. So correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a resolution to proceed with passing it on to a general election. I assume the one in November. Correct. Correct. Okay. So I say send it to the voters. I mean, right. I think there is a strong possibility that you're going to get a no vote. I've talked to multiple people that live on Deer Valley. side streets of Deer Valley, and they are all saying, no way, no how. So I think you guys are really going to have to pivot, and I don't want you to do so unexpectedly, you know, like in the last minute. Just a couple things, as you guys, the three of you, I don't know, my husband and I, we did a lot of Miller Place petitioning, and back in that time, which was, gosh, four years ago or so now, Senior citizens that were signing the petitions were saying, I'm being priced out of the Union Township. And that was years ago. So I don't know the appetite of them to do more because they literally can't. They're looking at potentially having to move out and these were longtime residents. The other thing I just want the group to know and everybody to know, so we all recall the property evaluations that were done in 2023 where we saw massive evaluation improvements in our homes and our taxes went up um so we're current it's my understanding we're currently under review now in claremont county again um this current year for next year for a property evaluation and it looks like possibly a modest 3% raise, but it's still a raise. I highly doubt they'll stay the same. So just consider that. And please be prepared for that.

Thank you, Ms. Murphy. Oh, another from our face. Tracy Tonkovich, sir.

State your name and address for the record, and you've got five minutes, sir, please. A couple suggestions. I ain't going to pitch out this time like I did last time.

That's okay.

A couple suggestions. I think we need an audit, independent audit of everything in the township. Fire, police, the whole across the board. Because there's wasteful money somewhere. two if fire needs people back in the day i was a volunteer okay i was volunteer fire department the whole department was volunteer open up volunteer for three people right they show up at the scene they come to the police department to hang out whatever they need to do right but it's volunteer you can also do that for the police department instead of volunteer have citizens patrol their eyes and ears for the police department right there's a lot of things we could do besides spending money there's a lot of things we could do besides let's put another unconstitutional tax levy on so we could drain these these people people cannot afford it okay maybe you can Maybe you can. Maybe Becker can. Maybe you guys can afford it. But these elderly people can't afford it at all. But you're draining them dry. Pretty soon they're going to be drained dry. They're going to either live on the streets, move out of Union Township. You're not going to have nobody pay for anything because nobody's going to want to move here. Tax abatement's got to go. I think they did one in Batavia where it's 15 years people buy a house, they don't have to pay taxes. Crap. Everybody else pays for that? Crap. The spending's got to stop. It's just got to. There's other ways. I vote for this guy and his wife doing all of it. Somebody's got to show somebody how to spend some money. Or not to spend some money. I set a budget for my household. When I run short somewhere, car breaks down, I can't ask these fine folks for any money. But when you guys need money, let's put a levy on. Let's drain them some more. That's not the way it works. So stop with the unconstitutional crap and work for the people. You've got to remember, we don't work for you. You work for us. If these people tell you how to jump, you better ask them how high, because you work for us. You can smirk, but you know it's true.

Oh, I say it all the time. You're my boss.

You know? And I do commend him for picking up trash. Everybody else should help, too.

I gave him the idea, and we did the first trash day. I'm just saying. Me and the little kids. I'm in the business of repopulating the planet right now. I'm just saying.

There's got to be more than one trash man. All right? I appreciate that. You know, there's got to be more than one trash man. All right, I'm not bitching at you anymore.

Thanks, Tracy.

Okay, we've got Tim Gilliam. Tim Gilliam? Oh, probably, yeah.

Sorry I got here late. Oh, it's okay.

Oh, I'm sorry. Please leave your name and address for the record, and then you've got five minutes.

Tim Gillum, 4312 Wellington Drive, off Clough Pike. And I've lived in Union Township since 1980. And within a mile of where I originally started. And I voted in every election that I can remember. I don't ever remember missing one. that I know of and I've never voted against firefighter or police or mental health issue. Always figured that those things are hard enough jobs as they are and support them in any way we can. When you need them, And when you've been voting against them, you have no right to be upset that, why didn't they come and ask, or why isn't this available to me? So I felt responsible in supporting those. In my career, I tried to save money. I started a IRA account back in 1976. when most people didn't even know what an IRA was, I thought I was doing fine. I'm retired now for eight years until I was 66 and I'm running through money and alarming rate. It's not going to last. I'm not, I did everything right. I remember a little lady coming up to my pharmacy and saying, uh, You know, my husband and I put aside money from the time we got married, and she was like 80 years old. We saved for our retirement. But they didn't know that things were going to be 10 times more than what they were, you know, 20 years earlier or something. So no matter how you save, you're not going to make it, it seems like. But somewhere you got to, like I say, make an effort to make it go as long as you can. I tried to research any issue or decision I make when I go to vote or decide on how I feel about something. I could not find a way going through UT Claremont site and stuff to find out how or where a police run goes to or a fire call goes to. to try to find out how many runs do they make, you know? If we need money, is there a way to see are we doing so many for health or so many for the same place, you know, three times a day or something like that? So I'm asking you a question about that. Is there a place in the computer system where a resident can find out this type of things? Where's the money for these things going or are we going to a certain area as much as all the rest of the areas together or something. So to try to do some research and help make a decision on whether this should be supported or not. So if somebody can find that out for me or have that. My neighbor said that he talked to somebody one time and said, well, there's really no place where that's broken down into. You'd have to find all the calls and go back and separate them. I said, with computer systems, that's got to be. You know, people are making decisions on where money goes and stuff. Those figures have to be in front of them. They have to make a decision on how these stuff is laid out and where money might be wasted and can be saved. We'd like to know that information, too. If it's available to you guys, it should be available to us. And if that can be provided, I'd appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Mr. Gunn.

That is the last card I have. Is there anyone else that I'd like to speak? Thank you, miss. All right. Gotcha. Perfect. And then, uh, would you just, uh, please state your name and address for the record? Are you Susan?

Yeah. I'm Susan Dudek. I live at 10 87 Valleywood drive. Did I just hear you say that we spent a million dollars to upgrade the helicopter park? So we're a community that doesn't have enough. We're a community that doesn't have enough police and firefighters But we go and spend a million dollars to upgrade a park. Is the park nice? Yes. We obviously are not the type of community that has a budget that can support having a park like that. It's about making smarter decisions and realizing that we can't have everything we want because these are important services and we need to support them. But don't keep coming back to us. It's about... I mean, you've approved all the building that's going on in this community. We're packing them in like sardines. There's so much more of a draw on all of the services. You did that. You need to fix it. And the fix isn't coming back to us. Thank you.

Okay. I got Warren Miles. Sir, come on up, please. You just want to state your name and address for the record, and you have five minutes. Thank you, sir.

One miles, 965 Clough Pike, Union Township. I had a lot of things I probably wanted to say, and I've been listening to everybody that's been up here, and I think some of the things I wanted to say have been covered, but I've heard a few new good ideals, and I'm kind of pulled. I have a lot of family that's been in emergency services over the years, and it's dear to my heart. I wouldn't be standing here talking to you not for the fire department. I had a cardiac arrest four years ago, and I wouldn't be here. They saved me. So it's really important that we have these services. We have them at full capacity is vitally important. Funding is important. But I've been a lifetime resident of Union Township. I'm a homeowner. I'm a property owner. I look at the dollar values. I look at my taxes. kind of becoming overwhelming, and I see this levy coming, and as much as I love police, fire, things like that, I felt like I needed to be here tonight just to kind of say, hey, if there's any other options, we need these guys. We need them to be fully funded, but if there's any other options, whether Hey, whether it's an audit, whether it's, I was thinking, I keep hearing we're going to be adding more apartments from like where the police station is on down. We're gonna add more apartments, homes, condos. Well, if that's the case, why aren't we saying, well, wait a minute. We're already maxed to the hilt. We don't have enough police. They're running our police officers ragged from call to call to call. They're not having a chance to do community policing, which I think is kind of what we all grew up on around here was community policing. You see one of your police officers, you walk up to them, say hi to them. They still make themselves available at events, things like that. But in general, these guys are being ran. The fire department is being ran hard. And, well, if we mismanaged in some way bringing in all these apartment communities and we've given them these tax abatements, my big question is, even if ones that we've approved, why aren't we stopping and saying, hey, wait a minute. We're to the max already. We're past the max. We need to hold off, whether it's a year, two years, five years, or forever. We need to pump the brakes on something because, again, I love Union Township. I don't ever want to leave Union Township. I'd like this to be my final place. But at the end of the day, if these type of millage keep coming down the pipeline, I think a lot of people are going to be chased out of their homes. They're going to be chased out of here. Uh, I'm also concerned in the long run. Are we looking, are we looking to make union township a city? And if so, I get that. But when you take and you bring in large volumes of, uh, uh, of apartments and things like that, how are these people going to vote? We don't, we don't know, you know, are, are, are, are they, are they conservative or the non-conservative? Are they somewhere in the middle? The question is, is once we become a city, and the wrong people get elected in, we could all be in trouble. But ultimately, at the end of the day, I wanted to throw my support behind police and fire, but I also wanted to say as a resident, I implore the township to do anything and everything they can to find alternative ways, anything that we can do to ease a tax burden. Again, whether it's stopping some of these complexes that are going in, even if it's a temporary pause, I feel like we need to do something because I believe this round of taxes may break some of these people. And I know it will put a big burden on me. So I think that's kind of all I got to say. I appreciate everybody's time and thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers. Thank you. Okay. Last card I got is a Ms. Melanie Meese. Please. Okay.

My name is Melanie Meese and I live at 43, 18 Beachmont drive union township.

Yes, ma'am.

I have owned my house for about 30 years. And in my little small neighborhood, it's mostly retirees, and everyone's kind of complaining about the taxes, me too. I'm a single mom, raise my kids there, work two and three jobs, keep things going, retired now from public service with Klamath County for 30 years. And, um, recently you probably know the CPS levy failed. I mean, we need that, that service so much, but people didn't vote for it because they did or not want an increase. Um, just as important. I don't know who's more important. CPS fire. I've always voted for the fire and police. They're so important. All of us have benefited from that. But we just have to be concerned about so many apartments that are being built. The owners have a tax abatement. The renters don't pay taxes that I'm aware of. I could be on this. But it's just a concern for everyone. And so now I'm on a fixed income. Am I going to be able to afford to keep my house? It's just me. get social security and my pension which that's guaranteed always until i die so i'm very fortunate with that but not everybody has that um and i you know i could get a lot of money for my house my house i paid 86 for it you know so many years ago it's worth 250 now but where am i going to go So, um, you know, it's just a concern for, for people like me and I didn't come here planning to speak, but you know, it's just, you've heard it a hundred times here tonight. You know, people are just concerned about their income and are they going to get priced out of the place they love so much? I don't want to move. So thanks a lot. And I appreciate you. I love your service. I've benefited. We've all benefited from. I can't imagine not voting for it. I worked the polls and I voted for you every time it's come up. And so this is going to be hard, but I'll probably still vote for it.

Thank you, Ms. Meese. Okay, last call. Is there anyone else? That was the last one I had. Okay, seeing none, I will close public comments. Okay, well, let's open up to the board for discussion, and then after that, we'll make a motion for approval or denial of it. All right, gentlemen. Vice Chair, that's typical. I'll start with you, sir.

Go ahead. Mr. Chairman, I got involved in politics 30-some years ago. It was back in the early 90s. And I got involved for multiple reasons. one of which was fiscal issues. I've always been of the opinion that government taxes too much and it spends too much. And I haven't changed my mind. The multiple times I've run for a public office, at no time was my platform, by golly, we need to spend more money, we need to tax more money, we need to tax, raise taxes, spend more money. I've never, never taken that position. And finally, Mr. Chairman, there may be a day or may come a day where I'm willing to vote to put a tax levy on the ballot, but today is not that day. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Luke, sir.

Okay.

Well, thank you. A lot of notes here run down, and I'm going to do kind of a quick glance as you guys bear with me a quick second. surprisingly do hear the overall, absolutely overall concerns, and also hear a surprising amount of positive support for police and fire. I think we probably all recognize that's probably the most impactful tax dollar that we ever truly do spend if you look at all the taxes. And believe me, I mean, I want to go through every note here that I've made, some top things to mind about affordability. No one wants to pay it. I don't want to pay it. Are you kidding me? I mean, I'm making a meatloaf at home for my family versus ordering them a cheese pizza or something because feeding a family of five from pizza is like an unfathomable amount of money that you would not want to spend, right? It's just, trust me, I get it. It is, the affordability piece is terrible. Mr. Jackson, you referenced watching your grandchild die. My heart goes out to you. You recall, in my own memory, my father choking, I couldn't clear his airway, and dying in my arms and waiting on the first respondents of that. It was outside this township. And that does feel like forever. And you see the brain activity change. I've had, you know, my dad was 93. Nice long life, but shouldn't have been aspirating into the lungs and choking. My mother's in her 80s. We've moved her. We've moved her for all these reasons, the costs, the benefits, the taxes, you name it. It's also highly impactful to know she has a fall. She has something. There are good first responders to be able to respond and be there. I mean, it goes back to that dynamic. Mr. Troncovich, I believe, I agree with you. I do disagree in one sense. giving voters the ability to hear from the voters how they want to fund their local government is, in my mind, the very definition of our founding fathers and constitutional. There is no king to say this is what it is and here's taxation without representation. Hear everyone's response and have that. It's really a community decision. What does the level of quality of the community wants? One thing, though, that is extremely true, the taxes that we all pay on our property. It's, it's, I mean, it's theft from the sense of my house has gone up in value. It's unrealized gain and I'm getting taxed on it. I'm getting taxed on the unreal. They're fighting that in California right now. Um, It's a tax on unrealized gains. Mr. Becker, what's the State House done to fight that over those 30 years and the time at the State House? Man, where are those knock-down, drag-out fights to fix it? That's what I want to see happen. We just have to live in it, right? We don't have that jurisdiction at this desk. I feel your pain. Trust me. I don't have that answer. That's We've got to talk to our state reps, I think. We've got to talk to the governor's race. Level of quality is the exact answer, Mr. Chonkovich, too. Volunteering the Citizens Force and all of that. Rightfully so. I think that that would be. The residents say absolutely not. We choose to fund the local government. or don't fund the local government, or don't balance that budget. That's all part of the conversation. To that point, there was a lot of talk about tax abatements. Mr. Wright, we've never given any tax abatements, correct?

We do not have any residential tax abatements.

I want to say it myself. I want to validate it outside of us. We do not do tax abatements. Okay. Linda, you talked to me about how happy you were about us voting down the multifamily and the apartment complexes. We have done a ton of that. And another note on here. Again, we inherited a lot of already approved projects. Community benefit agreement on the medical marijuana dispensaries. Yeah, $750,000 came in on that. Revenue generations, community benefit agreement. $1.2 million, if I recall correctly, park sale of the pocket park to TQL. $1.2 million. And then some additional land that this board would have inherited from previous strategies. $900,000 recently in the land sale. So about $2.85 million. I always viewed that the community assets are something to be taken care of when we have, what, nearly 60 acres of park? You wouldn't let your house get completely ran down. You wouldn't want to. And my concept was this, take care of it, and if the community appreciates it and wants to use it, then that's a benefit to the community. And there were some investments that we've made, and we've seen that the parking lots are no longer empty. They are now full, and that gets people out and engaged and active in the community. And the numbers I just ran through there, $2.85 million at least of, uh, transactions that I would say more than made up for, um, the splash pad, the pokeball court, and you know, whatever the number rounds out to be around $900,000 between two, two, two different, two different parks that, that, that are active in this community. So, um, uh, I, I, I hear you on things like mall visioning. fundamentally aspects to hear from the community and that was some great valuable feedback to be said on that it's just that's a project to where to actually hear from the community same same reason for having a community engagement manager when we first brought Lisa on and she has been phenomenal at helping deliver on the commitments to transparency accountability and better communication to the residents Mr. Gillum, data-driven decisions I heard from you. I would love that. Digital dashboards. I would push for that. Automate. Do so much more on efficiencies of local government. I mean, 95%, 99% or more. I don't have a percentage, but The open books, it's open books. I mean, Ohio Open Checkbook, that was the first big initiative that I pushed for us to be able to do. I want to see AI utilization to make the employees more efficient at their work where humans need to be involved and let machines do what machines can do best. Those type of investments do cost money, and the township's not driving towards that direction right now. But you do make me think about life saved. and what deaths may be. Uh, cause I think you could probably run some projections on that. If we hear what Mr. Jackson had said about run times increasing to eight minutes or 10 minutes, I bet there's a figure as to how many lives that costs. And that's at the end of the day, governing is difficult. That's part of the decision making, uh, with it. But the easy part in this is to be able to hear from all the residents. Really? I mean, I, um, Terry, I hear you. Can I afford to remain in Union Township when I retire in 10 years? I wish I could plan for 10 years out right now. I'll be asking myself the same question, right? I don't have a good answer for you. I think it's all about community getting involved and getting engaged and coming together in a positive way that you guys are all showing us tonight, and I appreciate that. One thing that I haven't touched on is just the aspect that, you know, I believe we have firmly pushed to the department heads about cutting their costs and being efficient already where they are and looking at additional ways to achieve costs. You know I know the 55,000 calls for service that that the police department gets heard a lot of comparison to other townships But I know that was at West Chester Township It's on par the same amount of calls for service and their their their budget is double what our police forces and so Those are some of the metrics that I think you can go off of on hand. But at the end of the day, just listening, hearing. And, you know, Mr. Becker, I appreciate the simplistic format that you put it in. We're trying to look at the solutions here. And I think that's where you can be a value add. And the counting background, auditing background, performance audit, go dig in and do it and help us with the solution. But just to say the hyperbole of just no, I can't support it, I don't think it actually is effective governing. And I ask you to kind of consider on that more. What solutions are you bringing to the table? I'll hand it over to Mr. Dills.

Did you want to respond to anything at all to Mr. Lillard? Do you want me to talk and finish?

I think if I do, this meeting is going to get a lot longer than it needs to go. I'll pass. That's fair.

Dora, Ms. Murphy, I think you are glad to Wrap up this entire hour-long meeting in a 30-second pitch. It was your speech. That's what's going to happen. I took a poll. Hopefully I didn't miss anybody, but I got four yeses and ten noes on this levy from the folks in this. At least that I was keeping tabs on. So I think everyone unanimously supports our police and fire. We all need them. The problem is we just don't want to pay more taxes. I agree with you all completely. I do. I do. I don't know where this notion is coming from. And I mean, Mr. Becker is the king of social media. I am not. He is. He loves Nextdoor. He loves Facebook. I do not. I don't like social media. I rarely get on it. And quite honestly, I don't have time. But Mr. Becker, why do these folks think that we have done tax abatements?

I think that's coming from Batavia Township. They hear it on the news. They hear people bet you on social media. They don't know what township anybody's from. They just hear about these tax abatements, and it's Batavia Township. When people ask me, what do we do in Union Township with taxes, we don't.

There's no tax abatements. Nobody's getting a tax pass. Nobody. So I don't know where that's coming from. Or commercial. There's nobody in this township that we have voted on that is getting a tax evasion. Mr. Wright?

That is correct. The only two CRAs, there are a couple of, they call them enterprise zone agreements, and those are typically used for small business industrial projects. There was Solutions Plus. That was over off of Bock Buxton. That was like 20 jobs.

How long ago was that?

That was a couple years ago, but it was a very small thing. It's the county and the township. do enterprise zone agreements, but those are for commercial. There's no residential abatements. Okay. What people were referring to are single family residential abated homes, like what they're doing in the village.

I think also the thing about the businesses of like, for example, apartments, getting taxed.

There's no apartments with abatements.

There's not zero.

No, they're the only active abatement in union township is a County issued CRA at 32 East. A county issued approved CRA from eight, nine years ago. And if everybody remembers what that was, it was falling in and they abated the value on that through the county CRA. That's the county. And that's the largest one that we have. The only other thing that you have is you have, like, modest abatements for job creation for small business. You have, like, Solutions Plus. I think that's the only active one we might have. I don't know.

This board, me and Mr. Becker, I don't want to say we're teammates. We're teammates. We were on the same ballot every year for reelection. We have not voted for a tax abatement. I don't know why that is... Yeah, I just don't get it. But as far as... I heard the word cramming in apartments. So we voted down every apartment that's come across. The problem is perception is reality. You see the apartments going over there by Klepper and Bockbox and the brand new ones right over there? Keep it short. We didn't approve that. The problem is they took several years for construction. They took whatever, and they're finishing up now, and it looks like, oh, Union Township's approving more. We didn't approve those apartments. That was prior to us. Now, regardless, it doesn't matter. They're still there. Now, recently, and I missed it right from the very beginning, since I took office four and a half years ago, I said I'm not approving any multifamily apartments. Basically, you're going to have to convince me big time for us to approve multifamily for my vote unless it includes mixed use. Mixed use is first floor retail and two or three floors above it residential apartments. We did approve one last month across the street from the police station. Mr. Becker was no, Mr. Logan and I were yes. The first floor, I think all of you are going to really like the retail. I can't tell you what they are.

I'm trying to get the greatest for Mr. Becker. I'm doing my best.

But I think you're going to be very happy with the retail that goes in on the first floor. Maybe you won't. I don't know. But that was the only reason I said I would even consider it. And that's the only apartment building that we have approved. It's been four and a half years. I think I feel like I say this every single meeting, and yet every single meeting people think apartments, apartments. Us two have only passed one in four and a half years. Mr. Becker has voted the rest of them down as well. So just so everybody knows, as far as data, I need you to know this. We do have to make a sound, we're just, the school board meeting's starting. All those folks want to go there. Thank you, Mr. Ray. That's okay. He's just going to let those folks know that they're downstairs starting the meeting. We have another room downstairs, but this is the room they typically use. So as far as where your dollars are spent, it sounds like most of you are very informed and you all are voters. I want you to know this. For every, I wish, I'm going to. Very good, thank you. Well, Ms. R, I want you to, since she's our assistant administrator, correct me on this if I'm wrong on anything, but ballpark. So for $1 that you give for your tax dollar for property taxes, for $1, 60 cents, so 60%, go to those folks right downstairs, the schools. So 60 cents out of your $1 do not come to us. Their meeting's next. Hold on. Sorry. So they go downstairs. Whether you like that or dislike that is irrelevant. That's just how it is. And then ballpark, ballpark 20-ish percent goes to the county. That's for your county jail, that's for your senior services, whatever county programs the county needs, county roads, things like that. And there's also a gas tax for that as well. But ballpark, 20-ish percent ballpark to 25 just depends, stays here. So 20 cents out of your $1 stays here. We have to run the entire township off 20 cents off your $1 spent. That's how it is. So We have, Union Township is the fifth largest township in the state of Ohio. We're basically a city. We have ballpark 50 to 55,000 residents that live here. So, this vote tonight is a vote to simply allow your voices to be heard. I think Ms. Murphy's right. Unfortunately, I think it's going to get slaughtered. I'm going to try to be optimistically hopeful. And there's a part of me, me and Mr. Becker are 100% aligned, and Mr. Tonkovich, I think property taxes is the most unconstitutional tax there is. If I buy this bottle of water for $5 and I pay my 6% to 7% tax, the government does not tax me over and over and over again on my property.

I'm fully aligned with you on that.

Okay, I got you. But this is property, right? Just like your brick and mortar is property. And yet the government thinks they can keep coming back and taxing your property. That just seems unfair. Mr. Becker knows this better than anybody else. This is a state legislation problem. This is your state senator and your state representative problem. That's how we fund our police, our fire, our schools, our parks, your roads. It's through your property tax. I 100% disagree with property taxes. 100% disagree. This is how they're funded, though. This is how local government is funded, is property tax. It should be 100% changed and not done that way. That's a different conversation for a different day. We have a manpower shortage with our fire and police. Just so you know, it takes basically Chief Clemens, I wasn't going to call on you, but I'm just very quick. You need a bachelor's degree to be fully certified, full EMS and firefighter. Is that correct?

No, you need to have a firefighter one and two certification.

Ballpark, how long does that take years? Two years. Two years to get. Correct. to be a police officer six months over at UC Claremont. And however, so we've got a handful of EMT basics that want to come on board, but EMT basic cannot be, they're not a full firefighter. And so, It's easier to be a police officer as a firefighter. However, who wants to be a police officer in today's world? Not very many. We've got a shortage. Now, these guys are doing great jobs at recruiting, but still. So me and Mr. Logue voted yes. He voted no. We do a retire-rehire program. Now, again, that's a different conversation for a different day, whether you're for it or against it, but we're trying to find Band-Aids and solutions. The retire-rehire program for our police officers is someone's eligible to retire they do and they can stay on board with us for up to another five years because we need to keep our police officers I would also argue that there's also a the veteranship and the mentorship that a veteran police officer brings compared to a rookie you know young 20 year old cop but that was another way to keep our police officers here longer to try to help solve that problem and I also think it's cheaper to keep a police officer here than to do the training and going out and getting a brand new police officer. Yeah, the labor and the vehicles, the equipment cost has gone up. Mr. Wright, just very quickly, 30 seconds, touch on... You all don't know this. It's public, but I'm on the 911 Emergency County Committee, and Mr. Wright, he joins that as well. And then we have a police officer there as well that represents our call communications. Mr. Wright, what's this bill coming up? for our towers and upgrade of our systems, mandatory by the state of Ohio.

Oh, it's incredible. Fourteen million? Yeah, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You have the consoles, the software. I thought it was something like, over the next five to ten years, close to $40 million.

Was it $35 million?

Something like that.

It's a lot of money. But here's how it's going to possibly take shape. And don't hold me to this. I just said possibly. I'm on this committee. We haven't figured it out yet. Who's else on this committee? There's a representation from a lot of the townships. A county commissioner's there. The sheriff is there. City of Milford, City of Loveland represents themselves. So... Basically, that pie is for Claremont County. That's not for anything else. That's for Claremont County. That $20 to $40 million bill that's coming around very soon in a couple years. And so... Basically, the county is going to foot the big part of the bill and the rest is going to be divided up amongst the townships. Well, us and Miami townships are the two largest. We're about 25% of the body of Claremont County. Miami township is ballpark, about 25% of the body as well. The remaining 50% is Goshen and Ohio, Tate, Batavia. So we're going to be responsible for 25% of that bill and whatever's left over, the county doesn't pay. Now don't hold me to that, but I'm pretty sure that's how it's going to come down. So it's all of our towers, there's equipment, everything, and it's mandatory. So it's expensive. I'll tell you this, I do regret my timing. of the mall, I wish I would have maybe punted on that. I didn't realize the Hall Property Group and Kroger were going to fight in court. I didn't realize that. I didn't know that. If I had a redo, I think I would have punted the ball and done it later. Because the mall is going to be redeveloped eventually. I just don't know when. And unfortunately, it's taking longer than expected. I just wish I would have. Done it, but done it later because for what it's worth. The parks, Mr. Wright is, and I wish Mr. Taylor was here too. Mr. Taylor sits down here. He's our parks director, service director, sorry. They have done a great job with our parks and getting grants. So Klepper Park was about 70% funded by grant. 30% was from your tax dollars, but 70% was funded by grants. Mr. Logue is right. We sold off a park to TQL, and we used that money to redo the helicopter park, Veterans Park. So we actually had a net gain off that deal. But also Mr. Wright is trying to work up a deal to get a corporate sponsorship as well for the parks to generate other money. That's stuff you guys don't hear about, but he's doing that. The two biggest spins that I could say I've had under my four and a half year tenure is the parks and the mall plan. I just wish I would have done the mall at a later date, just knowing what I know. Unfortunately, I closed public comments, I'm sorry, but for that. So this vote tonight is to put it on the ballot to let you all speak. If it fails, That really stinks because, oh, and for what it's worth as well, the ballpark figures for every $100,000 will cost you $70 per year. That's what this levy is. So if you have a $200,000 house, it'll be $1.40, $140 per year extra in your taxes. That's what it'll be. Need to make it clear. I think all of you know that we live here in the township. We pay taxes. We don't want our property taxes to go up. We're on the same page. I heard unanimously everyone loves our police and fire. We just don't wanna pay more money in our taxes and be taxed out of our homes, especially our seniors, because you're stuck on fixed income with Social Security. I know my mother's right there as well. So I think we've said all we need to say. We'll leave it up to the voters. And if you all wanna vote it down, okay, it is what it is. But just keep in mind, I want government to stay out of my life as much as possible. Unless a bad guy's coming, I need a gun and badge, I want my police there. If I'm having a heart attack, I want my firefighters there ASAP. Besides that, stay out of my life, right? I also need you to know this, because you all are very educated voters. We do not have a parks levy. Batavia, Miami, and Anderson, they do, and we don't. So that 20% pot that I was telling you that we get from the taxpayers' property, all of that funds everything, including your parks, including your township roads. We spent a little bit of money on the parks, but in my opinion, the grant money that we got and also the net profit, net gain from the sale of the TQL of that park, I really don't think it cost that much money. For what it's worth also, it was a 20-year warranty. So for the next 20 years, we're not going to have to worry about those parks ever again for the next 20 years. Personally, I'm at a loss because it's like I don't want my property taxes going up, and I love my police and fire. But I support them. Here's the deal, though. I will say this. This is not sounding the alarm if it fails, but it's coming. And Mr. Becker brought it up last month, the idea of maybe our police going to the county level and no longer having Union Township Police Department and having the Sheriff Department run Union Township. Also, our Union Township Dispatch Center going to the county as well, out in Batavia, and no longer here in Union Township. I think Mr. Wright's done the numbers, and I think the math doesn't work. It still doesn't work. And I got to be honest, someone in the call center in Batavia, they don't know the roads of Union Township. I really don't want them answering our phones unless it's a backup, which they use us as backup, we use them as backup. I like to keep that in-house. That's my vision. Also, I don't want the county sheriffs to come and police us. Our Union Township cops, they know our roads very, very, very, very well. The county has never been in our township ever, and they don't know our roads the way we do, and I don't want that to be outsourced to them either. So I'm firmly against that, and I'm not budging on that either. That's only if it's a code red. But still, I don't think we're going to be making out. I think it's going to still cost us more money if we send the bill to the county instead of keeping it here locally. With that being said, my vote tonight is to simply pass this so you all vote on it in November. Think on it. Pray on it. I understand. But I'm going to vote in favor of this so it gets on the ballot and you all can vote with your voices in November. That's the democracy part that we live in. So with that being said, I'll close comments unless anybody has anything to say to wrap up. Okay.

Well stated. Thank you.

Gentlemen, I will entertain a motion for the approval of Resolution 2026, Resolution to Proceed with the Election on the Question of the Additional Tax and Excess of the Ten Mill Limitation. So moved. Second. Any discussion further? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? No. Mr. Lowe?

Vote yes to hear from the residents.

Mr. Dills?

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right.

Thank you, gentlemen. Gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker?

Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes.

We're adjourned at 7.18 p.m.

Thank you all very much. Have a good night, guys.