Oregon council puts senior levy renewal on ballot

        Oregon City Council recently approved a resolution to renew a .5 mill levy on the ballot in November for senior services in Oregon.
        The five year levy was first passed in 2013, and renewed in 2018. The levy collects about $225,000 in revenue annually. Due to new construction, an additional $25,000 would be collected with this renewal.
        “It is a marginal increase for the next five years,” said City Administrator Joel Mazur. “If we get this passed tonight, it would be sent to the auditor’s office for the general election.
        The levy is different from the Lucas County Senior Services Levy, which is up for renewal next year.
        Also at the meeting, council:
        •Approved right-of-way agreements with Bowers Development, LLC for the acquisition of property for the Otter Creek Stream and Flood Plain Restoration Project.
        The project includes the creation of wetlands and walking paths, similar to the improvement project for Wolf Creek. It is also similar to the Urban Runoff Capture and Otter Creek Restoration Project from a few years ago. That project intercepts storm water from a 100-percent developed urban and commercial 43-acre watershed and routes it to a newly constructed wetland system.
        The city was awarded a U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office grant of $1.3 million for the engineering, design, property acquisition and construction of the project.
        •Approved a resolution accepting the petition for the improvement of Brown Road from east of Coy Road by the installation of a sanitary sewer.
        •Decided not to vote on a proposed change order with Midwest Contracting, Inc., for additional work related to the Recreation Buildings because more information is needed.
        •Approved an ordinance updating and amending the responsibilities, training, and experience requirements of the following positions: Commissioner of Building and Zoning Inspection; Residential Plans Examiner; Building/Electrical Safety Inspector; Building Inspector; Electrical Inspector; and Plumbing Inspector.
        “This is in regards to filling a vacant position for building inspector,” said Building and Zoning Commissioner Steven Shrake. “There were some housekeeping items, as well as an alignment with the state building code, that needed to be adjusted for all of the descriptions so that there was a uniform change throughout all of the classifications in the Building Department.”
        It would not affect current employees. “It would just be for new hires,” he said.
        • Heard from Councilman Steve Hornyak about the Architectural Design and Review Committee meeting on Monday with residential developers in the Town Center project. “We got to look at the proposed houses they will be offering. We had an opportunity to ask questions, review that, and come back with some commentary and suggestions from the city. They are excited to get going with this. They feel they will have very good luck selling those, and we agree as well.”
        •Heard from Nancy Gurney, a member of the League of Women Voters of Toledo-Lucas County, make a presentation on Issue I, which will be on the Aug. 8th ballot.
        “It’s an effort to change the constitution of the State of Ohio,” she said.
        Issue I would make it harder to change the state’s constitution. It would require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Ohio receive the approval of at least 60 percent of eligible voters voting on the amendment; require that any initiative petition filed with the Secretary of State proposing to amend the state constitution be signed by at least five percent of the electors of each county based on the total vote in the county for governor in the last preceding election; specify that additional signatures may not be added to an initiative petition proposing to amend the constitution that is filed with the Secretary of State proposing to amend the constitution.
        “In the last 110 years, the Ohio Constitution has been amended 127 times,” she said. 
        “Vote on Aug. 8, or vote during early voting, which is going on right now,” she said.