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Council questions whether renewal levy will fund new fire truck or only operations
Summary
Councilors debated whether the 1.9-mill renewal would allow the city to buy a fire truck or instead be limited to sustaining department operations. City staff said statutory ballot language limits how specifically the levy can be described and that equipment purchases would hinge on other funds.
During discussion of Resolution 26-10, several council members recalled prior plans that targeted a levy toward purchasing a fire engine and ambulance but noted the current item is a renewal rather than a new, higher-rate levy specifically earmarked for apparatus.
An agency official told the council that because Port Clinton is a statutory city it is constrained to language found in the Ohio Revised Code and that previous attempts to add more-specific ballot language were replaced by statutory phrasing at the board of elections. “We literally can only use language that’s in the revised code,” the agency official said. Council members also noted a new fire truck could take years to arrive and that delaying purchase risks higher future costs.
