Renewal fire levy on ballot for Madison Twp.

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With a plethora of reasons to make it to the polls this election season, Madison Township residents will also decide whether to renew a fire protection levy when they cast their ballots over the next month.

On Wednesday, Madison Township Fiscal Officer Myron Miller returned a call to the Record-Herald to discuss the upcoming 0.9 mill, five-year renewal levy and how it will be applied to assist local fire protection efforts.

“We contract with Tri-County in Mount Sterling which handles about two-thirds of the township’s fire protection,” Miller said. “Then Bloomingburg Paint Marion (BPM) Joint Fire District actually handles the other third. What we receive from our fire levies can only be used for fire protection, so it is divided among the two as two-thirds for Tri-County and one-third for the BPM fire department. Each month David Dorn, who serves on the Tri-County fire board, gets a report from them and they let him know what they are looking to buy — I actually believe they are currently looking to buy a tanker right now. So we don’t tell them how it is supposed to be spent, they just let us know what they are going to spend it on and disperse the funds among the department.”

Miller said that Tri-County is a full-time fire department akin to the Washington Fire Department, but with the main difference being that Tri-County is, “smaller scale.”

“I think — though I am not certain — that their firefighters are also EMS,” Miller said. “This fire levy is extremely important because this is how we fund that fire protection. These are the people that are going to be called if your house is on fire. As a township we have to provide fire protection, so it is imperative that residents vote on the levy. This is actually the second time we have ran this particular levy. We have another continual fire levy, but we added this one because Mike Smith — who was the auditor at the time — explained that this particular levy would be less of a burden on the residents of the township to run it as an additional levy, rather than try and add millage to the existing continual levy.”

Finally, Miller continued to express encouragement for residents to vote this year.

“I encourage people to vote because you can’t really complain about things if you don’t get out and voice your opinion,” Miller said.

The information in this article was provided by Madison Township Fiscal Officer Myron Miller. Stay with the Record-Herald for coverage and results from the upcoming 2020 General Election.

Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.

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By Martin Graham

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