Bedford backs library, parks levies

8/7/2002

TEMPERANCE - Voters in Bedford Township yesterday approved a pair of tax increase proposals to improve the township's branch library and park system, while voters in neighboring Ida Township approved a millage proposal to pay for a new library/community center.

In Bedford Township, voters narrowly said yes to a request from the Bedford Township Library Board for a 10-year 0.75-mill levy to renovate and more than double the size of the Bedford Township Branch Library.

The levy will cost the owner of a $200,000 home in the township $75 more per year, and will pay the cost of a $4.26 million proposed doubling of the Jackman Road facility's space. Township library board members said they felt the expansion would meet the needs of Toledo's largest suburb for the next two decades.

Also in Bedford Township yesterday, primary voters approved a five-year, 0.25-mill levy request from the Bedford Parks and Recreation Board that will pay for a long list of improvements to the township's five large parks, including replacement of playground equipment that has been used in the parks for more than 50 years.

The Parks and Recreation board operates the township's park system. The levy will cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $25 per year, and is expected to generate about $800,000 over its lifetime.

In neighboring Ida Township, voters overwhelmingly approved a five-year, 0.5-mill levy to pay for a new combination township library and community center that is to be built in the center of the unincorporated village. The levy was approved by a vote of 601 to 265.

The $500,000 building is to replace the current library, which has been housed in a 738-square-foot portable classroom in Firemen's Park. The attached community center will serve as the meeting place for the township board and other governmental units.

Plans call for the new library/community center's architecture to evoke the turn-of-the-century train station that used to be the centerpiece of the town.