Funds to continue flowing to 4-county service agency

A solitary voter makes her selections on the ballot at the fire station in Haskins, Ohio.

Voters in four northwestern Ohio counties agreed to support a renewal levy to fund a social service agency, one that assists residents with issues ranging from mental health to substance abuse.

The 0.7-mill, five-year renewal for the Four County ADAMhs board will raise $180,400 annually. It was first approved in 1989.

The issue was one of many decided at the polls yesterday in area Ohio communities. Other levies sought to fund programs ranging from general municipal upkeep to library operation.

In the case of the ADAMhs board, leaders there said the approval of the tax was crucial to the future of clients, who live in Fulton, Williams, Henry, and Defiance counties.

In Paulding County s village of Cecil, residents narrowly defeated two tax issues, which were scaled back from those that appeared on the ballot last fall.

A 5-mill issue would have raised $7,000 a year for current expenses, and a 9-mill tax was expected to generate $12,700 a year for fire protection.

In November, residents in the 216-person village turned down five tax issues aimed at lifting the village out of debt, fixing its park, and ensuring adequate fire protection.

In other areas, voters:

• Defeated in Bryan the renewal of a 0.5 percent municipal income tax for nine and a half years. The $1.5 million it would have raised annually was to be earmarked for street and sewer repairs and for a building fund for a new police and fire station.

• Turned down for the second time in a row a continuing levy for 3.47 mills in Paulding County that would have raised $964,400 a year for mental retardation and develop- mental disabilities programs and services.

• Approved a 1-mill, five-year issue in the village of Paulding that replaces a 1.1-mill levy and will bring in $42,818 annually. The money is to pay for maintenance and operation of the village pool.

• Passed a 0.4-mill, five-year replacement operating levy for the Archbold Community Library. The levy will raise more than $97,000 a year, $20,000 more than a renewal levy would have generated.

• Agreed to renew a 2-mill, five-year levy in Paulding County s village of Antwerp. It will generate $32,145 annually;

• Passed a local option issue in Antwerp to permit the sale of liquor on Sunday at the Antwerp Gold Star Post 5087 VFW Post.

• Said yes in Fulton County s Amboy Township to a 1-mill, five-year cemetery levy renewal.

• Agreed in Fulton County s Swancreek Township to a 1.25-mill, five-year replacement levy.

• Defeated in Gorham Township a new 0.5-mill, five-year road levy, but approved a renewal for a 0.4-mill, five-year levy for Pleasant View Union Cemetery operations. The township is in Fulton County.