Buckeye Lake voters approved a 4-mill property tax levy to fund the village police department, with 127 voters in favor and 88 opposed, according to preliminary results from the boards of elections in Licking and Fairfield counties.
The village of about 2,500 year-’round residents straddles Licking and Fairfield counties and is a popular tourism hub in the summer, when boaters, aquasport enthusiasts and even a few pirates flock to the community. The May 6 election marks the saving grace for the Buckeye Lake Police Department.
If the levy had not passed, the department would not have received funding for the next three years. And without the levy, Buckeye Lake would have faced significant reductions to its police force, with county sheriffs and state police filling in the gaps, leading to longer response times in cases of emergencies.
The levy will raise roughly $524,000 annually, and will provide all of the funding for the department for the next three years – although that funding is a reduction to the budget. The department currently receives more than $600,000 in funding, so with the new levy being its only funding, it will have to do some budget tightening.
“It’s just trying to be as responsible as possible with the taxpayer money,” Buckeye Lake Mayor Linda Goodman said prior to the election.
Goodman said that this year’s levy was critical for their municipality and the funding of the police department. A previous levy request, which failed in November, would have provided an increase in funding for the police department.
In her previous interview, Goodman discussed how happy she was with Buckeye Lake’s current police chief, Jason Harget.
“You know, our current police chief has been with us for three years now,” Goodman said. “He’s doing an excellent job with our numbers, as far as response times and investigations. His general knowledge of law enforcement really is making the village a better place to live.”
Andrew Theophilus writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.