YOUNGSTOWN — There will be two renewal levies on the ballot for the Beaver Township Fire Department. One is a 1-mill, five-year renewal for fire services that will raise $214,521 annually. It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $35 per year. The other is a 1.5-mill, five-year renewal for fire services that will raise $210,832 per year and will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $53 per year, according to the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

Fire Chief Larry Sauerwein said the two levies were first approved around the 1990s and have been renewed since then at the same rate. Because of how Ohio law works, those levies are each still providing the fire department with the same amount of money now as when they began, he said.”If that levy raised $100,000 in 1998, it’s still $100,000 today, which, as we know, doesn’t pay for as much as it did back then, which is why occasionally we have to ask for new money,” he said. The last new money the fire department received was in 2019. It is being used to pay off a new fire truck purchased in 2020. He said when that levy comes up for renewal in 2024, the fire department will probably seek to renew it “to pay for other stuff.”

He said the two renewals on the ballot May 2 “are just continuing the budget we have had over probably the last 20 years.”

The department has three full-time personnel who work there during the day doing mostly administrative work — Sauerwein, a secretary and an assistant chief who handles inspections.

“As calls come in during the day, we leave the office and inspections and we run the calls too,” he said. The other firefighters are called volunteer paid-per-call. “We’re not staffed yet. We’re working on possible partial staffing in the near future, but we currently have nobody inside this building from, say, 3 p.m. to 7 a.m.”

There are 34 firefighters on the roster.

Sauerwein said the call volume at the Beaver Township Fire Department has increased “over 100 percent since I became chief six years ago.”

BELOIT

A 6-mill additional levy is also on the May 2 ballot for fire services for the Beloit Fire Department for a continuous period of time. It will raise $61,194 annually. If approved, the levy will cost the owner of a 100,000 home an additional $210 per year.

The village just east of Sebring has 903 residents. Multiple attempts to talk to someone from the Beloit Fire Department were unsuccessful.

ALLIANCE PARKS

Another question or issue on the ballot in Mahoning County is the 3-mill, five-year renewal levy for Alliance parks and recreation that will raise $887,733 annually. The levy is for residents of certain areas in Stark and Mahoning counties.

It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $80 per year.

QUESTIONS AND ISSUES

ALLIANCE: A 3-mill, five-year renewal levy for parks and recreation (Stark and Mahoning counties).

BEAVER: A 1-mill, five-year renewal levy for fire services.

BEAVER: A 1.5-mill, five-year renewal levy for fire services.

BELOIT: A 6-mill additional levy for a continuous period of time for fire services.

LIQUOR OPTIONS

SPRINGFIELD PRECINCT 3: A Sunday liquor option at Columbiana Maze Craze, 14070 Woodworth Road, New Springfield.