“Growth came so quickly (in the 1980 and 1990s). It’s been a challenge to keep up with (road) maintenance,” said Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman.
The township currently collects a $5 motor vehicle license fee which has been in effect since 1987. Ohio law allowed a second $5 fee to be imposed in 2019 provided communities held two public hearings and met other criteria.
There were no comments from the public during the two public hearings trustees conducted in January before voting in favor of imposing the additional $5 fee.
“We put off this increase as long as we possibly could,’’ said Lisa Brown, assistant township administrator.
“At this point we don’t feel that we have a choice but to move forward with another consistent funding source for our roads program.”
The township purchased Pavement Management Group software last year to assess the township’s 240 miles of roadway. It found 64 percent were in fair or poor condition and only 36 percent of roads were in excellent or good condition.
“We did a third-party inspection of road conditions and verified that the condition of our roads is declining over time and that additional investment was needed,’’ Brown said.
The township plans to spend $6.3 million this year on road repairs, paving, curbs, and gutters this year, compared to $5.93 million last year, Wilson said.
It’s part of an $8.6 million roads fund that saw a nine percent increase from 2024 and a 26 percent increase from 2023, according to the township’s recently adopted operational budget.
The vehicle license tax fee that will be collected, Brown said, is only a band-aid for the funding issue.
“This will only take care of about half the problem,’’ Brown said.
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