BUYCYRUS — Crawford County voters had only one countywide issue during Tuesday night’s election, and defeated it soundly.
The Crawford County Children Services tax levy was denied with 1,036 voters (65.53 percent) opposed compared to voters 545 ballots for it (34.47 percent). The levy was a 1.5 million, eight-year measure.
The levy would have been used to pay for placement and time costs dedicated to 50 to 55 children with foster care needs in Crawford County.
“Well, I’m not surprised it failed,” said Crawford County Commissioner Doug Weisenauer. “People are fed up with paying taxes. It’s unfortunate we had to ask them to pay for these children.”
With the levy failing, Weisenauer said future plans depend on the state, as cuts could be looming. Weisenauer referred to the foster care children as “unfortunate victims” with the levy failure.
“For years, we’ve been struggling to cover costs,” the commissioner said. “We had to use our general fund to cover it.”
The levy in place brought the county $215,000 a year, and the funds to cover costs came out of the general fund. But that money is running dry, he said.
“This levy would have brought us over $1 million a year and reductions from the state are over $700,000 (currently),” he said.
Now the foster care system could be in jeopardy.
“That’s the question of the day,” he said in answer to what is the future of the foster care programs.
“Commissioners will have to meet and discuss options.” he said. “We have not done that yet.”
Also on Tuesday night, Bruce D. Truka retained his seat as first ward on the Bucyrus City Council with nearly 2/3 of votes going in his favor. Truka amassed 43 votes (63.24 percent) while Tyrrell received 24 votes (36.76 percent).
