WESTFIELD CENTER — Officials overseeing Westfield Fire & Rescue are searching for a different way to fund the department after Westfield Township trustees discovered some residents erroneously were excluded from voting on a funding issue.

The department serves not only the township, but the villages of Westfield Center and Gloria Glens within the township. Each entity funds the department differently. Westfield Center uses revenues from a 1 percent income tax. Gloria Glens contracts with the department and has a 3-mill levy, currently being collected at 1.3 mills, to support it, Medina County Auditor Mike Kovack said. The township has a separate fire levy.

At one time, there was movement to create a fire district, but that never was realized.

Medina County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Thorne explained Thursday the creation of a fire district including Westfield Center, Westfield Township and Gloria Glens was not completed, and a lack of communication between the entities and the Medina County Board of Elections led to only township residents voting in May and November last year on a 2.5-mill levy to support the fire department.

“The Board of Elections was advised they were forming a fire district, but they were never told it didn’t happen, only allowing the unincorporated areas vote,” Thorne said. Westfield Center and Gloria Glens are incorporated.

Without a fully formed fire district, Thorne said that typically all three entities in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the township would vote for fire levies.

Knowledge of the error was found after the 2.5-mill levy failed for the second time in May, township trustee Jim Likley said.

“We had (Westfield Center) village residents asking us why the polls weren’t open,” Likley said. “The only issue on the ballot was the Westfield fire levy, and it was only open to the unincorporated areas of the village.”

Likley said he would like the township and villages to vote on levies together without forming a joint fire district.

“We have (three) separate entities funding one fire department individually,” he said. “That one fire department needs to be funded by one source.”

In the meantime, trustees have decided not to put another 2.5-mill levy on the Nov. 3 ballot to allow time to decide how to proceed in correcting the error, township trustee Carolyn Sims said. She also said she would like to see the issue addressed within the next 18 months.

At a Village Council meeting Tuesday, Westfield Center Mayor Tom Horwedel went over several options to restructure how the department is funded, stating that “doing nothing” was “not a viable option.”
Horwedel said officials do not want to impose a new property tax on village residents in addition to the 1 percent income tax.

“I don’t know that residents would vote for a property tax when the 1 percent income tax already covers it,” Horwedel said.

Instead, he said village officials might support the creation of an unincorporated Westfield Township Fire District, which would create a separate financial entity with which Westfield Center could contract. In a fire district, not all entities would be required to vote; thus the village could continue supporting the department with income tax and not have to put a new tax on the ballot, Horwedel said.

However, Likley said there is not enough money in the village to support a separate fire fund, and a Westfield Township Fire District would prohibit the village from tapping into its general fund to supply the department.

“If a levy didn’t pass and the fund was short, the general fund could not supply an entity outside of the jurisdiction,” he said.

As an example, Sims said the township took money out of its general fund to purchase a $300,000 fire truck for the department, something trustees would not have been able to do under a joint district.

“The general fund is suffering, and ideally we don’t want to do that,” Likley said. “We want the department to be self-sustainable on the fire levy.”

Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@ohio.net.