Tt post aug 1, 2017

proposed:

The Lucas County officials have already bought or are close to buying the land to build the new jail.

County officials [last] month announced a $357,025 purchase agreement for three parcels on Angola Road, just west of South Byrne Road.

Last month, the commissioners approved placing a new county property tax levy on this November's ballot.

... a 1.9-mill countywide property tax levy on the Nov. 7 ballot to pay for a new county jail and fund criminal justice operations.

This November, if Lucas County voters reject the new property tax, then county officials will divert funds from other resources.

Mr. Gerken told those in attendance that if the levy fails, the jail will still be built, funded with money from a 0.25-percent sales tax approved in 1992 for public safety expenses. That funding currently helps pay for the EMS operations across Lucas County.

“For 25 years we’ve helped the city of Toledo, Sylvania, Oregon, Maumee pay for their EMS systems,” Mr. Gerken said. “We won’t be able to do that.”

Nice extortion tactic. Bars should be placed on government offices. Problem solved.

If the new levy fails, communities, including Toledo, would have to invent new revenue generating schemes to account for the loss of money for their EMS services.

Toledo is good at scheming. Maybe add more handheld speed cameras. Maybe the city can do a better job of hiding the fact that Toledo tickets drivers who obey the law. Maybe city hacks can increase the illegal refuse fee by a large amount.

We haz options for revenue schemes if the new countywide jail levy gets defeated.

Instead of stealing from its citizens, a community like Toledo could trim its budget in other areas. Yeah, right.

Toledo government doesn't want to deal with a loss of money. I'm guessing that Toledo officials will support the new jail and the new levy.

But Toledo city council still holds some power in this. The land for the new proposed jail site must be rezoned by city council.

To build the jails on the site, county officials must get Toledo council approval for rezoning to limited industrial use, said Tom Gibbons, director of the Toledo Plan Commission. The 30 acres are currently zoned residential, but are being used for farmland.

I don't know when Toledo city council will decide to vote to rezone the land. Will that occur before the November election when six Toledo city council at-large seats are up for grabs?

Mr. Gibbons said council also would have to approve special-use permits to construct the jails.

County commissioners have yet to request the required zoning change and special-use permits from plan commission staff.

Mr. Gibbons said rezoning the property to limited industrial would conform to the suggested land use in the Toledo 20/​20 Comprehensive Plan.

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actual