Beavercreek tax levy for roadwork passes by tight margin

Final counts show city voters rejected police levy, but passed streets levy by 50.2% to 49.8% ratio.
Paving crews repair streets and curbs in Beavercreek. FILE

Paving crews repair streets and curbs in Beavercreek. FILE

Beavercreek voters have passed the 2.15-mill streets levy on the Nov. 8 ballot by a margin of 80 votes out of more than 21,000, per final election results announced Tuesday by the Greene County Board of Elections.

The levy passed with 10,585 votes in favor, and 10,505 votes against it — a 50.19% to 49.81% ratio.

“We want to thank the more than 20,000 Beavercreek residents who voted in this year’s election,” said Beavercreek Mayor Bob Stone. “The city appreciates their support and investment to continue moving the city forward. As always, myself and city council vow to be good stewards of this funding provided by our residents.”

At the end of Nov. 8, the streets levy was passing by a margin of 33 votes, with 10,123 in favor, and 10,090 against. After Election Day, the Board of Elections then reviews provisional ballots to see which are valid, and also counts any absentee ballots that were postmarked on time and arrived between Election Day and the Nov. 18 deadline.

The board finalized the election results Tuesday afternoon.

“The passage of this levy will allow us to continue to improve road conditions throughout the city, including street resurfacing,” said Pete Landrum, Beavercreek city manager. “It will also permit the city to leverage levy dollars in order to aggressively continue applying for grants to fund larger road projects.”

Beginning in January 2023, the 2.15-mill street levy will raise property taxes for city of Beavercreek residents by $75.25 annually per $100,000 of appraised home value. Money from the levy will allow the city to address increasing maintenance requirements and hire five new employees. The city is also dedicating an additional $1 million towards its annual street resurfacing and curb replacement program for 2023.

Beavercreek’s Public Service Division maintains 577 lane miles of streets across nearly 28 square miles of the city.

Beavercreek placed two levies on the ballot for Nov. 8, one for streets and one for police. Voters rejected a new 2.5-mill police levy on Election Day, with 53% of voters against it and 47% of voters in favor. Money from that levy would have allowed for hiring five new police officers, buying and maintaining equipment, and would have provided long-term funding for new police facilities.

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