BY JANAE JOACHIM

Voters of the city of Wadsworth will have the opportunity on November 2 to vote on a two-part levy, one part of which will fund the construction of a new Central Intermediate School (CIS) building. The second part is a typical operations levy, something Wadsworth has not had in ten years.

If the levy is passed, the new CIS will be built where the three houses and empty land to the east of where the entrance of the high school is now located.

“Those three houses would all be torn down and combined with the land we already own there, and the plan would be to build a new intermediate school there,” said Douglas Beeman, Treasurer of Wadsworth City Schools.

The current CIS building was renovated in 2000. This renovation included infrastructure, HVAC, plumbing and general upgrades. These renovations were projected to last 20-25 years.

The plan is for the auditorium to be preserved for future use, but the rest of the building will be torn down.

Beeman and the rest of the school board are confident that this combination levy will pass because it has been such a significant amount of time since the last one and there is both an operating and bond levy fitting within the typical mill range.

“The last time that we passed an operating levy was in 2011. Typically, we go five to seven years between operating levies,” Beeman said.

A mill is how taxes are accessed on a property owner. One mill on a $100,000 house will cost the homeowner $35 per year.

For a typical levy, the board asks between 4.5-5.5 mills for a bond levy OR an operating levy. For this combination levy, the bond issue will be 2.4 mills and the operating portion will be 6.7 mills.

“We also have some millage from the construction of Lincoln, Franklin and the current middle school coming off the tax duplicate,” Beeman said.

In the end, the net tax increase will be 5.9 mills.

To see the entire Community Levy Information slideshow, click here.

To watch the the Community Levy Information concept animated tour of the new CIS, click here.