Perkins lobbies for levies

PERKINS TWP. — Normally, it's the police officers and firefighters who respond to situations coming from locals. Come Election Day, however, Perkins Township's safety service officials put out a call in hopes of the public supporting an important cause. Those who live in the township can expect to see these two related levies on their Nov. 8 ballots: • A five-year, 5.5-mill renewal levy for police protection • A five-year, 5.5-mill renewal levy for fire protection and emergency medical services Approving either measure translates to maintaining the same taxing level a local property owner pays today as first approved in 2012 and 2013. In other words: Taxes won't increase with a "yes" vote. An owner of a $100,000 home pays $289 per year for each levy. When combined, the collective amount should total about $578 per year. "The failure of the renewal levies this year would have a very significant and negative impact on the ability of the township to provide critical public safety services to residents, businesses and visitors, especially at a time when the fire department and police department are responding to an increasing number of calls for service and assistance," township administrator Gary Boyle said. He continued: "The renewal levies scheduled for consideration by voters on Nov. 8, 2022, will provide ongoing and necessary funding for the fire department and the police department and are different than the new levies that provided additional funding for the operation of those departments last November." Sounding off Frontline first responders representing both departments offered up statements as to why voters should support these levies: "They've supported it in the past, so we would like for them to continue their support in the future. It helps with our day-to-day communications, and it also helps with our community-oriented policing, which we take so much pride in. We talk and deal with the community on a day-to-day basis, and we have many different functions and different programs that we do with the community to help in this aspect, which makes for a better police department overall." — Perkins police Sgt. Brent Adams "The fire department is needed to maintain safety within the township with EMS calls, fire calls, public education service calls, changing elderly people's smoke detectors, doing home fire safety inspections and more. We've come a long way. Our staff is now eight (people) a shift, and we need to maintain the current level of service we are providing. If we can't, then we can't continue to operate and provide the services that we do." — Perkins firefighter Bryan Brace "People should support it, as it helps us with community policing programs regarding our residents. It will also help out with our officers and retention, keeping police staffing numbers high, which will mean better response times and better-trained officers." — Perkins police Officer Luis Rodriguez "We just need to continue to build upon what we already have established here and to continue to provide the best care for the township residents. We would appreciate your ongoing support." — Perkins firefighter Zach Taylor "We should all support the levy in order for us to continue the great police work, investigations and all of the other work, like policing our neighborhoods, that we do. We need to continue to have funding to have the right equipment to keep our streets safe. To do that, we completely rely on our community to help us so that we can help them." — Perkins police Officer Michael Jarrett "The levy provides us with stability to continue serving the township through fire and EMS, and it will continue to help us better ourselves in the future." — Perkins firefighter Brian Martin