Committee shares information about need for additional funding
Greg Myers, chairman of Keep Our Police Strong Citizens Committee, hosted a Facebook Live presentation Thursday night at the shelter house in Cridersville, but not before dealing with technical difficulties.
The presentation, which was supposed to start at 7 p.m., didn't start until after 7:15, and even after it started it was extremely difficult to hear - as shown through the comments section of the presentation.
"Fundamentally, the Wi-fi at the shelter house at Tower Park… was insufficient to do the kind of broadcast that we had intended," Myers said. "We should have done it at Cridersville Elementary School or another building that had a stronger wi-fi. I think it would have worked."
He said they started with a tablet, but that didn't work and ultimately recorded it with a phone. Myers said the phone didn't have the audio capability the tablet would have, and was the likely reason for the hearing difficulties.
According to Myers, the event will remain posted to the Cridersville Police Levy - Citizens Committee Facebook page, although he did suggest if you're interested in seeing it to wait a day or two for them to fix Thursday's audio problems. And if audio isn't fixable, Myer's said the video will be removed.
The presentation was designed to answer the most popular questions citizens have raised to the committee about the proposed .5 percent tax income increase since it was approved to appear on the May 4 ballot.
"We're trying to use a very open-book strategy ," Myers said. "For some people it's going to be way more than they want to know, but we think it needs to be out there so that anyone who really wants to drill down and make a very informed decision about this will have that information available to them on our Facebook page."
Currently, Cridersville's tax rate is one percent, and the additional .5 percent would add $180,000/ year and could only be used to help fund the police department. The council said a local, full-time department is needed because of the activity in the village and its proximity to I-75.
According to the committee, the police department’s primary responsibility is prevention and response. And while it is possible to contract with the Sheriff's Department, weekend coverage alone would cost roughly the same as 40 percent of the village's yearly budget in 2020.
The committee said money was needed to offset lost revenue over the past 10 years. The loss of the Ohio Inheritance Tax alone proved a significant decrease in revenue, as it provided more than $800,000 to Cridersville's general fund.
The new tax revenue would only be used for police funding.
The committee also said anyone without a taxable income or a federal income tax return won't have to pay the income tax.
To see how the additional .5 percent increase could affect you, a chart is available on the Cridersville Police Levy - Citizens Committee Facebook page.
Last year's department expenses totaled $392,140. Cridersville Police Chief Paul Robbins made $58,500. The lieutenant made $23.30/hour. A full-time officer made $14.50/hour, while a part-time officer made $12/hour. A part-time detective made $5,000 for the year.
Since the presentation, Myers said questions and comments are being collected and will be presented at a later date, although he said Thursday's comments were more likely related to a different topic.
"I suspect that the comments last night were 'where are you; we can't hear you,'" Myers said.
Despite the setback, he said they'll continue pushing information on Facebook .
For anyone who wants to see the complete list of questions asked by residents and a financial summary of the past 10 years, they can go to either the Cridersville library or the group's Facebook page.
Anyone interested in getting involved in the campaign or donating to them can contact Myer's group via its Facebook page at Cridersville Police Levy - Citizens Committee.