NEWS

Senior center levy fails

Kate Snyder
Reporter

Levy supporters await the voting results on the levy for the Muskingum County Center for Seniors Tuesday evening at the center in Zanesville. The 20 year, 0.5-mill levy, which was going toward the building of a new $10.5 million facility, failed to pass, garnering only 45 percent of the vote.

ZANESVILLE – The levy for the Muskingum County Center for Seniors, which would have funded a new building for the center, failed Tuesday.

The levy fell 2,884 to 2,487, according to an unofficial count by the Muskingum County Board of Elections.

Ann Combs, director of the center, said that, regardless, the staff would continue to serve seniors and move forward.

"We will find a way to continue on and continue to do what we do," she said.

The 20-year 0.5-mill levy was slated to pay for building a $10.5 million facility, possibly near or on the Zane State College and Ohio University-Zanesville campuses.

It would have cost those with a home valued at $100,000 about $18 a year.

If the levy passed, construction was scheduled to break ground in the fall and the building was set to open by the end of 2016, near the time the Sunrise Center lease with Virginia-based Wahoo Land Holdings LLC expires.

The lease on the current building ends in August 2016.

"That will give us at least 15 months to come up with a plan B," Combs said.

There are other options for moving forward, she said. The levy could go back on the ballot in the future, or the center could move into a different building.

Combs said she doesn't foresee the center being at its current location on Sunrise Center Drive for longer than is necessary.

The center closed earlier this year primarily because of a slowly collapsing roof, which had been leaking for the past two years. The roof made a rapid decline during the rain this spring, but other problems included falling ceiling tiles, a corroded electric panel and damaged exit doors.

Last month, the center reopened after repairs to the roof and floor tiles, removing the corrosion on the electric panel and repairing the exit doors.

County commissioners have paid $1.5 million in rent since leasing a building in the Sunrise Center for the senior center in 1998.

Once repairs were completed, rent was set to increase from $9,300 a month to more than $12,000 as part of a stipulation in the lease the Muskingum County commissioners renewed last year. That lease ends Aug. 31, 2016.

Additional levies, unofficial results

Philo five-year, 2.5-mill levy for additional current expenses: Passed 38 to 22.

Dresden natural gas aggregation: Passed 61 to 28.

Jackson Township five-year, 0.6-mill levy for additional expenses maintaining and operating cemeteries: Passed 81 to 42.