A replacement levy to make the tax collection based on current property values failed in November and Ohio law now disallows replacement levies. The renewal levy is based on 2011 property values, so homeowners would not see any tax increase as they would have with the replacement.
“We’re still operating on the money that we collected in 2011, even though we’ve had 15 years of price increases and material increases,” Director Leann Castillo said.
The levy provides 75% of the park district’s operating budget for park maintenance, Castillo said.
The district manages 33 parks, more than 2,00 acres, 30 miles of bike trails and 12 miles of river, Castillo said.
“The parks are in the central part of the quality of life of everyone in Clark County and the reality is it is a very reasonable expense for what is given back,” levy committee member Ed Leventhal said.
Funds from the levy do not go toward new additions to the park, which instead are sometimes the result of community or organization donations, like the playground and spray ground at Snyder Park that were funded by the Rotary Club, Castillo said.
People may take the ability to bike on a path, have a picnic, take their kids to athletic events or playgrounds for granted, not realizing the maintenance that goes into these spaces, Castillo said.
The district offers programs for everyone from 6 months old to 120 years old, Castillo said.
If the levy does not pass this May, Castillo said the parks have one more chance in November with current funding running through 2026, but she said they don’t want to chance it.
The district’s most recent renewal passed with 68% of the vote. With the most recent failure, by 2.5%, Castillo said many voters came out to vote against other tax issues which may have had an impact on the parks.
There are more than 97,000 parks program participants in cultural, environmental and recreational activities each year, according to the park district.
The Clark County Park District merged with the National Trails Parks and Recreation District in 2024 for more consistent and unified offerings.
Along with the more than 2,000 acres of parkland, the district also manages the Carleton Davidson Baseball Stadium, the Chiller ice rink, Springfield’s skateboard park on Mitchell Avenue and Splash Zone.
With this May election expected to see lower turnout than last November, Leventhal said he is concerned people who support the parks may not vote.
“Their support doesn’t do any good if they don’t get a ballot and so I think one of the things that we need to work on pretty heavily is to be sure that people do vote,” he said.
The district is always open to community ideas and suggestions for improvements, Castillo said.
“I just want the community to understand how important this is and the loss of that could be detrimental to what we all know our parks to be and we want to make sure that we’re still providing the programs and activities and facilities that we always have,” she said.
The deadline to register to vote in the primary is April 6, and early in-person and absentee voting begins April 7 and continues until Election Day.
This year, Ohio elections will operate a little differently after Senate Bill 293 passed, which eliminated a grace period that allowed mail-in absentee ballots to be counted up to four days after the election. Now, all domestic mail-in ballots will have to reach the board of elections by the time polls close on Election Day.
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