LIBERTY TWP. — Voters in this fast-expanding township will be asked to approve two levies in November, one for parks and recreation and another for fire services.

        Both levies, a 0.75-mill park levy and a replacement 3-mill fire levy, will span five years.

        The park levy would cost the owner of a $200,000 home $46 a year. The fire levy would replace a property tax increase of the same millage approved by voters in 1997 and would cost the owner of a $200,000 home $61 a year.

        “We have had a lot of requests for parks and people have shown a lot of interest,” Trustee Christine Matacic said. “You get to the point where you have to go to the voters and say, "OK, you want all these things, and can we financially support them?' We are growing and it takes money to maintain parks.”

        The levy is needed to buy and develop 54 acres of parkland the township voted in July to buy for $2.5 million. The property's owners donated about 12 of those acres to the township. The parkland is on the north side of Wilhelmina Drive west of Yankee Road.

        Township officials are trying to find other ways to pay for the new parkland and recently applied for a $1.2 million grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Land and Water Conservation Fund Program.

        The township closes on the land deal in October.

        The vote to put the replacement fire levy on the November ballot was unanimous.

        The vote on the park levy was 2-1. Trustee David Kern agreed with Ms. Matacic to place the park levy on the ballot, but Trustee Bob Shelley objected. He said the township hadn't done enough research and should wait until May to go to voters.

        “I am not in favor for a levy, not without more citizen input,” he said.

        The township had to act Monday to meet Thursday's deadline to place the levy on the November ballot, Ms. Matacic said. If the matter were delayed until May, the township would risk having to pay for a special election.

        Mr. Kern said he was leery about placing the levy on November's ballot but would go along with it because he already has committed to buying the land.

        Levies might have difficulty passing this fall in light of property reappraisals this summer in Butler County, Mr. Shelley said.

        Residents say they have been hit hard by the reappraisals, which will raise next year's property taxes. The average property appraisal in the county increased 16 percent. Liberty homeowners will see an average 18 percent increase.

        “I am just sitting here thinking, "Not another levy, even if it is for a park,”' resident Naomi Ormes told trustees. “It's a little overwhelming as a taxpayer. ... If I can't afford a new dress, I don't go buy it.”

        But other neighbors say it is crucial the levy passes because so many newcomers are pouring into Liberty Township that green space must be set aside now before it is swallowed by further development. Of the 6,000 homes predicted to rise in southeastern Butler County over the next five years, most would be built in Liberty.

        “One of these days, we are going to wake up and there isn't going to be any land left to play on,” said resident Pam Naber, president of Lakota Sports Organization.

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