Replacement levy on November ballot would keep Clark County parks funding at 0.6 mills

A replacement levy to fund Clark County parks will appear on the November ballot and would keep the district's property tax rate at 0.6 mills, Clark County Park District Director Leanne Castillo said on the City Manager podcast.

The measure is a replacement levy, meaning the millage rate would remain the same rather than increase, and the revenue is dedicated to the park district's day-to-day maintenance and operations, officials said. The district oversees 33 parks and about 2,000 acres of parkland, according to Castillo.

Castillo said the levy first passed in February 2011 and was renewed in 2015. Using the district's example, an owner with an assessed value of $100,000 would pay about $21 a year at the 0.6-mill rate. Castillo said recent property reappraisals could raise that amount by an average of $5 to $7, noting, "So that could be that you would be $28 a year for parks." She emphasized the replacement levy itself is not a new tax.

Castillo described a long-running consolidation of county park agencies as a reason the district believes it can deliver services more efficiently. "We had duplication of services. We had duplicate programs happening, and it allowed us to bring the organizations to one to minimize those costs," Castillo said, adding the merged organization has been operating for about 18 months.

The district encompasses a broad set of amenities and natural resources, officials said. Castillo noted the county's connection to a large paved trail network (described on the program as roughly 350 miles of continuous paved trail), waterways including Buck Creek, Beaver Creek and the Mad River, and nature preserves and historic sites such as George Rogers Clark Park, the Davidson Interpretive Center and the Kirby Preserve. She described recent and planned investments including the Riley River Play Reserve, a planned parking lot and a canoe and kayak launch.

Officials said funds from the levy are intended for routine upkeep: mowing, leaf pickup, building maintenance and other day-to-day operations. "Without this, we would not be able to do our job and get those things done," Castillo said on the podcast.

For factual information, Castillo pointed listeners to clarkcountyparks.org and ntprd.org and said a volunteer group called the Preserve Our Parks committee has information about the levy. On the same program, Brian Heck, identified as city manager for the city of Springfield, encouraged listeners to review those resources and noted the district's role in local quality-of-life and economic-development conversations.