VIENNA — Trustees moved forward Monday with placing a 3.5-mill fire levy on the May primary ballot.

The levy, which was a part of the scenario Trustee Mike Haddle previously said “realistically” gets the township out of fiscal emergency, would collect an estimated $490,000 annually, according to Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder, per the resolution read by Trustee Richard Dascenzo at a special meeting.

Broken down and at the tax rate of 3.5 mills for each $1 of taxable value, the township would bring in $123 for each hundred thousand of Yoder’s appraised value for a period of five years that would begin this year, but would be due in 2026.

Haddle said after the meeting that the 3.5-mill levy would replace the existing fire levies, netting an approximate $78 increase from the ones already on the books.

Officials clarified that the language for the levy they presented wasn’t set by them but by the state after residents expressed confusion about how it would read on the ballot or if the levy encompassed emergency medical services too.

“We don’t write this language, so it goes to the prosecutor’s office; they’re like, ‘This is how you word it,'”Haddle said. “But I understand what you’re saying; we want people to know that this is going toward trying to get our EMS services back.”

Haddle explained after the meeting that they had to have two readings to get the levy on the ballot for May and they were already cutting it close with the deadline being Feb. 5, which is why they had the special meeting.

“They (the board of elections) actually wanted it in by the end of this week,” Haddle said.

Haddle, who hosted one of his talks with the community on Jan. 13 to explain the levy, said later that he wanted to remind them the state will be overseeing the township’s finances for the next five years. Vienna was placed in fiscal emergency by the state auditor after it was discovered last year the township was more than $1.3 million in debt.

Former fiscal officer Linda McCullough has been charged with theft in office, among other crimes, and is set to appear in court March 5.

“The other thing is, our levies are almost 20 years old; they haven’t been updated and they need to be updated,” Haddle said. “It’s like with any other business; our inputs are going higher and higher and the money that we have to operate with is getting lower and lower. And levies mature — you lose money because everything inflates in value. You lose money as things progress.”

Haddle said the levy passing will be “step one” to being able to fund a part-time fire service, as it will get people back into the fire station and they’ll be able to start paying down on some of its debt. It also will allow for capital expenses, he said.

“I don’t want to use the levy to repay all of the debt, but I want to set up the levy up the proper way,” Haddle said. “I don’t like multiple levies on a ballot, where people constantly have to go and feel like, renewal, renewal, renewal, every time they go (to the polls).”