Rossford to vote on ditching TARTA

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ROSSFORD – Barring any intervening legal action, Rossford residents will get a chance to vote in November
on whether the city should withdraw from the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority.
The Wood County Prosecutor’s Office has ruled that voters should have the chance to decide the issue, and
that means, according to Terry Burton, director of the county board of elections, that the ordinance
calling for Rossford’s withdrawal from the system will be placed on the ballot.
The prosecutor’s office gave its opinion on the matter on Feb. 28, but it came to light at Monday’s City
Council meeting, when members of the Citizens Choice group, which had pushed for the ballot measure,
handed out copies of the opinion to city officials during the meeting.
Mayor Neil MacKinnon, who supported staying in TARTA, said he was surprised by it and couldn’t say what
if any action the city would take.
Burton said the board of elections doesn’t make any public announcements when an opinion it solicited is
rendered, but does release it when requested.
Robert Densic, one of the driving forces behind Citizens Choice, said he’d "heard through the
grapevine" that the opinion had been issued, and requested a copy.
Last June, City Council voted 5-2 to stay in the system, which has been a source of controversy in the
city for decades. A group of residents under the Citizens Choice banner collected enough signatures to
place the ordinance to leave TARTA on last November’s ballot, but election officials ruled the paperwork
was submitted too late, a decision confirmed by the prosecutor’s office.
Municipalities have been given the option to leave through state legislation if they acted by a November
2013 deadline.
The ruling signed by County Prosecutor Paul Dobson and assistant prosecutor Linda Holmes said that
Citizens Choice by starting the petition process before the deadline had met the intent of the statute,
and so the item must be put on the next general election ballot.
Burton said the signatures on the initiative petition have all been checked, and all other steps have
been completed. The board was simply waiting for the prosecutor’s opinion on whether to place the
ordinance on the November ballot. Had the opinion been issued earlier, it could have been on the May
ballot, he said.
"I’m elated to see it on the ballot," Densic said. "That’s where it belongs."
Opponents of TARTA have argued the system, which is funded by a property tax, is too expensive for the
service provided.
For years City Council explored ways to exit the system, until the legislation pushed by state Sen. Randy
Gardner (R-Bowling Green) gave communities a window during which they could exit.
Perrysburg voted to leave the system.
Rossford officials, however, studied how to provide transportation and found that providing what they
deemed a needed service would cost the city more than remaining with TARTA.

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