Council discusses street levy in Tekoa

Tekoa City Council Jan. 23 again discussed whether or not to place a street improvement before the voters for a third time after the two previous attempts failed.

“It's gonna be an ongoing discussion,” said Mayor John Jaeger. “As far as I'm concerned, we're gonna run it in November. We have to. You can't keep taking money out of the general fund for streets.”

The $50,000 streets levy proposal failed Nov. 8, for the second time, with just 59 percent of the vote.

The money was set to pay for town road maintenance and streetlight operation.

Total vote count was 202 yes to 142 no.

The first proposal failed in November 2015.

After the levy failed the first time, Tekoa's council decided not to file the next February because of a potential conflict with a school levy.

Funds for the most recent street levy would have been collected at a rate of $1.64 per $1,000 in property valuation. For the 2015 levy, the rate was $1.85 per thousand.

If Tekoa decides to run the streets levy in November, the city will have to file by the Aug. 1 deadline.