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CHILLICOTHE - The Ross County Commissioners approved a continuing levy for 1.5 mills for the Chillicothe and Ross County Library Tuesday, which will appear on the ballot in March.

The levy represents a $150 tax annually for a $100,000 dollar home value, or 15 cents per $1,000 of a home's worth.

The levy is not an increase in taxes for Ross County residents, simply a change from the previous five-year initiative for the same amount. 

The tax levy is for operating expenses, said Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library Director James Hill. The library is currently at the end of their second five-year levy.

"The issue with the five-year levy is that we never know if it is going to pass again in five years," said Hill. "So we tend to save that money, we have a bank of money that we are using to mainly renovate the Kingston branch right now, but If we can get a continuing levy, we can feel less like we have to sit on that money and we can continue to use it going forward instead of wondering where the next check is coming from." 

Two-thirds of the budget for the library comes from the public library fund through the state, said Hill. 

The library has recently completed renovations on the Huntington Branch Library and Mt. Logan Library, which was a satellite campus before recent renovations expanded it to become a full branch. 

The library system is now working on renovating the Kingston Branch Library, which is currently in the planning phase. Hill hopes to finish work on the branch by spring of 2020, but this is extremely tentative, he said. 

More people have been using the library than last year, with the library increasing its circulation by 13 percent over 2018, according to the library. 

The library is working to increase its outreach through programming, which has organized two major upcoming programs for the library: "From the bottom up, my journey back from addiction" with Richie Webber, which will take place Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the main library branch annex room B, and next year's Black History Month program, which will feature the Urban Jazz Coalition. 

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