Leaders for the city of Xenia and Central State University have agreed to a pre-annexation proposal.
On June 11, Xenia city council will hold a public hearing and vote on the annexation proposal. Then Greene County’s commissioners will have a chance to weigh in.
This agreement will annex more than 327 acres of Central State's main campus. It does not include the Dayton campus.
Central State President Morakinyo Kuti sais this arrangement will go a long way to benefit the school, the staff and the students.
"It will stabilize one of our key areas of need, which is water and sewage," Kuti said. "And it will also make our fire and EMS service stabilized at a reasonable costs. We will save $250,000-$400,000 dollars."
Central State also will no longer pay a surcharge for water and sewage services, an additional 50%. The school’s current annual bill ranges between $800,000 to $1 million.
Xenia has supplied Central State with water since the 1950s and sewage services since 1979. The two parties have been in on-again-off-again talks about annexation for decades. In May, the city gave the school an extension to continue water and sewage services amid concerns that temporarily quieted negotiations.
As the agreement now stands, all employees on the Wilberforce campus who live outside of Xenia will be charged a 2.25% city income tax. That will bring in an estimated $720,000 in taxes for Xenia. However, during a May city council meeting, Assistant City Manager Eric Henry explained some of that revenue will be offset by the cost of providing F=fire and EMS services.
"We're looking at probably a net total increase of an estimated $216,000 a year. But the key thing to really focus on is that about $445,000 would be put into our general or key operating funds," Henry said. "So that could be used for public safety, it could be used for streets, road repair, things of that nature."
Once in effect, both sides will review the annexation agreement every sixth year and it will automatically renew every 10th year.
