Willard residents speak loud and clear

WILLARD — The voters have spoken — loud and clear. Willard residents passed a fire and police income tax levy 222-52 Tuesday night. That's an 81.02% to 18.98% margin. "We tried to inform the voters as well as we could," Willard City Manager Bryson Hamons said. "They responded and we are happy with the results." Of the 3,231 registered voters in Willard, just 8.51% of them turned out to vote. But the ones who did show up were clear about their decision. "I think they responded," Hamons said. "We do what we can with what we have. This will allow us to hire more firefighters in 2024 which will allow us to always have two abulances ready to go out the door. We will be able to respond quicker to fires and accidents. This will stabilize the fire and police departments. "It will allow us to hire three more police officers which will get our detictive staff up to two. This will help us train people and recruit some hometown people." Bryson said there are no guarantees with levies. "You never know. It was an opportunity for the voters to grade us and in five years they will get the opportunity again ... levies are basically grade cards and we feel good about the grade we received last night."