Return to Township Road District System Is Possible
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ It won't be easy, but it may be possible to dissolve the Perry County Unit Road District and return to a system with four individual road districts.
The first step towards that goal is to gather 1,116 signatures on a petition to place a referendum on the November ballot asking the Perry County Board to authorize a third-party audit comparing the current unit road district to a new system of four individual township road districts with elected road commissioners. Voters would decide whether or not they want the board to authorize the audit.
"If it passes, we will move forward," said Bruce Morgenstern, one of the organizers of Wednesday's meeting. "If it dies, I hope it dies well."
If voters agree that the audit should be done, the Perry County Board can then authorize it. The exact language of the petition has not been settled upon, but Morgenstern and co-organizer Bruce Rodely have suggested a $10,000 cap on the audit.
The audit may show that a return to the old system is not feasible. Much of the equipment owned by the township road districts was sold after the new unit road district was formed.
There are pros and cons to both systems. Voters will decide which they prefer.
Once the audit is complete, the results would be turned over to the state legislature, which would then have to vote to allow Perry County voters to decide whether or not to dissolve the Unit Road district.
While there is nothing in the statute that created the road district that governs how to dissolve a road district, the legislature may allow voters to decide to do so.
Morgenstern and Rodely presented their idea to a group of about 25 people, who all indicated they would help gathering the signatures on the petitions.
The audience demanded that the language of the referendum be straightforward- a 'yes' vote would indicate support for the audit and a 'no' vote would indicate opposition to the idea.
Morgenstern and Rodely assured them that would be the case.
A meeting is planned for Tuesday, July 13 to discuss how to properly gather signatures.
The petitions must be on County Clerk Kevin Kern's desk on Aug. 2.
Morgenstern said that state law requires that the number of signatures gathered be 11 percent of the voter turn-out for the last election. He was not sure whether the number of voters who cast ballots in the primary election or the general election would be used.
If the primary turn-out is used, only 408 signatures would be required. The larger figure is based on the general election last November and that is the goal.
Anyone interested in helping to gather signatures on the petition may call 357-1747 for more information.