CAMPBELL — City Councilman Timothy O’Brien, D-1st Ward, is relieved voters approved a 3.6-mill, three-year continuous property tax levy Tuesday, but he tempered that feeling with a sense of urgency and practicality.

“We desperately needed it for the people,” O’Brien said, referring to consistent ambulance service for the city because of the levy’s approval. “People should be thankful it passed; otherwise, we would have been in hot water.”

O’Brien made his feelings known after a monthly town hall meeting Mayor Bryan K. Tedesco conducted Wednesday evening at the community center in Roosevelt Park.

A primary tenet of the levy is it will provide funding to allow the city to enter into a three-year agreement with Emergency Medical Transport for ambulance service 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The city had just enough American Rescue Plan dollars to pay the North Canton-based company until Dec. 31.

EMT began serving the city of nearly 8,000 Sept. 1.

The levy will generate around $250,000 annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $120 per year.

“Twelve bucks is going to save your life,” O’Brien said, referring to the estimated monthly added cost for the owner of a $100,000 home.

The few dozen residents who attended the session also received information from two Aqua Ohio representatives who outlined a variety of structural and other improvements that have occurred since the company bought the Campbell Water Works plant in January 2020 for about $7.5 million.

An estimated $3.8 million has been spent since then on upgrades and connecting the system to Aqua Ohio’s Poland facility. In addition, several booster systems have been modernized with little service interruption to Campbell residents — and with no noncompliance issues, Jennifer Johnson, the company’s area manager, said.

Other work that has been done since the purchase includes changing certain fire hydrants and valves in Campbell to more efficiently address waterline breaks; revamping the Campbell facility on Tenney Avenue to meet newer standards; creating a more modern booster system to pump water from the Wilson Avenue site to other parts of Campbell; establishing two distinct pressure zone areas for more consistent water pressure to residents; and removing about 97% of water meters in the city, most of which were antiquated, unreliable and incompatible with the new system, Johnson said.

In addition, Aqua Ohio, which serves about 23,000 Mahoning County residents, locked in water rates for five years through 2024, she said, adding that rates had been negotiated for the improvements.

Joe Tovarnak, the Poland plant’s manager, said the system also has “redundancies,” meaning if one facility becomes nonfunctional, the others can provide backup, along with the ability to more readily and effectively isolate and repair service problems.

Also addressing attendees was Mahoning County Prosecutor Gina DeGenova, who provided an overview of her office’s functions, programs and top priorities, including what she feels is the need for increased transparency and community outreach.

To that end, she said she is planning to host monthly town hall sessions starting in January.

She also provided an update on Hope, a rescue dog that is being trained as a therapy dog to offer comfort and compassion to those who have been victims of, or witnesses to, crimes. The animal is nearly finished with its first year of training and will be tested early next year, then certified to work with them, she said.

“She costs nothing to taxpayers,” DeGenova said, adding, “Dogs make people feel better.”

In addition, the office has a registry for those with special needs, a speaker’s bureau and information on how to avoid being a victim of fraud and scams, she said.

Tedesco also announced the city’s annual Christmas in the Park gathering is set for 3 p.m. Dec. 3 at Roosevelt Park. The event will include a tree-lighting ceremony.