BOARDMAN — It’s back to the drawing board now that voters have turned down a levy for ambulance service in the township.

According to incomplete and unofficial results from the Mahoning County Board of Elections, 56% of voters said “no” to the 4.5-mill additional levy that would have raised $6.1 million per year for five years.

When reached just after 184 of 212 precincts had been tallied, Brian Hallquist, president of Boardman Professional Firefighters Local 1176, said he was disappointed by the outcome.

“We’re very upset,” he said. “Our guys put a lot of work in, getting the word out.”

Fire Chief Mark Pitzer was unavailable at press time.

Township Administrator Jason Loree said in a text message it will be a struggle to keep up with demand for services.

“Effectively, we will be pulling back on our ambulance’s uptime to get overtime under control and will reevaluate how we can maintain mutual aid with our neighboring communities,” he said.

Had the levy passed, Boardman would have had three ambulances to service the community, one at each of the township’s three fire stations. The money would have gone to cover staffing, uniforms, equipment, fuel and ambulance and equipment replacement.

Some residents who opposed the initiative have said they’re already overtaxed, can’t afford more taxes and don’t understand the need when Lane LifeTrans is operating in the township.

Lane, a local provider of EMT and paramedic services, is contracted with Boardman to staff two ambulances in the township, but those units also answer calls in several other communities.

According to trustees, Mahoning County has two ambulance services, down from 11 in previous years. They argued they didn’t want to be left without service, should Lane fold unexpectedly. Emergency Medical Transport, Inc. also provides service but it primarily serves the city of Youngstown, they have said.

Pitzer has said that having to rely on mutual aid from other communities, along with long response times from Lane, is not what township residents deserve.

Boardman, with a population of about 40,000 people, will be left without sufficient coverage, he has said.

There have been 50 occasions in the last year when ambulance response took longer than 10 minutes and five occasions when it took longer than 20 minutes, Pitzer said previously.

The Cardinal Joint Fire District in Canfield responded to calls in Boardman 144 times last year, according to the department.

Trustees said recently they received letters from Canfield and Poland’s Western Reserve Fire District, saying they wouldn’t have been able to continue providing emergency mutual aid to Boardman if the township wasn’t able to provide ambulance aid to their communities.