{"id":187524,"date":"2026-05-08T21:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/187524\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T21:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:21:06","slug":"reading-voters-reject-bond-levy-for-key-city-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/187524\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading voters reject bond levy for key city upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Ohio \u2014 Nearly 70% of Reading voters this week cast ballots against a controversial bond levy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city proposed the levy, Issue 4, to raise funds to upgrade the police and fire departments and Veterans Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n

City leaders said the upgrades are long overdue.<\/p>\n

However, residents like Michele Naish, who voted against the levy, said it was simply too much money all at once. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t fiscally responsible,” Naish said.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Despite voting down the levy, some voters are hoping to work with the city on a better solution<\/p>\n

Reading voters reject bond levy for key city upgrades<\/p>\n

The levy would have cost homeowners a maximum of $206 per $100,000 of their home’s market value annually.<\/p>\n

The city planned to use the money to build a new fire department facility and allow the police department to move into the current fire station. Funds also would have gone toward stadium renovations, including new bleachers, a new track and a turf field.<\/p>\n

The project was estimated to cost between $25 million and $27 million.<\/p>\n

Naish said a majority of Reading voters weren’t ready to spend that much money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat needs to be respected and those voices need to be heard,” Naish said. <\/p>\n

Naish said she wants to make it clear that most people who voted against the levy aren’t against the upgrades that are needed.<\/p>\n

She said many people who opposed the levy still support the police, fire and school systems and want them to have the necessary resources.<\/p>\n

However, she said she believes there are better answers that aren’t as costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtilize all the people in the community, formulate focus groups, work with our business leaders and community leaders and get together with a plan that\u2019s going to benefit all of us,” Naish said.<\/p>\n

Naish said she and other residents have ideas for a reasonable middle ground. She said she believes it would be best to prioritize upgrades to the police and fire departments and address stadium improvements separately.<\/p>\n

\u201c4,600 of our people in this community are over age 50, they\u2019re never going to use that stadium,” Naish said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Robert “Bo” Bemmes said the city is ready to listen to other ideas.<\/p>\n

“The voters have spoken,” Bemmes said. “We’re going to continue to move forward to address issues with our police department, fire department, city hall and recreational opportunities.”<\/p>\n

Bemmes said anyone with ideas is welcome to present them at city council or reach out to him directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always willing to work with people, we\u2019re always here to listen,” Bemmes said. “If anybody has any plans, any ideas, we\u2019re always anxious to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Ohio \u2014 Nearly 70% of Reading voters this week cast ballots against a controversial bond levy. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[79402,79403,128,130,129,79404],"class_list":["post-187524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-9-on-your-side","tag-cincinnati-news","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-wcpo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}