The tiny village of Valleyview near the Columbus Hilltop neighborhood is officially its own township, after the Franklin County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the village to sever its ties with Franklin Township in order to go in search of a new fire protection contract with a neighboring municipality.
“This is 110% a good thing,” said the village’s first-term Mayor Jim Mattox, who took over in January, noting that both the village and the authorities who will govern the remaining township area agreed on the move. Franklin Township provides services generally within the I-270 loop between I-71 on the east over to just north of I-70 to its north.
The new Valleyview Township is being created under a section of state law allowing for “paper townships,” or townships on a map only, which don’t act as functioning units of municipal government because the land atop them has been incorporated into a city or village that is taking over.
While the about 650-resident village has its own three-officer part-time police force, it relied on Franklin Township for fire protection – which has increasingly become more expensive, and which village residents have become a driving force behind defeating new levy increases to fund, Mattox said Tuesday. A new five-year fire levy question would raise taxes by about $513 per $100,000 in home valuation, and likely add significantly to village residents’ tax bills.