In addition to attending backyard barbecues, visiting beaches and boating on lakes, Oxford Township residents will have one more thing to do this summer – go to the polls.

Last week, the township board in successive 6-0 votes approved ballot language for two millage proposals to be decided in a special election scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Voters will be asked to approve a 10-year, 1-mill request to fund the parks and recreation department’s operations and a five-year, 3.9152-mill request to continue paying for police protection provided by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value.

If approved, the parks and rec. tax levy would begin in December 2020 and end in December 2029. It’s expected to generate $939,798 in its first year.

“If the people like what we have done, then they’ll support the 1 mill,” said Parks and Rec. Director Ron Davis.

The police tax, if approved, would be levied from December 2020 through December 2024. Its first levy is expected to generate approximately $3.17 million.

Only township residents living outside of the village pay this tax because the village funds and operates its own police agency.

Both millage proposals represent renewals combined with small increases. The parks and rec. tax rate is currently 0.8234 mill, while the police tax is 3.7939 mills.

The existing parks and police millages are set to expire with the December 2019 tax collection, which means both services will have funding in place for the 2020 fiscal year, but nothing beyond that.

“It’s crucial that we pass this in August or the parks and recreation department that we all know now will cease to exist in its current (form after 2020),” Davis said.

Davis noted that prior to him taking over as department head in 1995, township voters had approved 1 mill for the service. When he arrived in Oxford, the operating tax rate had decreased slightly

“In that 24-year period (since then), we have never went back and successively asked for an increase to get back to that original 1 mill,” Davis told the board.

Instead, he said his staff got “creative” and obtained additional funding through grants, donations and partnerships.

Davis noted the department has grown significantly since his arrival. In 1995, there were two parks – Stony Lake and Seymour Lake – and two full-time employees, including himself.

Back then, Seymour Lake didn’t have many  of the amenities it contains now, such as the splashpad, soccer fields, Kids Kingdom playground, community room and senior center.

“(It) consisted of four softball fields, four basement fields, the Smith Silo and four tennis courts,” Davis said.

Today, the department is responsible for more than 500 acres of parkland spread across four township parks and has seven full-time employees that maintain them and oversee programs.

But just because the parks department has grown doesn’t mean it has become wasteful, according to Davis. “I’ll be the first one to say we’re fiscally responsible with every penny that we have,” he said.

For example, Davis pointed out the department still uses a tractor from 1998.

“We try to do what we can with what we have,” he said.

With regard to the police millage proposal, township Trustee Jack Curtis noted the rate is “the same amount” that was approved by voters in the November 2014 election.

Since that election, the sheriff’s substation has been able to add two officers – bringing the staffing level up to 17 officers – and add services, such as a bicycle patrol that’s utilized on pedestrian trails, inside parks and during community events, like the Seymour Celebration.

“Your tax dollars are being (used) very well by our sheriff,” Curtis said.

Curtis noted the Oxford substation had the second highest clearance rate of the 12 substations in the county.

Of the 259 crimes reported last year, 63.71 percent were cleared or closed, meaning they either resulted in an arrest or were cleared by exceptional means.

“That’s a very high rate, second only to Brandon Township,” Curtis said.