UPDATE: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Voters first supported a parks millage in 1984. Since then, it has been renewed four times.

Parks and Recreation Director LuAnn Maisner said they collect about $500,000 a year on the millage. It covers maintenance costs, but doesn't provide enough for projects and improvements.

"There's been zero fund balance for parks since 2007 I think," she said. "And so we've been in a planning mode. And people have been excited about things we talk about but there's no action because there's no money."

The estimated cost of maintenance and improvements over the next 12 years totals $15 million.

For a home valued at $200,000, the proposed millage would be an additional tax of $66 per year.

The new millage proposal will be in conjunction to the existing one, allowing the parks to collect money from both millages until 2016.


ORIGINAL STORY: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Even though there may not be another election until 2014, the Department of Parks and Recreation is working on a new millage proposal.