CHESAPEAKE — An operation levy for 2.75 mill will be on the upcoming ballot in Chesapeake that will help pay for current expenses from the general budget.

“We’ve been talking about this since last spring,” Chesapeake Mayor Dick Gilpin said. “It passed at the last council meeting to get on the ballot.”

Lawrence County Chief Deputy Auditor Chris Kline said the levy would bring in an estimated additional $33,150 annually for the village.

“We are getting decreasing amounts of money through local government funds and they go down every year while our expenses go up every year,” Gilpin said. “I’ve been told local government funds are likely to be cut even worse and they have already been reduced over 50 percent over the past several years.”

If passed, money wouldn’t come into the village until 2017.

“If we don’t do something now, we won’t have another source of income,” Gilpin said. “We’ve cut our village as far as we can cut it.”

Gilpin said he believes Chesapeake is the only municipality in the county currently without an expense levy and that it’s up to the people of the village to decide if they want to pass it.

“I think our village residents have always supported things we’ve put on the ballot that will benefit them,” Gilpin said. “We’re not doing it just to have more money. If they understand, they’ll support it.”