The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)

Trustees approve budget

The budget will total about $6.8 million

- By Bill DeBus bdebus@news-herald.com @bdebusnh on Twitter

Madison Township trustees on Feb. 12 approved a 2019 budget that totals about $6.8 million.

Although this year’s budget is about $1.2 million higher than the 2018 permanent appropriat­ions plan, much of that increase stems from grant money that the township received for several major projects, Trustee Board Chairman Kenneth Gauntner Jr. said.

“It’s a large budget for us, but there’s also a lot of what I call pass-through money,” he noted.

Gauntner explained that pass-through money is funding that goes into the budget and comes out from sources other than the township, such as state grants.

The township last year was awarded two separate Community Developmen­t Block Grants, for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, totaling about $382,000 for restroom improvemen­t and constructi­on projects at Stanton Park.

In addition, the township received an Ohio Public Works Commission grant for $367,700 to repair and resurface Canterbury and Shelly drives. With the OPWC grant, the state and township will split the project cost 50/50 — for a contributi­on of $183,850 each.

“So we’ve got a number of monies that we’re going to acquire in grants that go through the system, but it’s not actual property tax revenues,” Gauntner said. “It’s grant money from the state.”

The 2019 budget also includes about $140,000 that the township has set aside in hopes of acquiring a salt dome for the Service Department, Gauntner said. Madison Township also is allocating another $140,000 to add a new 1.5- to 2-ton dump/ plow truck to the Service Department’s fleet.

Other expenditur­es that must be covered in 2019 are election costs. The township is seeking passage of replacemen­t levy for Police Department operations in the May 7 primary, and the seats of two current government leaders, Trustee Peter Wayman and Fiscal Officer Terry Gerred-Ditchcreek, will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

“We have to pay the Board of Elections for those elections as the price of doing business,” Gauntner said.

In 2018, the township spent only 88 percent of its total appropriat­ions — which is where it likes to be, Gauntner said. He hopes that the township will repeat that performanc­e with this year’s $6.8 million budget.

Trustee Peter Wayman is confident that the township will achieve that goal.

“I think we’ve been very consistent in keeping under our budget each year, and we’ll continue to work towards that,” Wayman said.

Gauntner commended Gerred-Ditchcreek, township Administra­tor Tim Brown, Police Chief Matthew Byers and Service Department Supervisor Paul Cook for working diligently on the permanent appropriat­ions plan for 2019.

“We put together a pretty strong budget,” Gauntner said. “I want to thank everybody for all the work they did on it. It’s a long process.”

“I think we’ve been very consistent in keeping under our budget each year, and we’ll continue to work towards that.” — Trustee Peter Wayman

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