Is battle in Union Township over? Nope!

The long running feud between the Union Township Advisory Board and Township Trustee Nathan Mihm is continuing with social media and area media websites lighting up like a Christmas tree.

The great majority of items debated on social media are not new but center around a request of Advisory Board members Scott Marbach and Jessica Roemer to see a detailed accounting of how the money Mihm is proposing to spend on behalf of the township is actually being spent and who is receiving the money.

Mihm’s reluctance to show members who is receiving money for such tasks as mowing, keeping the Union Township Hall up in running order, and taking care of the three cemeteries in the township to be in good condition, led by Roemer and Marbach to refuse to vote to approve the budget Mihm proposed.

Mihm, who has been the Union Township Trustee since 2014, submitted a budget that would spend $89,150. An open meeting back in October between township residents, the board, and Mihm did little to resolve any questions directed his way by the advisory board and the public.

Marbach said Friday that instead of using an accounting method that people could see who was getting paid for what,

“he just lumped everything together. We’re just asking to see where the money is going.”

It was learned that in November, a no trespass order was filed by Mihm against Roemer and Marbach that was served by an Adams County Sheriff’s Department deputy, However, this week, Adams County Sheriff Dan Mawhorr personally quashed that order saying Mihm was receiving money from the Union Township budget for using his residence as his office, which makes his residence a public access site.

“You can’t tell a taxpayer he’s not allowed to go on the property of a county property simply because of their disagreement,”

Mawhorr stressed, adding the deputy who initially served the no trespass order “didn’t know the whole story of what was going on out there. I made the decision to dissolve the no trespass order and personally told him that he should have office hours listed on his home if he’s going to claim it as an office. That way residents would know when they could come see him if they needed to do so.”

Mawhorr added that Marbach went through all the legal and proper steps to request a public information record from Mihm and that request was served on Mihm on Thursday of this week.

An attempt to find a copy of the proposed 2024 budget won’t be successful if a person goes into any office at the Adams Service Complex or Adams County Courthouse.

Adams County Auditor Tony Mellencamp pointed out that townships “are their own people and the county has nothing in it in terms of their budget. He said once passed the budget would go to state for review where it will almost routinely be cut.

“Items concerning township expenditures, receipts, and budgets can be found on line under Indiana Gateway, Mellencamp said. According to its website, Gateway “is the primary collection and publishing tool for local government units submitting their required reports to the State of Indiana. It has the benefits of digital collection into a robust data warehouse and immediate accessibility by taxpayers.”

Marbach said he and Roemer have both researched Gateway and have all of the information they could obtain from that site.

Reports indicate that when Mihm first took office as Trustee in 2014, the budget for Union Township was $37,249.49 and then soared to $105,776.31 in 2015.

Questions about how the money for the township is being handled have led many to request the Indiana State Board of Accounts to become involved in reviewing the matter, a fact that at least one television station in Fort Wayne has confirmed the ISBA is doing.

A request for information from the Indiana State Board of Accounts Friday by the Daily Democrat did not result in any communication from them, although such information would probably not be accessible while any review is ongoing.

The last audit performed by the state of Union Township’s books was done covering a period of January 1, 2018-December 13, 2021. Most townships in Adams County did not have any adverse comments from the state but they listed Capital Assets, Bank Account Reconciliations, Approved Depositories, and Receipt Issuance as areas that needed to be addressed and corrected with the criteria listed for the concerns.

Several attempts to reach Mihm for comment on this story were unsuccessful despite messages being left on his cell phone.