Trustees begin looking ahead to five-year projection
by Dan Holland
June 20 township trustees meeting
During a rescheduled meeting, Richfield Township Trustee Chair Don Laubacher expressed a desire to begin discussions with trustees on producing a five-year projection of the township’s general fund.
“It’s hard to adequately talk about a number of issues without having a five-year projection of our general fund,” Laubacher said during the meeting. “I imagine that because we took $200,000 out of the general fund this year for the road program, I expect that will cause us perhaps to have some additional funding coming in during the upcoming years.”
“We have four specific-purpose funds: police, fire/EMS, trash hauling, roads and one general fund that can be used for unspecified expenditures or to supplement any of the other four,” Laubacher told The Richfield Times. “Except for our roads fund, which has had heavy outflows recently, our other funds are in solid shape. Earlier this year, we authorized a transfer of $200,000 from our general fund to roads so that we can pave Glencairn as quickly as possible.”
Laubacher said he expects the township to generate additional tax revenues from the new Briarwood subdivision, the Joint Economic Development District and the 2026 Summit County property valuation reappraisals.
“I think a five-year general fund projection is needed to compare and analyze the expected revenue with potential new expenditures for things like hiring a land-use plan consultant, establishing a reserve fund for the next Glencairn paving, phasing out our trash-hauling levy, unforeseen road projects and offering additional services,” he added.
The topic may be discussed at the August 1 trustee meeting.
In other business, trustees:
- Adopted the Summit County 2024 Hazard Mitigation Plan.
- Approved the township’s health insurance plan with Medical Mutual through Burnham & Flowers Insurance Group, with an 11.9% cost increase over last year’s plan.
- Appointed Laubacher as representative to the Summit County Surface Water Management Advisory Committee.
- Declared six cellphones, 16 surface tablets, two HP desktops and one Dell laptop as outdated and no longer useable. The memory on the devices will be wiped clean prior to disposal.
Sewer meeting
Township homes in the Glencairn Forest subdivision receive sewer services through Richfield Village. Laubacher noted that Richfield Village Council is holding a special meeting on July 30 at 6:30 p.m. regarding the village’s plan to increase sewer rates. ∞