All About The Money At Meetings
SYRACUSE — Turkey Creek fire territory and township advisory boards considered a full slate of fiscal requests Monday night, July 13, in Syracuse Town Hall.
Both boards voted to approve Fire Chief Mickey Scott’s proposed operations budget of $1,615,762 and equipment replacement fund request for $312,000.
The 2016 budget entails decreases in operating supplies and insurance premiums and a 3 percent raise for existing employees, whose salaries have remained stagnant the past three years. All told, next year’s budget represents a 3.4 percent increase over 2015.
The fire territory board approved Scott’s request to add one staff member to the department’s roster, who would serve in an administrative and training capacity and fill in on emergency calls for other firefighters taking vacation or attending out-of-house training courses.
The new department member, who will likely not qualify as an overtime exempt employee, will start Jan. 1, 2016.
Both boards also gave the go-ahead to purchase $36,546 worth of equipment for the exercise room in Fire Station 1, including a weight lifting station and bench, treadmill, elliptical trainer, dumbbells, plates, bars and other accoutrements.
The money will come out of the equipment replacement fund; the expenditure was necessitated when the department’s grant application was turned down.
The township advisory board approved Trustee Barb Griffith’s proposed 2016 budget. Griffith proposed an uptick in the “other services and charges” line item, prompted largely by increases in insurance and cemetery maintenance.
The increases were offset by decreases in poor relief, an eventuality attributed by Griffith to township residents “getting back to work.” In all, next year’s budget, at $187,600, represents a 3 percent decrease from this year’s expenditures.
In other business, Scott reported the department:
• Responded to 223 emergency calls in May and June, including 33 fire and 190 EMS responses;
• Recently received the ballistic vests previously approved for purchase;
• Obtained two power ambulance cots partially funded through a grant request;
• Provided standby services for the July 3 Syracuse Lake fireworks and July 4 Lake Wawasee fireworks, with no emergencies being reported;
• Held its annual pork chop and chicken fundraiser, selling out its entire inventory in three hours;
• Provided the public with 16 carbon monoxide detectors and 14 smoke detectors;
• Requested estimates to improve “the overall appearance of Station 1 after the second story has been added.”
Griffith reported at the township advisory meeting the Byers Cemetery renovations are “about one-third done. I think they are doing a beautiful job,” she said. After those renovations are completed, the contractors will commence work on Bethel Cemetery.
The board appropriated funds to install fences around three cemeteries. The installation will begin after renovations are finished.
The final item of the evening involved complaints of contractors blocking easements at township lakes. The board directed township attorney Andrew Grossnickle to research the existing regulations and send written notices to area contractors.
The fire territory board will next meet at 6:45 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, at Syracuse Town Hall, with the township advisory board meeting following immediately thereafter.