Turkey Creek Township Barb Griffith presented her budget for second reading at the township board meeting Thursday, Sept. 29.

The meeting was rescheduled after the Monday, Sept. 12, meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum.

The proposed 2017 budget, excluding funding for the fire territory, totals $226,700.

The fire department’s operation budget for next year is $1,653,535; its equipment replacement budget is $513,500.

All told, Griffith requested $2,393,735 for 2017.

The final vote on the budget will take place at the board’s Monday, Oct. 10, meeting.

For the township budget, Griffith proposed:

• $47,500 for personal services, including salaries and wages and the township’s share of Social Security

• $69,200 for township services and operating expenses. More than half of the request, $37,500, is allocated for cemetery care,as the township is in the midst of its multi-year program to remediate its six cemeteries.

• $1,500 for machinery and equipment and $500 for office supplies

• $5,000 for burials and ambulance service

• $59,000 in other poor relief, such as food and household supplies, shelter, fuel and medical services

• $7,000 to the park foundation for the use of ball fields and $7,000 toward lifeguard wages

Griffith also reserved $30,000 for the township’s rainy day fund “to make sure we have enough to pay for the cemetery work among other things,” she said.

Griffith also reported on her office’s year-to-date expenditures. She noted an August tax distribution of $1,107,132 to the fire territory for its operations and equipment replacement funds.

She also made a $7,000 donation to the parks department for the use of ball fields and skating rink. “In another month or so we will be giving the town $6,000 for lifeguards,” she reported.

Griffith reported the individual doing the cemetery remediation is currently on a job in Iowa but “she will return in October.”

“We may not get that done this year,” she said, “but we can encumber the funds to pay for the work next year.”

Fire Chief Mickey Scott reported he received a $56,832 estimate to complete the second floor of Fire Station 2 and the “second contractor should have an estimate for Station 1 work before the next board meeting.”

Scott also announced the department participated in the Thursday, Sept. 29, Indiana Bicentennial Torch relay as it passed through downtown Syracuse.

“We pulled the vehicles out of the station and put the lights on to direct attention to the torch exchange that took place right in front of the station,” he said.

The department will also participate in the Wawasee High School homecoming parade Friday, Sept. 30, he said.

No one from the public attended the meeting.

The board will next meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, at Syracuse Town Hall.