Commission to help Vienna Township get out of fiscal emergency

VIENNA, TWP., (WKBN) – Representatives from different state and county offices met Monday night to discuss how to help Vienna Township move forward after the state declared a fiscal emergency.

At the Vienna Township Hall, officials met to lay out their plans for the township, calling it the Vienna Township Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.

The township still remains in a fiscal emergency following the discovery of missing funds at the beginning of the year.

“Primarily this commission is convened to be able to assist the township in getting out of fiscal emergency. We are not convened to take over,” said Sharon Hanrahan, Office of Budget and Management.

The commission laid out how the meetings will be held going forward. They also talked about getting a financial plan together. It would be a five-year forecast and it has to be submitted in the next 120 days. From there, the commission will review it.

“These are the things the township is going to do to help get them out of fiscal emergency,” Hanrahan said.

The meetings are set up similarly to township trustee meetings; they will be public, have an agenda and take minutes — even possibly a public comment section.

“I know there’s a lot of questions folks have. I get that. In some cases, we may not be able to respond,” she said.

The Financial Supervisor from the State’s Auditor’s Office gave a presentation based on the township’s financial reports up to July 31. She laid out a summarized report of the general fund.

“As well as the three funds that placed the township into fiscal emergency, and that is road and bridge, police and fire,” Turner said.

In the report that compared total revenues to total expenditures, road and bridge was negative by about $24,000, police almost $80,000 and fire around $120,000.

The next meeting is at the township hall, on September 30 at 5:30 p.m.

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