I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Ted Odendahl. Here. Kathy Wilken. Here. Kevin McIlwain. Here. Kathy Altonsey. Patrick Sellers. Here. We have a quorum. We have a quorum. The first amendment's approval of minutes for the March 16, 2026 meeting on the motion of second, please. I'll make a motion. I'll make a second. Motion by Wilken, second by Odendahl. Please take a look at the minutes if you haven't done so already. And I have to apologize. I thought I looked at these minutes and looked at them. But at any rate, it has me voting yes on the proposal for the Boys and Girls Club and actually I abstain. You abstain. Okay. Okay. Where would that be? Under 72.

Under 7?

Yeah.

I have.

Okay.

That's the old minutes.

I'm sorry.

Let me get the old minutes out then.

Yep.

And make this.

Under 7.

Thank you.

7?

Okay.

And you abstained, right?

Abstained.

Yes.

Okay.

Let me get this here.

Abstain.

Yep.

I'll correct that.

All right.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Any other comments on this?

Okay.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Financial admissions approval of bills payable and motion is second please. Second. Motion by McIlwain, second by Odendahl. Please take a look at the bills payable. Yes. Was the copier expenses planned or did something happen all of a sudden with the copiers? The copier expenses were planned. Okay. The copier was obsolete. Gotcha. And They didn't even make parts for it anymore, and so they were like, it was time for us to get a new one, so that's why we did it in case of what it went kaput on us, and we were stuck with our board.

Any questions or claims or demands, trustees?

See that there is none. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Wilkins? Aye.

McIlwain? Aye.

Odendahl? Aye.

Sellers? Aye.

Motion passes.

The next order of business is discussion on appropriation ordinance 2026-T-001, fiscal year 2026-2027. We've had our motion and our second. It's open, I guess, for discussion.

There are a number of things I had questions on, and I don't know if we can deal with the questions in the meeting or I could arrange it, but really they're just questions from my understanding.

Thanks for not any kind of, I'm not sure if they're a second guess, the process, any, so I don't know, I don't want to take up a lot of time for my education.

Well do you want to come in and speak with Liz? I could, I could do that. Okay, yeah, um, um, well I guess you can, but just in general, I mean, if it's going to be beneficial to everybody, I don't want to do it.

Well, I guess probably the most basic question is in terms of what our kind of game plan is long term, so if I'm looking at this correctly, our budgeted expenses exceed our expected revenue, current revenue, now we have reserves to cover that, so we're okay, I understand that, but long term, That seems to be a problem if we were constantly eroding reserves. So I didn't know if the budgeting was done in such a way that it was conservative or generous, however you want to look at it, and say, well, we're going to budget this amount, but we probably won't spend that amount, and that's kind of our practice.

and so we go along and we actually many times add to reserves instead of drawing down reserves or is the budget in many respects seems to be pretty bare bones so saying is it our expectation that we almost certainly will be drawing down reserves?

No, not necessarily. No, not necessarily. Usually we are putting money back from the budget. We don't spend more than we budget. We run our budget very, very lean. I know this year we are going to be looking at, I'm thinking probably putting back, I have to make talk to Liz, I'm thinking close to $80,000 being put back into our budget.

So we don't we don't we don't want to do a whole lot of drawing down on our reserves okay so so kind of history has been that we underspend the budget because I mean the budget itself literally does exceed new new revenue so is that that accurate yeah for instance on my budget I have a couple Line Items that I may need to tap into. And sometimes, some years, I don't have to tap into it, but instead of having to risk having to amend the budget later and go through this whole process again, I account for it in case it's needed. So, and a couple of those funds, I'll have money going back in this year.

So like, like take for instance insurance, Liz automatically puts in X amount extra for insurance every year because that's how it usually works. Insurance usually goes up. And so she tries to make sure that that is, is covered. Um, but as far as our other line items, we don't, we don't, we don't, we don't do any padding. We don't, we don't do that. Um, we try to stay within budget. We, we've never gone over budget on a line item, not since 2000 and what? 13, 14? We started at 13. Yeah, so we don't normally, so you're saying that our budget is going to exceed our revenues? I think. Our budget exceeds new revenues. I think what Ted might be getting at. Okay. Is if you look at the budget, and I think we kind of make up, not so much make up for it, but I think it's accounted for it because a lot of times we don't spend everything that we budget for. Nope.

So, like, the actual ending balance is probably more than what it is if you look at what we do historically.

Now, the thing that he's looking at, though, is if you look at the, let's just look at the general fund, for instance, the beginning balance is $866, $848, and the projected end balance for next year is $667, $260.

So, on the surface, that could look like you ate into some of the reserve. So, I can see where the question is coming from.

I think what you're saying is that typically we don't our ending balance that we project is usually higher than what we're projecting so well what specifically like in that case so our budget for the for the general fund is eight hundred nine thousand our estimated revenues is six hundred nine thousand so our budget is two hundred thousand dollars over our revenues now we've got We've got 866 in reserve, so it's not like we're going to be a deficit if we spend all of this, but if we're getting into a period where we are continually spending more than we're taking in, it's going to erode our, uh, I guess I'm lost. That's never been the case, has it? That's not the case. Never. We've done that. It's been the opposite. Historically, you know, that has not happened. Yeah, I think what he's getting at is historically, Historically, our ending balance is always higher than what we even anticipate, so at the end of the day, at the end of the year, we're not eroding at the reserve, but I see what you're saying, if we were to actually, let's say with the general fund, if we actually did end up at the actual 667 next year, and that happened every year after that, then you would be looking at a case where you're kind of spending more than what you've got coming in, but that's not usually our case.

Usually we're over what we're projecting as the ending balance. So probably the thing we want to look out for, like when next year's budget comes up is, like for that top line at 667, what's the ending balance?

What's the ending balance next year when we start? If it's higher than the 667, then that's doing what we typically do. Typically we end higher than what we were projected. If the ending balance is lower than what we have projected for the ending, then what you're saying is probably something we definitely do start taking a look out for.

We could end up that way for one of two reasons. We could spend less than we budget. Or we could take in more than what we anticipated. And I'm just kind of wondering what has normally been the case. Do we tend to spend less than we budget or do we tend to take in more than what we anticipate?

We tend to spend less than what we budget. Historically, that's what we do. Yeah. We haven't raised the levy either in quite a few years. That's always the case. We spend less than what we budget. And if I may, because the assessed values have been increasing at the rate they have, we have been getting a little bit more back in tax dollars than what the levy originally shows. So that there's an increase Do we have a sense, like, for this year and the current year that we're in, how we're going to end up on those two items? Are we going to, will we have taken in more revenue than what we anticipated at the beginning?

Well, I mean, the assessments took another increase, so I would assume we would get some more. We also get some personal property tax from the state, and that's been larger than what we've anticipated also. So you have those two incomes coming in that have been a little bit larger than what we've budgeted for or what we've considered, right, through the levy.

and the personal property tax comes from the state and that's they dictate what we get so we can't really judge that from my understanding.

So we don't really try to anticipate that so it just becomes extra pushing.

Well it's based on history right so it's based on past what we've gotten in the past. I know when Liz looks at that she's looking at what have we received in the past Yeah. And then try to gauge moving forward. So is that reflected in one of these line items, revenue line items currently, or no? No, that's money coming in, so that comes in in a difference. This is just expenditures. No, we have estimated revenues. Right, so I don't know if she's estimated that. Probably not, because you don't know exactly what it is.

This probably would have been based on the levy that we passed, that we're anticipating to receive from the levy, would be my guess.

Okay, and maybe for my purposes it might be useful for me to spend some time with Liz, so if she can just give me kind of a historic perspective on terms of what this is.

The, so for personnel costs, first of all, as far as elected officials, are those all set by state?

Yeah.

We set those at the beginning of the term.

We set those 180 days before the election.

Yes.

And so we set that.

So they're in stone until when? Until the next election, right?

Next election.

Four years.

Four years.

I was surprised to see the clerk's set that was going down.

nobody's salary goes down. I don't think it went down. I think it went up. Yeah, I think Liz told me about this. It wasn't that it's going that the salary itself is going down. There's something for supplies that were in there in part of that line item that I didn't use. Right. So a salary. Right. So a salary.

I do have a line item for the township clerk for supplies and things. And one of the things I asked for was a mat under my desk. That came out of my line item. And so I don't ask for a lot, but sometimes I do.

I got you, but it wasn't your salary, so it shouldn't have been in the lawn for your salary, so I guess we'll talk about it later. I know. Okay. So when it says minus 908, it's what we're talking about, it's 908 less than what the number was last year, so the number last year might just not have been a salary accurate number. Okay. And then in terms of and the staff salaries, well, there is the CFO's salary is a pretty substantial increase. Now that's something we determine, right? No. It's part of the budget. No, no, no. We determine that. I determine that and the assessor determine that. Yeah, when I say we, I don't mean the board. I mean it's determined locally as opposed by statute.

Right. And then whether it looked like in terms of personnel staff in the assessors area, there was maybe something around a 10% increase.

Yes, so there's four full-time employees. Last year I had a part-time employee part of the year and then a full-time because of wanting to be able to cross-train and have someone be ready to go. Because I have the person that retired was older. I have three other people in the office that are about the same age that could be retiring in the next few years if they chose to. And I wanted to make sure the office was taken care of. So I had gone to the board at that time and they agreed to change that position to full-time. So there's a difference in pay there that I have to account for.

There was the cost of living, and then I have, we do have an ordinance for longevity in place, and I do have, I think, two that qualify on that.

Okay.

So that's where that comes from.

And I know in the township office staff, there was only like a 2% increase or something.

So the main reason is because there we're actually looking at not just salary increases, we're looking at actual expansion of, okay.

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that conversation happened before you were elected, so, yeah.

Yeah, a lot of this was all done before the term.

And that's why I say a lot of this is just, you know, for me to kind of get caught up on the history and what the expectation is and such.

Okay, good. Appreciate it.

Well, good question. Actually, I'm glad you asked him here, because it was good for us to all hear that and good explanation.

So, perfect. All right. Any more questions, comments, or concerns about the budget? And Ted, call in and come and speak with Liz. Okay? I'll let her know that you'll be giving her a call. Okay? Yeah. The only question I had got covered was the minus 908, so. Okay. Okay. I was wondering about that one too. You're looking out for Barb. Oh, not yet? Okay. Not yet. Yeah. Okay. Next order business This is the Supervisor Report. Believe it or not, I don't have much. I have, I'm handing out what you need to have a motion to postpone. Thanks, Mike. I need a motion to postpone the discussion on the appropriation ordinance 2026 T-O-O-1 fiscal year 2026-2027. I need a motion to postpone to the next meeting, which is April 2nd. No, no, April 20th. That's it. We are, this is April 6th.

to date. Post to date. Okay. April 20th. I'm sorry. Yes. April 20th. Thank you. I'll make that motion. Okay. I'll second it. Alrighty. So voice vote is fine or? Voice vote is fine. Okay. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, Mike. And we'll be voting on it at the next meeting. Yes. All right. Next one has been a supervisor's report. I don't have much, but what I do have, this is the packet for the annual town meeting.

Guys, bring this packet with you, please, because, oh yeah, this is what Barb is not going to be having a whole lot of them, so, okay, all right, there you go, Michael, there you go, oh yes, I put one on her, I put one in her box, thank you, I appreciate it, um, let's see, do I have any?

No, I do not. Next order business is the assessor report. Okay. Alrighty. Next order business is trustees report. Trustees. Okay. Next order business is public comments. Any public comments? Shane Norlo. As you guys know, I'm an officer here. We're just getting off the spring break. I just want you guys to be aware that, you know, as the weather changes, kids are more active in the community. They like to get into the trouble when they Don't even try to find it. So please encourage them to be involved with activities. We have sports all summer long. Those are going to be starting up soon. School's going to start getting out. So we want to make sure that they're active and healthy and safe over the summer and not getting into those things. I know it's only April, but it comes up fast. So if you guys can keep that in the back of your head and start promoting that in the community.

I'd be happy to help with any communications that you guys have and show kids the right direction so that they're not getting in any trouble this summer or spring.

Thank you, guys.

All right.

Thank you.

Any other public comments?

Any other business coming before the town?

I just want to remind people above the annual town hall meeting, which is April 14th at 6.05 at the Farm Bill.

Everyone is encouraged to come.

All right.

There's no other business, while I intend a motion to adjourn until Monday, April 20th, 2026 at 4.30 p.m.

So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by McIlwain, second by Wilken.

Okay, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye, any opposed?

Motion carries, meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all.