trustees learned from Fiscal Officer Paul Canter last week<\/a> that their police fund is projected to be at a deficit of $678,538 to finish 2027, while their zoning fund is projected to be at a deficit of $51,851.<\/p>\nThe general fund is projected to be at $126,835 at the end of 2027, which would not be enough to subsidize either and forced trustees to consider cuts.<\/p>\n
For decades, the police and zoning funds were subsidized by the general fund, but Canter says cost increases and expansions to the police department have made this model unsustainable.<\/p>\n
The township has not passed a police levy since 1996.<\/p>\n
Chief of Police Greg Wilson tells 21 News that the layoffs may force the department to discontinue certain community engagement programs.<\/p>\n
Trustees voted 2-1 on each layoff, with Trustee Eric Ungaro as the lone dissenter, who preferred to go back to pre-2020 employment and lay off fewer police officers<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had one more clerical, one more road, two more cops, so I just wanted to be very clear about where I stood on what we did not have to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ungaro entered a motion to downsize the street department to four employees, but neither DeMain nor Trustee Edward Kempers seconded the motion.<\/p>\n
![\"Poland](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
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<\/p>\n
Before the vote, DeMain presented a \u2018Three-Year Strategic Recovery, Right-sizing, & Sustainability Plan\u2019 that he created in consultation with department heads and the fiscal officer.<\/p>\n
The plan outlines recommendations for how to restructure the township and each of its departments based on the \u2018need, affordability, and the long-term health of Poland Township.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective is not to make Poland Township smaller; the objective is to make Poland Township sustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One suggestion is to make the Chief of Police into a \u2018working chief,\u2019 who works shifts, earns an hourly wage and contributes to the department\u2019s minimum two-officer staffing requirements per shift.<\/p>\n
The plan also includes a recommendation to consider whether the Township Administrator should be a part-time position.<\/p>\n
DeMain said during the meeting that the trustees would look into changes to the contracts of Police Chief Greg Wilson and Township Administrator Mark Covell.<\/p>\n
DeMain also recommended a police levy for 2027.<\/p>\n
Trustees originally considered one for the November ballot but were not able to submit it before the Aug. 5 deadline.<\/p>\n
Canter says the Township also received real estate tax advances from Mahoning County after it was originally delayed, and will receive another payment Friday.<\/p>\n
Poland Township Trustees meet again Wednesday, Sep. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Western Reserve Joint Fire District Fire Station #93 at 2050 S. Hubbard Road in Lowellville.<\/p>\n
Download the WFMJ app for your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet to get our push alerts as news happens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trustees approve layoffs, present three-year plan
Poland Township Trustees approved layoffs in three departments and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3165,2158,13077,9,9220,11498,13075,12024,13076],"class_list":["post-20872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-budget-deficit","tag-layoffs","tag-levy","tag-poland","tag-poland-township","tag-police-department","tag-recovery-plan","tag-trustees","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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