By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
An initial draft Swanton budget for 2024 has come in at just under $17 million, only about $100,000 higher than 2023.
According to Finance Director Holden Benfield, speaking to the Swanton Village Council at its meeting October 23, that amount includes several departments being happy with their current allocation but also includes all the requests made by the police and fire departments as well as a request for new servers by Village Administrator Shannon Shulters.
It also includes adjustments to the park budget – brought up in multiple conversations throughout the year by council members.
“In response to council wishes to increase the park budget I have given minor blanket increases to the operational lines that should afford them marginally more freedom in day-to-day operations,” Benfield said.
Benfield also increased contingency funding for those operations. Payroll appropriations were able to be reduced due to increased efficiency in the budgeting process.
He said additional, larger park projects should be determined by council decision and appropriated within the year.
Part of the reason for the stability in the total budget amount is an increase in expected revenue, with $18.35 million expected in 2024 versus $17.5 million this year.
“Some of that is transfers from the general fund to the various funds just because of the way that it needs to be categorized.
So, some of that revenue is not actually revenue, it’s movement. Probably about $17 million of that is actual revenue from all the various sources,” Benfield said.
Another reason is a change in how the budget is formulated. Rather than make all the determinations himself, Benfield chose to reach out to the department heads to give input on their own budgets – a move he said was supported by the county auditor.
“Last year the previous fiscal officer just took a three percent increase across the board in all line items,” Mayor Neil Toeppe said. “That wasn’t the best way to go about doing that.”
Benfield also plans to sit down with future council members as they are elected to explain the process to them ahead of time.
“Just to go over everything and get a baseline of what the budget is and how it works – where our revenues come from, what our biggest expenditures are, all that kind of stuff,” Benfield said.
Total expenditures for 2024 are expected to come in at approximately $16,890,000, compared to $16,789,000 in 2023.
POLICE CHIEF REPORTS ON INFANT RESCUE
Swanton police were integral in the harrowing rescue of a 1-year-old girl following a chase through Swanton into Delta on October 19, according to Police Chief John Trejo.
According to Trejo, Swanton night shift officers were notified by the Cleveland Police Department as part of an Amber Alert that the girl had been abducted by a “known subject” and that the subject’s phone had been triangulated in the area of Airport Highway and SR 295.
Officer Bradley Cash was headed east on Airport Highway at the time and saw a vehicle heading the opposite direction at roughly 70 miles per hour (the speed limit in that area is 55 mph).
When he turned to pursue, he saw that it matched the description of the suspect’s vehicle. The vehicle immediately attempted to escape.
“At that point the sheriff’s office – which was Deputy Josh Buehrer – was able to set up road spikes in Delta and spike that vehicle and got it to stop,” Trejo said.
“When they called him out and put him in custody, they found the 1-year-old in the passenger seat unrestrained, not in a car seat.”
The suspect was arrested and taken to the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, and the girl was transported to the Fulton County Health Center, where her mother was able to pick her up and take her home.
Trejo complimented all the participating officers, which included other Swanton officers, county deputies, and Delta officers.
“They stuck with it, they were very professional, they handled the situation very well,” he said. “They took every precaution they could and stayed vigilant. [I’m] very happy with the outcome.”
Trejo said the outcome could have been very different, as a commander at the Cleveland department reported in a congratulatory phone call to the Swanton department.
“He said officers in Cleveland investigating were almost sure he was going to kill that baby and then himself based on info they got from the family,” he said.
Trejo reported that his department had executed a search warrant on the man’s phone, and that he was at one point taking pictures of himself with the baby, supposedly both lying in the middle of the road trying to get hit by passing traffic.
OTHER BUSINESS
The council voted to authorize a contract amendment with Fishbeck Inc. to add construction phase oversight to their responsibilities for the Water Resource Recovery Facility headworks improvement project.
The council voted to enter into an agreement with Kleinfelder, Inc. for Airport Highway improvements at a cost of $260,400.
The council approved submission of an application to state of Ohio fire marshal Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS) grant program for radios used by Swanton Fire and Rescue personnel.
The council passed on second reading assessments of $15 per parcel and $32 per parcel for leaf pickup and street lighting, respectively. A final reading and vote will be held at the next council meeting.
Leaf pickup is starting Monday, October 30th, with pickup on the north side of the railroad tracks on Mondays and Tuesdays, and on the south side of tracks on Wednesdays and Thursdays, ending at the beginning of December. There will be no pickup if it is raining due to the potential of clogging the equipment.
The Halloween Hoopla, put on by the Swanton Police Department, is scheduled for Saturday, October 28, from 3 to 5 p.m., with regular trick-or-treating hours from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
The next meeting of the Swanton Village Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, November 13.
