By Amanda Ensinger
Staff Writer
Franklin Township will move forward with hiring a township administrator.
At a recent meeting, the board rescinded a resolution to eliminate the funds used to pay the assistant fiscal officer but still decided to move forward with hiring a township administrator and voted in favor of a resolution that would allow the township to start looking for applicants.
Previously, township trustees passed two resolutions that eliminated the position of administrative coordinator and removed funding to pay the assistant fiscal officer. When these resolutions were passed, the trustees said they did not have the funds to keep these positions and hire a township administrator.
“After re-examining the budget, we have now determined we have the funds to hire the administrator without having to remove the line items for the fiscal office,” said Aryeh Alex, township trustee. “We still are not sure of the salary for this position and basically right now have just determined we do want to hire someone.”
The township does not know if this position will be full-time or part-time and when someone will be hired. Officials are finalizing a job description and determining the next steps.
“We still feel this is a vital position we need to move this township forward,” Alex said. “There are a lot of opportunities to enhance this community via development and we need someone who can solely focus on this.”
In other news, the trustees discussed aging equipment in the fire department.
“What is the sweet spot for equipment where after so much time we should replace it,” asked trustee John Fleshman. “Do we keep putting money into it for repairs or are we better off replacing it.”
Recently, the fire department has put thousands of dollars into repairing fire trucks.
“When the maintenance cost start to exceed the value of the truck, it should be replaced,” said Franklin Township Fire Chief James Welch. “However, we don’t have the budget to support this.”
Trustee Ralph Horn said that while it seems expensive to continually fix this equipment, it still is cheaper than buying a new fire truck.
“Spending $25,000 is better than spending half a million,” Horn said.
