VIENNA — Residents received an update on what losing the township’s speed cameras following the passage of the state’s transportation budget means for May’s levy.

During the public session of Monday’s regular meeting, some residents cheered as Tarin Brown thanked Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the state’s legislative branch for signing House Bill 54, the state’s $11 billion, two-year transportation budget that included a measure nixing speed cameras in counties or townships.

Above all else, however, Brown wanted to know how losing the cameras would change the township’s 3.5-mill fire levy and the timeline for bringing back the township’s emergency medical services.

Trustee Mike Haddle said he reached out to the individuals at the state auditor’s office in charge of determining their fiscal recovery immediately after the bill was passed. Haddle said they’re leaving the camera information in the recovery plan until after the fire levy’s fate is determined.

“Going forward, it does affect (things), and we were hoping to, sometime this fall, transfer this (camera) money to start an ambulance service back in there using that money,” Haddle said. “Get part-timers in there, not 24/7 service, just Monday through Friday, vital times, and using what volunteer service we have over the weekends.”

Haddle said losing the camera revenue would likely push things back “quite a few months,” perhaps even until next year.

When Brown asked where the $170,000 the township had to repay came from, Fiscal Officer Jason Miner explained that it was a product of using traffic cameras, which suspended the township’s local government funds as of this August and would be gone until the township paid them back.

Miner said a provision was passed by the House of Representatives that eliminated redlining, a discriminatory practice where financial services are denied to neighborhoods based on race or ethnicity, but manifests through townships losing funding

“It passed the House (of Representatives) and we’re hoping it passes the Senate so we can continue to see local government funds,” Miner said. “If somehow it doesn’t, we’d lose our local government funds until that full amount is paid back; we don’t get paid back in any kind of check, it’s just garnished from the state.”

Trustee Phil Pegg said Blue Line Solutions, which the township contracts with for its speed cameras, and three other camera companies from across the state plan to file a class-action lawsuit against the state. Pegg said there “may be” an injunction nullifying the portion of the law eliminating speed cameras until the case goes to the Ohio Supreme Court.