VIENNA — A month after receiving a donation that would jumpstart the township’s emergency medical services, trustees and residents discussed the proper fund the money should be sitting in to make it possible.

Fiscal Officer Jason Miner told trustees at Monday’s meeting that the $100,000 — the first of several deposits of a $250,000 donation from the Cafaro Foundation presented in July — was still sitting in the township’s general fund and hasn’t been transferred.

Miner said that if trustees were to move the money, he had to update their appropriations and have it ready for their Aug. 18 meeting.

Pegg said trustees asked residents to pass a 3.5-mill fire levy in May’s election, and they were kind enough to pass it. For that reason, they must get the ambulance service ready “as soon as possible”, he said.

Pegg said Trustee Mike Haddle told him it would cost $170,000 to get the service going. Haddle said it was for ambulance services starting in January 2026, which was in their original fiscal recovery plan approved in December.

“The original thought process was, traffic camera money could cover those salaries; we didn’t know, so we left it out for the Fall of ’25 because we didn’t know what the amounts would be,” Haddle said. “We didn’t know if we were going to get $5,000 or $40,000.”

Pegg said several things occurred that changed their financial situation since then — namely the Cafaro donation and former Fiscal Officer Linda McCullough’s sentencing to eight years in prison. Her sentencing included her paying $120,371 in restitution to the township, part of which they soon will receive.

“She’s already made one payment of $86,000,” Pegg said. “I have our legal representation applying for $33,000 from the PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) portion that she forfeited.”

Pegg figured the township should have McCullough’s PERS money in three weeks. Her $86,000 should be in hand around that time too, which would “more than cover” the original estimate of restoring ambulance services in the township.

Haddle said the state and the fiscal recovery board said the township could not incur new debt on top of paying off what they already had.

“What was going to happen is we’re going to pay off our debt — we were going to incur new debt while paying it down at the same time,” Haddle said. “We’re never going to increase our negative fund balance, we’re not going to pay it off as quickly as we could if we didn’t hire people until the fund was entirely in the black.”

“It’s just going to be paid down at a slower rate,” he added.

Pegg said if the township were to wait until debt was completely paid back, the services wouldn’t come back until 2027, which he deemed “unacceptable” and Haddle agreed.

Haddle said transferring funds from traffic cameras led to the township losing local government funds from the state, which were restored after Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 96, the state’s biennial budget bill, into effect at June’s conclusion.

If the fiscal recovery board didn’t like how the township was doing, Haddle said the board could recommend withholding the local government funds.

“I don’t think the board would do it, because they realize we have to get EMS services back, right? We passed the levy,” Haddle said. “I’ve spoken to several members of the board and they’re on board with the plan too, and they understand the importance to get EMS services back up and running.”

Fire Chief Gus Birch said the Cafaro Foundation’s donation wasn’t part of the fiscal recovery plan, so the township would not be incurring new debt. McCullough’s $86,000 was the same way, he said.

“It’s not a debt except the fund balance is still negative; by the time that you account for that money and we moved $200,000 in there, we’re still going to be at a negative balance,” Haddle said.

Haddle said the township is still set to get out of fiscal emergency by the proposed five-year timeline indicated by the state by restoring EMS services.

Sean Stimac, a fiscal commission member and resident, said the fiscal commission still wants an accounting of Cafaro’s donation, so it’s “technically” part of the recovery plan because it has to be documented, as it’s deemed revenue coming in.

“I doubt that the Cafaro Foundation would agree with that,” Birch said.

Birch said his primary concern was telling the voters that they were going to reestablish services as fast as they could, reiterating his lack of care about the politics.

“We need to get this ambulance service running to help our people,” Birch said.

Haddle said officials wanted to make sure the township was doing it correctly so they could pay for it without incurring new debt.

“What we don’t want to do is drag us past the five-year mark or get into a situation where we hire new people and six months from now, cash reserves dry up and we have to lay them off,” Haddle said. “We don’t want to go down that road again and then have to rebuild. We’ve got to make sure financially, we can sustain this going forward as well.”

Haddle said he understood Birch had plans to hire by the 25th, and Haddle said he thought they can have it “all done and accomplished.” Haddle said he needed a wage forecast from Birch from Aug. 25 to the year’s conclusion, however.