VIENNA — One township trustee said the township’s newly updated fiscal recovery plan is set to get the township out of financial hardship a year earlier than expected — assuming officials stay the course with their spending.

At Thursday’s fiscal recovery board meeting, the board approved adopting an update to its financial recovery plan, which was initially adopted Dec. 23, 2024. The plan is to be amended as needed, but at minimum, once per year.

An updated plan was brought before the recovery board for approval in April, but it was shot down after several concerns were expressed about the draft, which included money for a new ambulance.

That part of the plan changed when fire Chief Gus Birch expressed the desire to use the allocated funds to increase hours at the department, according to Trustee Mike Haddle at a March special meeting, and trustees approved increasing staffing to 192 hours a week, effective April 1.

“The draft plan we had sent out, they had some concerns with payroll and the ambulance — it was all in the fire fund where they had the issues; I understand what they need to do, what they’re looking at, their concerns,” Haddle said in April. ” “I will update the draft; basically, what it did is split the ambulance cost we had projected. We put that in as wages, but we only carried it for two years. We didn’t carry through years three and four.”

Haddle said Friday that Thursday’s meeting was to update the plan — accounting for a series of actions that had happened over the last few years, mainly financial changes.

“Cafaro money, levies being passed, renewed — some of the traffic camera money going away,” Haddle said. “The plan needed to be updated, so that’s what we did.”

Haddle said the recovery board also wanted a “better financial picture” of the township after the work trustees have done over the past 18 months.

“Moving forward, we maintain this by following the law and generally accepted accounting principles,” Haddle said. “By following the law, following the budget and not spending more than you receive and respecting taxpayers, we won’t go into negative fund balances.”

Haddle still expects the township to escape its financial troubles in 2028, rather than its 2029 projection.