After trustees in Vienna township made the stunning announcement Thursday that they are missing a million dollars and need to make drastic cuts, they are now beginning the process of picking up the pieces.

Without enough money to operate police and fire at full capacity, as 21 News reporter Chris Cerenelli first reported,  the road ahead is a long one.

21 News reporter, Leslie Huff took a look ahead and exactly what that road may look like and whether they are likely to ever get all of the missing money back.

Police chief Bob Ludt is at a loss.

In a text on Friday, following the announcement that two police officers and three firefighters will be laid off as the township tries to figure out where over $1 million went, Ludt said he doesn't know how the department will continue to operate.

The police chief said he hopes to have a plan soon, "Currently I'm trying to think through this serious situation and what I can do to continue full time operations with limited personnel."

Calls to the township fire chief were not returned.

Trustees in Vienna Township discovered over one million dollars missing from the township account, and now they are requesting to remove Fiscal Officer Linda McCullough from her position.

 hat process is a complicated one and, in the short term at least, could cost the township even more money.

Ohio law says a fiscal officer can be removed by the state auditors office if they purposely, knowingly, or recklessly, failed to perform their fiscal duty, and its up to the residents to ring the alarm.

"What has to happen is four residents where the fiscal officer serves have to outline in an affidavit exactly how they think the fiscal officer has failed in their duties," Trumbull County Auditor, Martha Yoder said

The complaint is then sent to the state auditors office to start their investigation which could take roughly 30 days.

According to the law, if any wrongdoing from a fiscal officer is found, the attorney general steps in, and would have roughly 10 days to evaluate any of those findings before taking the matter to court.

"If the [attorney general] agrees, then he has 45 days to take it to court and file to remove [a] fiscal officer." Yoder said. 

Fiscal officers are required to take out a "bond," which is a type of insurance that protects the township if they fail in their duties.

The catch is, for a township the size of Vienna, that bond is under $200,000 and that's all the township could recover from it.

The rest would have to come from the township's insurance policy.

When 21  News reached out to trustee Phil Pegg to see if the insurance would cover this situation, he said that the paperwork is in the possession of Linda McCullough.

McCullough said she will be releasing a statement sometime next week.