Vienna Fiscal Emergency: Fire Fund suffers 'extreme negative balance'

Vienna Township Trustees held a special meeting ahead of their regular meeting on Monday to discuss a mid-year budget review.

Michael Haddle, a Vienna Township Trustee, spoke to 21 News about what spurred the meeting.

"We're in fiscal emergency right now, we needed to get the funds status report updated, and get those reports out to the county so that we could update our appropriations," said Haddle.

Haddle shared that the township has no excessive spending right now, but that there is a large fund with an "extreme negative balance."

"Our fire fund is in a negative balance and we're trying to get that out slowly. We have some back debt as well that we're handling right now," said Haddle.

Police, road and bridge funds are all doing well, according to Haddle.

Additionally, the township is aiming to pursue an ambulance service.

Haddle says that the township has been relying on volunteers and neighboring townships, such as Brookfield, Howland, Fowler and Liberty, for ambulance services.

"We need to, in turn, help them out as best we can by getting our ambulance service back. And our residents, they're paying levies, and they should not be punished for this fiscal emergency," said Haddle.

Voters approved a 3.5-mill levy during the May 6 election that would replace two other levies that were already in place.

The levy will generate an estimated $507,186.96 annually and cover the cost to employ part-time staff for EMS, estimated at $366,000 per year.

One of the most important aspects of the situation that Haddle wanted community members to know was that the trustees are doing what they can to remedy the fiscal emergency.

"The most important thing that we're doing is navigating this fiscal situation. It's very fluid, it's very apolitical, it has opinions elevated, [and] everybody has different ideas on how to get out of this situation," said Haddle.

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