Orange Township Fiscal Officer Joel Spitzer presented an amended 2018 appropriations proposal for trustees’ consideration this week.

Spitzer said the fiscal office hadn’t been able to file for a certificate of estimated resources showing the 2017 carryover to 2018 because the township hasn’t been able to open the books.

“We cannot open the books with the appropriations exceeding unencumbered funds,” he said. “When we ran a balance, that includes both our encumbered and unencumbered funds, our appropriations were over on the unencumbered funds, so we have to adjust that.”

Spitzer said the fiscal office is required to file a certificate of estimated resources that the township will have for the following year.

“When we did our certificate of estimated resources there was spending over what we had estimated,” he said. “We over estimated to some degree on parks which is the majority of the submitted appropriations.”

Spitzer said the adjustment was due to waiting on outstanding receipts from 2017 park projects and a general fund transfer.

“The general fund is being adjusted because of the $2.2 million transfer that was previously appropriated for approval that we’re taking out now and not transferring that to capital improvement project funds,” he said.

Trustees approved the amended 2018 appropriations.

After an extensive discussion, trustees tabled the renewal of a two-year contract with Scott Overturf, RPO LLC, until the next trustee meeting Feb. 5, but did authorize a purchase order for RPO in the amount of $6,000 to apply to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for a grant over $1 million.

Trustee Ryan Rivers asked if the renewal of the contract could be tabled because he wasn’t familiar with it.

“I’ll be honest as for the contract, which is information I just received, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to review it,” he said.

Trustee Debbie Taranto encouraged Rivers in his research to meet with Overturf, Maintenance and Park Director Beth Hugh, and some former trustees that have worked with RPO in the past.

“Those are all very good ways to get different viewpoints,” she said.

Trustee Lisa Knapp said she would also like to explore other companies before moving forward with the contract since the township has been using RPO for “13 years.”

In other business, trustees approved the release of payment to J&J Schlaegel in the amounts of $2,863 for change order number one, $4,390 for change order number two, $17,875 for change order number three, $4,701 for change order number four, $2,068 for change order number five, and $706,939 for pay application number six — all payments for the Bale Kenyon project.

Trustees authorized the release of payment to George J. Igel & Company Inc. in the amount of $83,559 for the Alum Creek bridge trail, the release of payment to Trucco Construction Company Inc. in the amount of $45,246 for the North Orange Road Park project, the addition of 16 new roads or extensions of roads and the 2018 Road Improvement Program.

In discussions, trustees proposed looking into a paperless document tracking system for invoices and public documents, an audio/video live streaming system for trustees meetings, and improved procedures for trustees to sign checks.