The Harrison Township Committee announced during its Feb. 18 meeting that it has begun planting the seeds for this year’s municipal budget.
While a hearing for the plan and a vote will not take place for a few months, the township has started to discuss key aspects like upgrades to the police department.
“There are some things that need to be done in the police department,” said Township Administrator Dennis Chambers. “Cars being one of them, some (additional) manpower, costs that are contractual that we really have no control over. Then there are costs as far as software upgrades and things of that nature that are kind of like none of those things that are easy to introduce.
“The entire budget kind of wraps around that,” he added. “Going through the budget, I was able to train some things out, but as I’ve said numerous times in the past, there are only so many places that we are at that we can cut.”
How much will be spent on the budget is still being discussed; specifics will be revealed to the public when a presentation takes place at a later, undetermined date.
The committee also introduced a new ordinance at the meeting that puts in place a CAP bank in the event the township exceeds the municipal budget.
“It’s just a housekeeping item,” explained Mayor Adam Wingate. “I know it’s been done for the past two years; it has not been used in the past two years. We don’t perceive this having to be used, it’s just there if it needs to be used.”
One resident, Bill White, gave out small packets to committee members during the first public portion of the meeting focusing on agenda items. The packets contained questions and guidelines the committee should be aware of as it plans the budget.
“I’m not really for sure, for sure,” said White, “but it does have some federal questions about this whole process.”
He then asked a series of questions – such as how many dollars are required to exceed the budget – for which the committee provided answers over the course of the meeting.
A public hearing on adopting the ordinance will take place at the next committee meeting on Monday at 7 p.m.
