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LIBERTY -- The township is more than halfway through its first full year with its new cemetery under its control, and has the potential to break even, according to Fiscal Officer Matthew Connelly.
Trustees at a recent regular meeting heard from Connelly, who provided a cash-fund summary report, which shows the purchase orders and outstanding reserved funds for encumbrances that trustees have agreed to.
The report gives officials an idea of the township's real balance, which will put it at $7.674 million, and Connelly said the township's general and other funds are "doing okay."
"The cemetery for Churchill, if you have that report, it looks as if it's minus $3,000, but we haven't used the purchase orders that we've reserved for that," Connelly said. "We have budgeted money from the general fund to move over to that Churchill Cemetery -- about $15,000 or $20,000 each year is usually what it runs short, just doesn't make enough on its own."
Connelly said the township's other cemetery, Belmont Park Cemetery, which is 30 acres of developed cemetery land that the township began assuming responsibilities for under the Ohio Revised Code in June 2025, is "almost self-sufficient."
"We have an incoming of about $133,000, outgoing $140,000, so it's close to being self-sufficient on its own," Connelly said.
Connelly said the cemetery utilizes about $10,000 more than it makes eight months into the year, adding that they've had to hire two part-time employees and gave a full-time employee a raise.
"If it weren't for those things, it probably would break even," Connelly said.
Connelly said his office completed its audit with Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, adding that they've found two findings for the township, one of which is a material weakness with the cemetery.
"These are minor items they find -- one of them was the cemetery fund we received from the previous cemetery association owner; we put that into a fund name, like a permanent cemetery endowment fund," Connelly said. "They would like to see that put in as a miscellaneous special revenue fund."
Connelly said the funds will go into a miscellaneous special interest fund, and it still will be able to earn its own interest.
Connelly said the other item pertained to receipts from the rollback of real estate taxes, adding that they should have gone into a separate item called "intragovernmental funds."