Trustees switch banking/investment options

by Dan Holland

March 2 township trustees meeting

Richfield Township Trustees Don Laubacher and Bob Luther authorized the township fiscal officer to determine the amount of the township’s assets that would be moved into a State Treasury Asset Reserve of Ohio (STAR) account to take advantage of rising interest rates. Trustee Chairperson Janet Jankura had an excused absence from the meeting.

“[The fund] is extremely liquid and extremely conservative, and since interest rates have climbed, it’s earning 4.9% today,” said Vice-Chair Don Laubacher. “We haven’t specifically figured out how much we can safely transfer from checking into the STAR account, but if it were to be $500,000, that would generate $25,000 a year in interest.”

“It’s easy to move money back and forth and it seems to check all the boxes for us,” Laubacher added.

Trustees also passed a motion to switch the township’s analyzed checking account through Huntington Bank to a hybrid checking account.

“The township in 2022 had approximately $2.1 million in cash in all of our funds, and we were using a Huntington Bank checking account that wasn’t paying much, which was okay in past years as interest rates were low, but with interest rates going up, it’s time that we moved out of that,” explained Laubacher. “And so, one of the proposals is to use a hybrid checking account, which instead of paying [about] .001%, this account would pay somewhere between 0.2 and 0.5% depending on the balance.”

Parks

Laubacher shared that Richfield Joint Recreation District board member Jeff DeLuca had recently tendered his resignation. He explained that DeLuca’s seat is the only one of the three appointed by Richfield Township that does not require the applicant to reside in the township. Trustees are tentatively planning to hold an executive session on April 6 to interview candidates to fill the vacated seat, a position that would run through Dec. 31, 2024.

Announcements

Laubacher reminded those in attendance of the waste hauling renewal levy to appear on the May 2 ballot. Information on the levy is available on the township website, he added. Trustees also passed a motion to draft a letter in support of the levy on behalf of the board of trustees to be sent to the Richfield Times.

Township Administrator Mindy Lott told trustees that work is ongoing with Revize to develop features and a new logo to be incorporated into the township’s new website. Lott also noted that payment has been made for the backup generator, purchased with federal ARPA funds.  The generator will be installed at the township administrative and service building. Installation is expected to take place this summer pending delivery of the unit.

Citizens Forum

Hamid Homaee, who serves on the township zoning commission, asked Police Chief Michael Swanson if there was a way to determine the number of calls received each month concerning light glare or noise complaints. The issues could then be addressed at zoning meetings.

Swanson said he would look into flagging calls related to the two areas.

In other action, the trustees approved:

• A resolution to adjust the language of the waste-hauling resolution on the May ballot from $38.50 to $38 per $100,000 of valuation to concur with Ohio HB 140.

• Payment of $22,888 to Cargill for road salt. The township received delivery of approximately 486 tons at a cost of $47.02 per ton.

• A transfer of $20,000 from the general fund and $5,000 from the roads fund to augment the township’s Health Reimbursement Account for a total amount of $25,000.

• Payment of $3,470 to the Cleveland Division of Water as an annual fee for fire hydrants in the township.

• Payment of $7,254 to Avalon Document Services for digital scanning of township zoning records.

• Making a request to the Summit County Engineers to install a school bus stop sign in front of the township administrative building. ∞