THEY'RE OFF TO THE RACES! ......WAY OFF!!!

You may or may not be aware that this year at the Annual Meeting in March, the citizens present passed the Board's proposed levy for 2025 by two votes. Sixteen (16) yes votes and fourteen (14) no votes. That's not much, is it? Are you comfortable leaving something so important basically to chance? It could have so easily gone the other way, and there could be significant cuts in your important services. As has been repeated so often, your vote does matter and can make the difference. Why does this happen?

First, a little history. At the Annual Meeting in March 2023, new/now-Board Chair Pete Storlie moved to keep the levy for 2024 at the same amount it had been in the previous year: a 0% increase. That motion passed by a small majority of the citizens who were present at that meeting. It turns out that the average statewide levy increase passed by others that same year was 6.8%.

Fast forward to this year's Annual Meeting. Pete Storlie again moved to keep the levy at the same amount it had been in the previous year. Another 0% increase! This motion failed by a narrow margin. After some discussion, the motion to approve the Board-proposed levy was passed as noted above. The proposed levy was only a little over a 5% increase on the zero increased levy baseline from the year before, 2024. So it is even less than one might at first think.

Does Eureka exist in some fantasy land? Do our costs not go up as the rest of the state's do? Are Township costs exempt from increases even though your household expenses have risen noticeably recently and continue to rise? 

I ventured the opinion at the Annual Meeting that this trend over the years to drastically cut revenue to the Township has been done with the intent of eliminating attorney fees. Cut enough, and the Township is lucky to have money available to maintain the roads. These reductions disable our local unit of government, otherwise known as our Township, in meeting the costs of doing business.

Those who are against attorney input complain and complain about spending any money for it. Attorney advice is necessary if only to keep the Township from being sued! The attorney's services are valuable for adjusting existing ordinances, crafting wholly new ordinances such as the cannabis moratorium, and enforcing the Ordinances. In many instances, some Eureka officials have taken little, if any, of the training available to them. There have been officials who couldn't possibly even have read through our Ordinances. It shows. Officials have unwittingly promoted actions which would have been in violation of State statutes or even local law. I have heard supposedly wise individuals questioning why are we spending money on THAT, referring to enforcement concerning flagrant violations. If those violations suddenly pop up closer to home, that tune quickly changes, believe me. If we protect one landowner through enforcement, we protect all landowners in Eureka.

Road Superintendent Mark Henry polled gravel sources and reported to the former Board that the costs of gravel alone are very likely to go up 8-10%. Never mind costs for delivery, spreading the gravel, fuel surcharges, etc. 

Ironically, at their first meeting as a new Board on March 26, one of the very first things Supervisors Pete Storlie, Mark Ceminsky, Allen Novacek and Tim Pope did was to give themselves a substantial raise in their per meeting payment. Supervisor Lu Barfknecht was not present for the vote as she was out of town for work. 

Before making and approving the motion, Storlie asked Clerk Atwater when these amounts were last raised. The Clerk informed the Board that this had been done just two years ago. This took away any rationale that these amounts haven't been raised "in such a long time," but the four officials gave themselves a significant increase anyway. Per meeting pay for Supervisors went from $100 to $120, while payment per meeting for the Chair (now Storlie) went from $110 to $130.

So we don't have money for a reasonable and even moderate proposed levy, but we do have money to give ourselves a raise.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES!