Adena treasurer reports budget decrease tied to drop in oil and gas royalties

Treasurer Denise Geanangel told council at its Nov. 11 meeting that next year’s budget is down, which she said is mainly due to a decline in oil and gas royalties.

“So that’s cut us back a lot,” she said.

Geanangel noted the street fund has increased slightly because the budget is based on what the village collected this year. She also said she is working to phase out one of the park funds and told council she did not know why there were two.

Councilmember R. J. Konkoleski said there were two park levies at one time, which may explain the duplication, but said there was no reason the funds could not be placed into the same account.

“Yeah, but they don’t specify that when we receive the taxes,” Geanangel said.

Mayor Brenda Roski thanked residents for voting but said turnout was down “tremendously.” She noted the village is part of two counties and said the Jefferson County side was “probably half or less.”

“We are lucky that it passed and I’m very thankful about that, but I really want to go and see what we can do to get our polling back,” she said, referring to the polling location that was removed from the village.

Village Solicitor Adam Martello said that when Roski told him she was comparing the most recent results to those from the last presidential election, it explained part of the turnout drop.

“I don’t disagree with that, but when you go from 300 to 69, that’s…” Konkoleski said before stopping. Martello agreed but repeated that comparing a presidential election to an off-year election was a major factor.

“And I want the record to say that I was very appalled about that polling place being taken, and I know our council is, and I am going to do whatever we can legally and whatever we can do as a village to try to get back,” Roski said.