–by Mike Jones
PUBLICATION DATE: Feb 05, 2019

Budget review earns praise
All of the Sylvania Township departments came in for praise recently when David Simko, township finance officer, briefly reviewed the year-end budget numbers at a recent trustees meeting. He noted that the revenue side of each years’ township budget is pretty much set by the levies that support township operations, but that it is the expenditure side of the ledger that can be influenced by the managers and employee in each department.
“I think the departments did very well,” he said, noting that each had stayed under 100 percent of spending allowed for in their budgets. He added that over recent years everyone involved, from overall administration to department heads, to representatives of the employees have developed a relationship of trust.
Simko said that keeping expenditures down is not only controlling large costs, but also keeping an eye on lower-cost items over the course of a year.
The general fund last year spent about $1.56 million, or 78.1 percent of its budget; road and bridge fund spent $2.23 million, for 76.3 percent, the police fund spent $7.32 million or 94.6 percent and the fire fund expended $8.06 million, 84.4 percent of its budget.

Graus Rehired
Daryl Graus, former manager of the Sylvania Township planning and zoning office, has been rehired to that position by the Sylvania Township trustees. He left the position in July to take a job as a planner with the Toledo Plan Commission.
At the time, he said the offer seemed like something he should take, although the decision wasn’t easy.
In August, trustees hired Karlene Henderson to manage the office. She had been law director of Perrysburg for about three years and prior to that had been an attorney in the Lucas County prosecutor’s office, often working on cases involving zoning issues. She resigned in January after having, unexpectedly, got a job offer from the city of Toledo law department. Township officials and Graus made contact and he chose to return to his former position.
He joined the township department as an intern in 2008 and became a full-time employee the next year. He was named zoning enforcement officer in 2010 and manager of the office in 2012.