White Lake Township Board Approves $3.7M Budget

Both revenues and expenditures are down from the previous year in the White Lake Township's general fund budget, which was unanimously approved Tuesday night by the Board of Trustees.

Among the highlights included are a drop of almost $30,000 in property tax revenues from $960,402 budgeted in 2012 to $930,806 budgeted in 2013. The township also expects a growth in retiree health insurance expenditures, from $121,000 budgeted in 2012 to $130,000 budgeted in 2013.

The salaries of elected officials remain the same. Incumbent Supervisor Greg Baroni will be paid $75,039 in 2013 as he did in 2012, while incumbent Clerk Terry Lilley will be paid $69,707. Newly-elected Treasurer Mike Roman will also be paid $69,707, while the four elected trustees on the board will each earn $8,175.

A broad overview of the general fund budget includes:

Quick hits

• The four-year terms of incumbent and newly-elected officials on the White Lake Township Board of Trustees were sworn into duty, along with a new White Lake Fire Department sergeant and three on-call firefighters. For a video of the ceremony, click here: White Lake Officials and Firefighters Sworn In
• The board voted, 4-3, against the immediate hire of planning consultants Birchler Arroyo Associates, to work with the township on an update to its five-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The majority of the board supported instead the idea of township employees in the Community Development Department to work with the Lathrup Village-based firm in order to possibly defray some costs.
• The board voted unanimously to allow Fire Chief Tony Maltese the opportunity to begin the search process for a career firefighter, in order to make up for the loss of a retired fire sergeant in the past six months. The fire department currently employs 14 full-time firefighters.
• The board also voted unanimously to approve purchase of labor and materials for the Fire Department Station 1 utility garage. Maltese said that work needs to be done in order to fix a leaking roof. Dearborn-based roofers Kearns Brothers was the winning bid of three, at $2,300, with an additional $400 being allocated solely to replace roof boards.