Brighton Township officials are continuing to hammer out the details for their 2018-19 budget.

The Board of Trustees met for a regular budget work session meeting Wednesday night. Township Manager Brian Vick said there don’t seem to be a lot surprises with this year’s budget thus far. He said it’s largely unchanged from previous years, and the biggest challenges they usually have to face are with the sanitary sewer system. He’s optimistic about the direction its headed. Vick said with the sanitary sewer the goal is to make sure they have ample enough funds above what they need to run it for parts replacement and maintenance.

The board also took a look at the numbers for the Planning Department. With a Master Plan review still a year away, Township Manager Brian Vick planted the seeds to get board members thinking about how they want to tackle it. Clerk Ann Bollin said it had been around 15 years since the last major overhaul occurred and that it might be a good idea to consider gathering greater input from the public.

During the session, Vick presented the Board with the newest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report is used as a means of making sure the township is in an acceptable pay range for employees, taking inflation into consideration. The recommendation by the report was to grant position employees a 1.7% raise for 2018. The Board of Trustees passed the motion 4-2, with Trustees Mike Slaton and Steve Combs dissenting.

Vick said there are still 2 to 3 more work sessions required before the board is ready to present the budget for a public hearing. The new budget needs to be adopted by April 1st. (MK)