Uhrichsville, Ohio - Council members have given their seal of approval to resolution allocating just under $4.7 million from the city’s budget to cover this year’s expenses. 

Auditor Julie Pearch says their spending for this year includes the purchase of a new ambulance for up to $170,000 and a police new police cruiser for $53,000. 

“The ambulance that we have that we’ve been using, it’s over 20 years old, and it has served the citizens here very well. We’ve used it. I think it’s been a real benefit,” she says. “The police cruiser, we try to keep them in cycles so we don’t get to the point where we’re nickeled and dimed to death, as I call it, just fixing and replacing things.”

Pearch says they also have about $200,000 budgeted for paving again this year, thanks to a quarter-percent income tax increase approved two years ago by city voters.

“I want to thank the citizens again for passing that levy. We have a lot of roads that need paved. We don’t have a lot of money, but every penny that we get from that levy, we spend every year,” she says.

Pearch says they’ve also budgeted for some improvements at the water park and a roof replacement for the city building, but she says those are the only major projects they have planned for this year.

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV