Hempfield Township plans to use $1.4 million surplus for salt, fire truck equipment and bridge inspections

Hempfield Township has announced plans for how they plan to allocate the $1.4 million surplus that is being carried over from 2025.

Aaron Siko, the township manager, said the money will be spent replenishing the township's supply of salt for the 2026-2027 winter season, adding new equipment to fire trucks and inspecting bridges.

"We will do a purchase coming later this summer for $500,000 in salt," Siko said. "The township will be fully stocked with that amount going into the 2026 2027 winter, and then through that winter, anything that we would be ordering would be replacements for that initial supply."

He said $270,000 will go towards purchasing equipment for three fire trucks.

"These are those tools that you see whenever they're cutting cars open and trying to do that. A lot of the old systems are based on hydraulic systems. New modern systems are battery based," Siko said. "We're making sure that we're maximizing the best fleet with the best equipment available, so that our volunteers have the tools to do the jobs they need to do."

Siko said the township will also hone in on township bridges by inspecting all 44.

"The last time we did these bridge inspections, I believe, was 2018. We do spot check them over the years, we're driving around the community, but certainly having our engineer take a look at these is a safe and active approach and making sure that we are maintaining a strong capital improvement and inspection program for our bridge structures," Siko said.

Siko said $300,000 will be allocated directly to the township's operating reserve.

"That's to make sure that it is maximized. The township can only have a 25% operating reserve based on our annual budget. So that will be at $4.9 million going into next year," Siko said.

Siko said some of the surplus came from increased interest rates and gaming revenue from the casino.

"With that, we had $1.4 million that transfers over. We have a surplus policy in place that the board has established. With that, we carried over money into our operating reserve, which fully funds that operating reserve, and then some additional funds are left. We expected as we ended last year, just based on where our expenditures were and kind of where we were going into the budget cycle, we knew that there would be some surplus with that," Siko said.