CASCADE TOWNSHIP — With four open seats available on the Cascade Township Board of Supervisors, three officials held onto their seats Tuesday night as roughly 265 votes were cast at the township election and annual meeting.
Arlen Heathman, Jimmy Hoss and Gary Sieck all sailed to re-election with more than 200 votes apiece. Meanwhile, challenger Michael J. Black topped Daniel Frissora 182 to 83 votes. Heathman, Hoss and Sieck earned 215, 243 and 247 votes, respectively.
Lenny Laures' seat does not come up for election until 2018. All five seats are held for three-year terms.
After the election, the existing board presided over the Cascade Township Annual Meeting where citizens voted on the 2017 budget and levy.
The board of supervisors had proposed a budget of $886,003 with a levy of $848,903, a $107,914 increase over the 2016 budget.
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After a lengthy discussion over the salaries line item for the township's clerk/treasurer and assistant, the citizens voted to hold the line item at $30,000 as opposed to the board's recommendation of $45,500.
Supervisor Dan Frissora said the increase — the 2016 budget for clerk/treasurer and assistant wages was $12,800 — is due to state and federal mandates. "I don't think we were in compliance beforehand," Frissora said. "As a township, before, we were able to slip in under the radar."
In the end, the township voters approved an amendment to the proposed budget and levy to reduce both by $15,500.
The other big line item addition to the budget was an increase to the blacktop repair and full overlay. The proposed line item was $256,400, an increase of nearly $100,000 over 2016. Laures said the township has 31 miles of roads, and the new overlay plan should help the township maintain its schedule of resurfacing two
