Present for the May 5 Miami Township Trustees meeting were Chris Mucher, Marilan Moir and Don Hollister. (Video still)
Miami Township Trustees commit $127k to Tecumseh Land Trust
- Published: May 16, 2025
At their regular meeting Monday, May 5, the Miami Township Trustees returned to deliberating whether or not to approve a resolution that would formally commit $113,000 to local land conservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust — a sum that was previously committed last summer.
Ultimately — with a 2–1 vote — the three-member board approved a resolution to set aside $127,419 from its general fund to be used “for the exclusive purpose to fund [the trustees’] commitment to partner with the Tecumseh Land Trust to acquire conservation easements on all or part of the township parcels referred to as the [Welch] Farm.’”
The approved resolution was one of two proposed to the board by Trustee Chair Chris Mucher.
The first — similar to a resolution presented at a special meeting Monday, April 29 — aimed to use the Township’s $92,000 general administrative fund reserve and other general fund monies to create a sub-fund intended for TLT. The resolution would also, if passed, have partially replenished the empty general fund reserves by drawing salaries for the trustees and fiscal officer from other funds — including Miami Township’s operational fire fund — rather than the general fund.
The second resolution — which was approved — removes the stipulation to replenish the general fund by drawing salaries from other funds.
As the News reported last week, the trustees initially earmarked $113,000 in federal American Rescue Act Plan, or ARPA, funds in August 2024 to direct toward TLT’s goal of purchasing conservation easements for farmland along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road — informally called the “Welch Farm” after the family that owned it — which is curently up for sale.
The following October, the trustees approved a resolution to move its American Rescue Plan funds into the Township’s general fund and a motion to add the previously approved $113,000 conservation easement set-aside to the 2025 budget. In December, based on advice from the Department of the Treasury, the trustees rescinded the October resolution and moved the ARPA funds into the Township’s fire fund.
At a special meeting held Monday, April 29, the trustees expressed disagreement over whether the December 2024 rescission of their earlier resolution was also meant as a cancellation of their commitment of funds to TLT from their 2025 budget.
Whatever individual trustees understood about the rescission, TLT Executive Director Michele Burns said during the special meeting that the nonprofit had not been told that the funds might not materialize until a few days before the April 29 meeting. By that point, the nonprofit had already begun to secure easement contracts with potential buyers for the Welch farmland.
During the May 5 regular meeting, Mucher and Trustee Marilan Moir repeated many of the concerns they had stated at the April 29 special meeting. For Moir’s part, she said she believed committing all of the Township’s general fund reserves, as well as portions of general fund monies already appropriated for the year’s budget, could leave the Township in financial precarity and with limited options for unexpected expenses.
“We have a fire station to run,” she said. “We have a lot of things to do, and it terrifies me.”
Moir also noted that one of the resolutions, if passed, would require the trustees to certify with the state that they spent an overwhelming majority of their time on work relating to MTFR in order to draw their salaries from the fire fund. She cited a recent case in Preble County in which Harrison Township trustees were audited for drawing their salaries from a gas tax fund without keeping the proper time logs.
“The money’s being counted based on me working 80% of my time in the fire fund and 10% of my time in the gasoline fund for the rest of the year, and probably for the year after that,” Moir said. “I don’t know that I can do that.”
Noting that the Township has been audited in the past for the possibility of a misappropriation of funds, Moir added that the trustees had not yet received a response from their legal counsel on whether the proposed resolutions, as written, could trigger an audit or legal action from the state.
For his part, Mucher said he believed that the trustees should honor their previous commitment based on the Township’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which outlines a directive to support conservation easements on farmland. He went on to say that the Township has thus far spent only 20% of its allocated general fund budget, and that he believed it likely the Township could come in under budget for the remainder of the year.
He added that the approval of the resolution would be the first time the trustees have used property tax funds to support farmland conservation, as the Township previously maintained a greenspace fund replenished by the state’s now-defunct estate tax.
“So we will be using general fund money for the first time, because we can’t cleanly make that commitment whole through the ARPA funds — but we can make it whole, period,” he said.
Moir asked Mucher why both resolutions included appropriating $127,419 rather than the previously committed $113,000.
“I wanted to make sure there was enough money,” Mucher said. “If we give [TLT] $127,000, Michele [Burns] can write us a check for the rest.”
More than a dozen of the 30 local residents and MTFR employees present for the meeting spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, with opinions differing on whether or not the Township should approve either of the resolutions they were considering.
“This contribution to TLT is unnecessary,” Barbara Krabec said, echoing several present who expressed similar sentiments. “It is a travesty of fiscal good sense.”
Reflecting the opinion of several others, David Neuhardt — who with his wife, Sharen Neuhardt, worked with TLT to purchase Whitehall Farm nearly 30 years ago to preserve it from development — asked the trustees to consider that the Welch farmland has long been a priority for conservation by both Village and Township governments.
“There are times to stretch and there are times to be conservative in budgeting,” he said. “I think this is a rare, almost once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect a significant piece of the township’s agricultural land. … I just encourage the trustees to stretch now.”
Several who spoke asked that trustees find a middle-ground approach — “Some kind of compromise,” as local resident Sam Young put it — that would fulfill part of their promise to TLT while not leaving the general fund reserves empty.
Resident Lori Askeland suggested that the trustees set aside only part of their general fund reserves to TLT to fulfill their commitment, and communicate with Village Council to perhaps make up the difference from the Village’s own greenspace fund.
“I really support Tecumseh Land Trust … however, the fiscal concerns are extremely serious,” she said. “The Comprehensive Land Use Plan is an important document; it’s a guiding document, but it isn’t a statutory obligation. … I think you can support [TLT] without draining that reserve.”
As the last local resident to speak during the public comments portion of the meeting, Jennifer Adams noted the heightened tensions in the room and suggested that the trustees take more time to consider the resolutions before them.
“There was a lot of emotion and sensationalism in what was demonstrated here today, and I don’t think sound decisions can be made in that type of environment,” Adams said. “You need to find a way to stand by your commitment, but do it safely.”
After a brief discussion of both proposed resolutions and the differences between them, Trustee Don Hollister moved to adopt the second resolution before the trustees; the motion was approved, 2–1, with Moir voting against.
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