These 58-plus acres are connected to two other parcels — all three amounting to 185 acres of contiguous farmland owned by the Welch family. Working with potential buyers of this land, Tecumseh Land Trust aims to place one or more conservation easements on the farms, keeping it agricultural in perpetuity. (Submitted photo)
Miami Township Trustees dispute Tecumseh Land Trust funding
- Published: May 5, 2025
During an often fraught two-hour special meeting Tuesday, April 29 — which was attended by about two dozen local residents — the Miami Township Trustees discussed at length both the possibility and the fiscal feasibility of funding conservation easements for local farmland preservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust, or TLT.
What results is that TLT — which has been working to secure one or more conservation easements for farmland currently up for sale on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road — is now in limbo with regard to moving forward with preserving that farmland.
Executive Director Michele Burns told the News that the nonprofit was on the verge of securing contracts with potential buyers for the land last week when she learned that funding the trustees had previously promised might not materialize.
Timeline of funds, commitment to TLT
Several portions of the April 29 meeting involved essentially recounting a timeline of the Township’s actions with regard to the commitment of potential conservation easement funds to TLT over the past eight months. As the News reported last year, in August 2024, at the request of TLT, the trustees committed $113,000 in American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds to TLT; the federal ARPA funds were disbursed to state and local governments in 2021 as a response to the widespread economic downturn that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ARPA funds were committed specifically to help TLT purchase conservation easements for land along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road owned by David Welch that was being readied for sale at the time.
Trustee Don Hollister noted in August that the Township had a decades-long history of committing funds to conservation easements through a greenspace fund built on estate tax revenue, though that fund was discontinued in 2013 with Ohio’s removal of the estate tax. He added that the Welch farmland has long been identified as a priority for greenspace preservation for the Village, the Township and TLT; Trustee Chair Mucher cited the Township’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, noting that it contains a directive to “protect existing prime farmland and environmentally sensitive land by encouraging land owners to apply for conservation easements.”
Trustee Marilan Moir in August expressed hesitance to dedicate the ARPA funds to TLT based on the overall financial health of Miami Township Fire-Rescue, to whose budget the ARPA funds had originally been committed via resolution in 2022. Moir noted that she believed the trustees should take more time to consider TLT’s request before voting to commit the funds to the nonprofit at the same meeting in which the request was introduced, but the trustees approved the commitment via motion in a 2–1 vote, with Moir voting against.
At an Oct. 7 meeting, the trustees voted to amend the 2022 resolution passed by Hollister and Mucher that allocated the ARPA funds to the fire fund and instead move it to the Township’s general fund, which by Ohio law is more flexible than fire and EMS funds and mostly pertains to administrative costs for the Township, including administrative personnel salaries. In the same meeting, the Trustees approved a motion brought forward by Moir to budget for the funds committed to TLT from the general fund, citing again the need to obligate the ARPA funds to a specific purpose by Dec. 31, 2024.
However, based on the Department of the Treasury’s guiding documents on allowed uses for ARPA funds, because the Township applied for the funds under the “revenue loss” category, the funds can only be used for “government services.”
At a Dec. 16 regular meeting and following Dec. 23 special meeting, the trustees voted to rescind the amended Oct. 7 resolution and move the ARPA funds back into the Township’s fire fund — though, as both Moir and TLT Executive Director Michele Burns stated during the April 29 meeting, TLT was not notified that the rescission of the resolution meant that the Township would not include the $113,000 of committed funds in its 2025 budget.
The Welch farmland on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road has since gone up for sale, and TLT has been making arrangements with local farmers to purchase the land, for which the nonprofit planned to purchase conservation easements based on private donations, a $200,000 commitment from Village Council and the $113,000 originally committed by the Township.
Trustees disagree on resolution
The resolution presented by Mucher at the April 29 special meeting included a number of adjustments to and withdrawals from the Township’s general administrative funds with the intention of creating a sub-fund of $113,000 to be set aside for TLT.
In brief, the resolution aimed to “encumber and appropriate” the remainder of the Township’s general administrative fund reserve — about $92,000 — and other unencumbered monies to a sub-fund intended for TLT. The resolution also aimed to make up for what would otherwise be empty general fund reserves by drawing 80% of the salaries for the trustees and fiscal officer — typically drawn from the general fund’s budget — from the Township’s fire fund, where the ARPA funds were allocated in December 2024.
The introduction of the resolution resulted in broad disagreement between Mucher and Moir throughout the meeting.
Mucher maintained that the trustees had already approved motions in both August and October to commit funds to TLT, and the resolution he presented aimed to make good on those commitments.
“That’s what this resolution is going to do — it’s going to certify that we will honor our commitment [to TLT],” he said.
He also noted that Ohio law — specifically Ohio Revised Code 505.24 — allows Townships to draw a percentage of salaries for their administrative staff, including trustees and fiscal officers, from the fire/EMS fund rather than the general fund, provided the Township can certify that the work of its administrators is supporting fire and EMS services to an appropriate degree.
On the other hand, Moir expressed concerns that draining the general fund reserves could leave the Township in financial precarity if its budget, which was completed in March, later needs to be shored up by those reserves.
Moir also noted that withdrawing funds from the fire/EMS fund to pay for administrative salaries could result in a shortfall in MTFR’s operating revenue. Mucher disagreed, stating that the ARPA funds were never considered part of MTFR’s 2025 budget, and that their presence now in the fire/EMS fund should make up the difference.
With that in mind, Moir said she worried that the Township could not adequately certify, based on Ohio law, that its work with MTFR would justify drawing trustee salaries from the fire fund. She also feared, she said, that the Federal government might look harshly on the Township essentially replenishing its general fund reserves from the fire fund — where the ARPA funds currently rest — as a way of circumventing the requirement that the ARPA funds be used for “government services.”
Specifically, Moir pointed to a November 2024 Zoom meeting she undertook with representatives of the Department of the Treasury in which she was advised that keeping the ARPA funds in the Township’s more loosely regulated general fund would raise a “red flag” and possibly result in an audit.
“We told the federal government we were going to spend [the ARPA funds] on fire and rescue personnel,” Moir said.
“And we told them that to make them happy,” Mucher responded.
“We didn’t tell them that to make them happy or wait for them to look away so we can take it back,” Moir said. “How dare you say that on camera.”
Ultimately, after some more back and forth, Moir introduced a motion to submit the resolution to both the Greene County Prosecutor and their private legal counsel firm, Brossius, Johnson and Griggs, for legal review and opinion, and reopen discussion of the resolution at the trustees’ next regular meeting on Monday, May 5; the motion was unanimously approved. Moir then moved that the trustees abstain from voting on the resolution until the trustees’ May 19 regular meeting, but the motion died without a second.
Following the meeting, TLT Executive Director Burns told the News that the nonprofit had prepared to enter into contracts to provide conservation easements to buyers for the Welch farmland and had not been made aware that there was disagreement among the trustees on the committed funds until last week.
“I was basing our fundraising on that commitment,” Burns said. “On Monday, I was calling half a dozen farmers and telling them we had met our fundraising goal.”
She added that TLT will be unable to complete the contracts with buyers until either the trustees are able to again commit the funds or TLT can raise $113,000 from additional donors.
The Miami Township Trustees will hold their next regular meeting Monday, May 5, at 5 p.m. in the MTFR community meeting room.
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.