A Franklin Township official remains adamant the municipality is in good shape financially several months after the township hired a third party to rectify the bookkeeping.

Resident Jill Renfrew questioned the township’s board of supervisors on Tuesday about the audit after the board adopted this year’s budget despite not knowing where its ending balance will be.

“In light of the fact that the secretaries are continuing to work on the QuickBooks thing, and the fact that we have the meeting with the auditors coming up, are we going to see a budget for 2026?” Renfrew asked. “What’s happening with that.”

Board Chairman Nick Storm told Renfrew that the township has a budget that it approved.

“I know that it was at least all of our ending numbers and all that stuff was all gone through (and (gone over),” Storm said. “All of last year’s stuff, which is where most of the questioning was on where we were, that’s all straightened out.”

Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr. agreed and added the only thing that was a little messy was putting in all of the payrolls that didn’t get put in.

Township secretary Cady Guy said all the payroll is up to date.

“It was more so QuickBooks,” Guy said. “Things were entered but they were in different areas and again corrected.”

Kemmerer explained the township had a whole checklist from consultant Diana Patton, from Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, which is what they’ve been working on.

Renfrew then asked if the township has a working budget.

“Because the budget that we had last talked about I thought was the conversation was that we needed to have this rework of QuickBooks done before we could know that the budget numbers that you were working with were accurate,” Renfrew said. “That was where I thought you guys left it in the end of December, first of January.”

Kemmerer told Renfrew that the budget numbers the township is working with were very close.

“I knew we were in good shape,” Kemmerer said. “Financially, we were not in a disarray; we just had to have things put in the right spot.”

Moving forward

Kemmerer reassured her that once last year’s stuff is done, that’s when they’ll present that as where the township ended last year.

“The reason that an individual does a budget for the business is that you have that as a guideline for your expenditures for the following year, and so if the budget that you had wasn’t built on good numbers then you don’t know whether your expenditures are correct for the year or not,” Renfrew said. “And I just wondered if we had reworked that to the point where you had solid numbers so that when you’re looking at expenditures over the course of this year, you know that you’re covered.”

Renfrew added that she realized there was money in the bank and that the township was good, but that it was just a matter of knowing where the township’s expenditures were.

Kemmerer said they’re going to make sure this year that they’re reconciling and getting an update every month so that it isn’t like last year where it took them until the end of the year to know where it was at.

“We don’t want to live that over,” Kemmerer said. “We’re going to keep (an eye on it).”

Storm concurred and added that hopefully the township does not ever have that situation again.

In December, supervisors adopted this year’s budget, but had to hire a third party to rectify the bookkeeping because they didn’t know where its ending balance would be.

Supervisors at that time unanimously adopted the 2026 budget that will leave the millage rate at 8.64 mills.

Kemmerer said at the December meeting that the board approved hiring a consultant from Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors earlier that month.

Kemmerer said the budget had to be adopted but could be reopened in 2026 if necessary.

Former Supervisor Jason Frey said Patton said the township’s 2023 and 2024 budget audits were not filed. He said he was able to find the 2023, but did not find the 2024 yet.

Renfrew said at the December meeting that she didn’t agree with Kemmerer’s assertion about the 2026 budget.

Renfrew added at that time she thought it was a “terrible embarrassment” to the township that it doesn’t know.

Kemmerer noted that for the last how many years, the township had former secretary/treasurer Brenda Cressley, who had a handle on everything.

Cressley retired, effective March 31, and assistant secretary/treasurer Christine Green resigned March 7.

Mary Fairchild was unanimously approved as the new township secretary/treasurer, while Francesca Pope was appointed as the new assistant secretary/treasurer.

Earlier in December, supervisors approved the termination of employee No. 130, effective Nov. 24. Supervisors said the employee was from the township’s administration department but did not disclose the name.

Proposed general fund expenditures were projected at $2,787,310, while projected revenues are at $2,754,099, a difference of about $33,000.