Good news for Summit Township residents as the preliminary 2010 budget was reviewed at the December supervisors’ meeting and there will be no tax increase in the township.

Supervisors pointed out that there are no major changes in the budget. Supervisor Harry McGrath said that there will be one less full and part time worker in 2010.

The budget can be reviewed by residents and will be adopted at a meeting on December 28 at 4 PM.

In other business, every so often the insurance agent attends meetings in order to go over the policy for the township. He had mentioned at past meetings that the overall policy rate could be reduced if the township would work in conjunction with the fire department and ambulance service in creating a safety program.

Summit had never done this but decided to gather more information and go ahead with it. Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Joel Stone explained that the ultimate goal is to make the work environment safer in general, which could reduce any kind of workers comp claim, for instance, in the process.

What will happen is a committee will be formed with people from the ambulance service, the VFD and the Board of Supervisors. The meetings will take place once a month and will cover all aspects of safety. One person could be assigned to oversee the safety of the shop, so to speak, as well.

This is just in the preliminary stages currently and more will be reported when information comes out during meetings.

Along the same vein as the safety program, Township Secretary Cindy McCoy said that Pete Albaugh, Summit Fire Marshall and Code Enforcement Officer, would like to have something in place that would require a prospective volunteer to have a physical examination prior to joining the VFD.

McCoy spoke on behalf of Albaugh who was not present. She said that if a physical were required, it could show preexisting conditions and might possibly determine whether or not a person could handle the work. She said that the insurance agent told her of a man who was obese and suffered a heart attack while fighting a fire.

This sparked some lively discussion as Supervisor Leroy Bell said the heart attack scenario could happen to anybody.

Still sticking to the above story as an example, McCoy said that for one thing, if that kind of emergency happened in Summit, they would have to pay for the medical expenses and also, she felt that a medical exam would have at least shown the limitations.

Stone emphasized that it is not permissible to discriminate however, they could place limitations.

The question of paying for the physical was broached by Mc- Grath. Bell said it could cost $100 for a physical and Stone said that might be true but it could end up costing thousands down the road if the person did not have one.

Bell said that if someone is volunteering, he shouldn't really have to pay for the physical. McGrath said some folks might be OK with paying for their own and others might take issue with basically paying to volunteer.

No official action was taken about this issue but the conversation has begun.

In other business, the streetlights on Comstock had been shut off in the past due to non-payment on the part of the Board of Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park. Since then, the residents approached the township with the required signed petition needed to get the township to take them over and turn them back on.

McCoy said the electric company left the lights in place and, on the go ahead of the township, went ahead and turned them back on. Now the township is in the process of assessing the lights so that people will be billed accordingly.

It works on the same lines as those who live in town, for instance. They will also recover the amount of the survey that was undertaken by Henry Knapp. In order to make it cost effective and fair to all involved, billing will take place over a period of five years and gradually, the township will recover the cost of the survey. This was passed via motion.

Revenue Sharing was next on the agenda as Harry McGrath explained what it was all about. He said back in the 1970s it was enacted and the bottom line was that money from the federal budget would be dispersed throughout townships and municipalities in the country. That way, everyone gets something out of the deal.