The Brookfield trustees are, from left, Shannon Devitz, Mark Ferrara and Dan Suttles.
Masury resident Tim Radachy put it to the trustees at the Dec. 5 meeting: What are your priorities for 2024?
Trustee Dan Suttles said his priorities include continuing to spend American Rescue Plan Act funds. The trustees have significant projects eyed for the money, including installing generators at the administration building and fire department-social hall; improving storm water drainage in the Valley View neighborhood; and completing construction of a carport behind the police station to shelter police and other township vehicles.
He also noted the planning involved in the 2024 paving program, applying for grants for Brookfield Township Community Park and the green in Brookfield Center, and coming up with a policy for indigent burials at Brookfield Township Cemetery.
Officials said the township has had two indigent burials each of the last two years, while there was only one in the previous 30.
“It’s a touchy thing, but that’s something we need to address because it seems like, talking to our funeral directors in Brookfield, it’s happening more often than not where a nursing home will get to the point and say, ‘Well, they don’t have family and money, you do it,’” Suttles said.
Trustee Mark Ferrara said he wants to work with VAZA Consulting to find grants for the township, work with the school district on joint projects and start the process of finding a new police chief to replace the retiring Dan Faustino.
“Those things are really gonna take us a lot of time,” Ferrara said.
Ferrara added that it’s important to handle the township’s day-to-day business, noting that he never knows what the call will be about when the phone rings.
Trustee Shannon Devitz said she wants to work on the township’s website and generate analytics so that officials know what subjects people are coming to the website to learn about, and continue discussions with the school district.
“I want to be able to follow through with things,” she said. “As trustees, every day it’s something new, something different, you say, ‘Oh, yeah, we can go do that.’ There are so many things. We just gotta make sure that when we promise something we follow through with it.”
