MANCHESTER, Ohio — After 21 years navigating the longest financial crisis in Ohio history, the village of Manchester on Tuesday was officially released from fiscal emergency by Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost.

Kevin Walters, assistant fire chief for the Manchester Fire Department, broke the news on Facebook.

“Today the village of Manchester has something to be very proud of,” he wrote. “The determination and hard work of our village leaders has put our village in a better place than we have been in a long time.”

In a news release, Yost praised the work done by village leaders to make the town financially solvent.

“Manchester’s success story is a good reminder that fiscal emergencies are not resolved overnight,” Yost said. “But more importantly, the village is a model of the perseverance, collaboration and sacrifices that are necessary to restore a government’s financial health.”

Manchester Village Council member Christine Henderson said it’s good to have the village back in control of its own operations.

“It’s a great feeling,” Henderson said. “However, we have to be very careful because we’re on a forecasted budget, and we have to stick to that budget to make sure we stay out of fiscal emergency.”

Henderson is also looking toward the day when the town doesn’t have to operate under the necessary constraints of the five-year forecasted budget.

She said she’d like to see the council pursue grants that will revitalize the village.

“Manchester is never going to be like it was from the 50’s through the 70’s, but we’ve got to come up with some kind of plan to draw people here,” she said. “We all know the river is our greatest asset for attracting tourists and we all know we need a boat marina. It’s important that we all work together to figure out how we can make that happen.”

The village’s fiscal emergency status was declared on Oct. 1, 1997, in response to four fund deficits that totaled $105,447 at the time.

In addition to the deficits, the village has also struggled to bring its cashbooks into agreement with its bank account balances.

To chip away at the deficits, community members passed and renewed more than a dozen levies benefiting village operations. In 2007, the village raised its income tax rate from 0.5 percent to 1 percent, generating an additional $50,000 annually.

Though it was unpopular with local residents, measures taken to reduce costs included disbanding the village’s police department and eliminating the position of Mayor’s Court Clerk in 2017 for combined annual savings of $110,000.

Other steps taken to bring the village out of the red and into the black included: joining the Regional Income Tax Agency in 2009 to enhance its tax collection process; increasing utility rates and the rental rate for the village’s community building; implementing a health savings account program for health insurance benefits; and increasing the rate employees pay for health care premiums from 10 percent to 20 percent, saving $3,000 annually.

“I commend the village for making the tough decisions necessary to achieve this positive outcome,” Yost said in his release. “Looking ahead, I challenge Manchester’s officials to routinely seek out new opportunities to further reinforce the village’s financial stability.”

The village’s fiscal officer, Rae Ann Insko, said the move by Yost represents a turning point for Manchester.

“This is definitely a positive for village,” she said Thursday. “We’re still facing a lot of challenges that we need to work on, but this is a wonderful step in the right direction.”

To be released from fiscal emergency, the village also had to satisfy the following requirements: adopt and implement an effective financial accounting and reporting system; correct or eliminate all fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred, and it appears that, based on the five-year forecast, the village will remain out of fiscal emergency during the forecast period; meet the major objectives of the financial recovery plan; and prepare a five-year forecast in accordance with standard issued by the Auditor of State, and the opinion expressed by the Auditor of State is “non-adverse”.

This was Manchester’s second bout with fiscal emergency. The village previously held the status for two years and seven months in the mid-1980s.

Manchester Township, which borders the village, now has the longest active fiscal emergency in the state. The township received the designation about 16 years ago on Sept. 20, 2002.

According to the Auditor’s office, since 2011, 20 cities, villages and townships across the state have slipped into fiscal emergency. In the same period, the Auditor’s office has released 30 local governments from the status.

Manchester village officials and representatives from the office of State Auditor David Yost gathered on Oct. 16 to celebrate the village being taken out of fiscal emergency status after 21 years. Photo submitted
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_ManchesterFiscal-1.jpgManchester village officials and representatives from the office of State Auditor David Yost gathered on Oct. 16 to celebrate the village being taken out of fiscal emergency status after 21 years. Photo submitted

Patricia Beech

Champion Media