West Penn Township officials got their initial glimpse of next year’s spending plan during a brief budget workshop last week.

The discussion started with Sgt. John Kaczmarczyk, the township’s sergeant-in-charge, telling supervisors he’s looking to push the wages from $296,900 to $305,306, and the capital reserve for vehicles up to $30,000.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti noted that the department’s budget appears as if it will have a roughly $20,000 increase next year.

The discussion then turned to cameras for the police vehicles, with estimates ranging from $60,000 to $70,000, which isn’t currently included in next year’s budget.

Kaczmarczyk said he was trying to go the grant route with it.

Supervisor Glenn Hummel suggested possibly doing two police vehicles this year, and two next year if the township doesn’t obtain a grant.

“Can we borrow from operating reserve to pay those cameras off?” he asked.

Prudenti then recommended that the township first see where it’s at with grants.

Either way, Hummel said he believes the cameras are essential for protection.

“See if we can’t get the grants,” Hummel said.

Prudenti said Hummel’s suggestion wasn’t a bad idea.

“I just want to exhaust all possibilities first,” Prudenti said. “Everything right now’s preliminary.”

EMS services

The dialogue then switched to the township’s fire company and ambulance providers.

Prudenti said he’d like to see if the township could give the fire company and ambulance an extra $5,000 each.

Hummel said that while he wasn’t necessarily against that idea, he believes the township needs to prepare itself for when salaries for ambulance personnel start going through the roof and the township may have to pay for firefighters instead of having volunteers,

That distinct possibility is why Prudenti said he’d like to give the organizations the extra money now.

Hummel then suggested that they should merge, which could solve their problems immediately.

“They’ve got to do something to get together,” Hummel said. “The same thing with the fire company.”

Hummel then asked about funding for tax forgiveness for EMS and fire.

Prudenti said the township previously looked into that.

“But, I’m all for that,” Prudenti said. “We should be trying to do all that we can for first responders.”

In December, the board was able to stave off it what would have been its first tax increase in nearly two decades thanks to an increase in Earned Income Tax.

At that time, supervisors adopted this year’s budget with no tax increase, which left the millage rate at 4.50 mills.

The last time the township had a tax increase was in 2005.