Village of Greenfield, OH

Greenfield city manager Todd Wilkin offers an explanation of the village's 2022 budget.


By Angela Shepherd
Village of Greenfield

Greenfield’s budget for 2022 was approved last month by council members. The approximately $5.8 million budget can seem quite complicated, but the administration is hoping to explain it a bit to help the citizens understand more of how the finances are allocated. 

The budget itself is broken into different funds. In the general fund, which is budgeted at approximately $1.7 million for 2022, there are a number of items which include the police department, city manager, council, finance, city hall, law director, and building department. 

The police budget is bolstered by the existence of another fund which comes from a percentage of income tax revenue, a measure approved some years ago by citizens, city manager Todd Wilkin said. The whole of the police department budget will allow the village to keep staffing at its budgeted and intended capacity. There is also money allotted that will allow for the continued work to get drugs off the streets. While things like salaries, uniforms, insurance, pensions, and equipment are covered within the whole of the police department’s budget, it also accounts for continued officer training, something that Wilkin stressed was so incredibly important. 

Street maintenance and repair has its own section of the budget, which amounts to $558,780 for 2022. This covers things like salaries and other employee-related matters, equipment, operating supplies, among other things. Paving is covered here, too, and for the coming year $127,000 is budgeted for that. Last year, according to city manager Todd Wilkin, approximately $99,000 was spent on paving.

A street curb project is in the budget for north Washington that will prepare curbs for ODOT’s paving of north Washington. The village is responsible for the curb preparation for this project, but other paving work done this year will be based on the Capital Improvement Plan and choosing streets that don’t have significant infrastructure issues under them. 

The water and sewer departments, which account for more than $2 million of the whole village’s budget, are each funded through their own budget sections. The line items therein cover everything from employee provisions – things like salaries, uniforms, and insurance – to operational expenses like operating supplies and equipment. 

The railroad fund accounts for things like utilities and maintenance, but this year also includes the village’s share – just over $120,000 – of the upcoming grant-funded multi-million dollar railroad improvement, which will see much-needed repairs and upgrades on Greenfield’s line, which will improve the reliability and experience of the industries that use the line. 

There’s a park fund, which encompasses everything to do with Greenfield’s parks, which also includes the bike trail. This includes grant monies for parks development, including the planned trail connecting Felson and Mitchell parks, and the activities of the Mitchell Park Youth Sports League, which last year really took off. 

While the village ran the youth sports league for years, the group of volunteers that have taken the league over are a nonprofit that runs the baseball program as well as flag football. Wilkin said the youth sports league is “viable and well-functioning,” and he was excited about what the group is doing. “I am so happy we've had volunteers step up and take it and run with it because the nonprofit will do so much more and do so much better than we could ever manage.”

This year, the plan is for the group to lease the park from the village, thereby allowing the group more eligibility for grant dollars. The village will retain responsibility for insurance and electricity at the park.

A city hall improvement fund in the budget includes window replacement this year. That money, Wilkin said, to replace windows in the building has come directly from revenue from the county for its lease of the second floor court. The new, maintenance-free windows will replace old, single-paned windows. 

Other things covered in the budget include items like economic development, which is a portion of the intake from the levy approved a couple years ago, the rest of which funds city building needs. The economic development monies can cover things like the downtown facade improvement program and its management and anything regarding the industrial park, like advertising or other things that could attract potential business to Greenfield.   

In the property maintenance fund, there’s money budgeted for things like mowing and/or cleaning up properties, and dealing with dilapidated structures, which at this point includes the Elliott Hotel. That structure has been quit-claim deeded to the village and there are plans to demolish the structure and develop that corner. 

This year there is some money, a total of $4,000, allotted across the Tree Commission, Planning Commission, and the Design Review Board. The groups can use the funds for things like attending trainings so that they may be better equipped to serve the village and its citizens. In the case of the Tree Commission, funds may also be used to plant trees.

If anyone would like to see the budget in its entirety or has questions regarding the budget, you can come to the third floor of the city building during normal business hours, call the village offices at 937-981-3500, or email finance director Gary Lewis at glewis@greenfieldohio.net.

The Greenfield Village Council meets twice a month in the council chambers on the third floor of the city building. The first meeting of the month is, for now, set to be more of a work session with the second meeting being one where legislation is presented and voted on. The meetings are public. For information and updates, go togreenfieldohio.net and the Village of Greenfield, Ohio Facebook page.