BUTLER TWP — Butler Township commissioners want the municipality’s three volunteer fire companies to present information and requests for how the township’s annual contribution to their stations should be divvied up for 2017.

Commissioners were set to decide on the split at their meeting Monday night, but ultimately said they wanted to give the fire companies a chance to talk about their wants, needs and workloads — something that took place last year in early February.

This time it will occur in late March, after township Manager Ed Kirkwood suggested commissioners give the departments time to prepare their presentations to the board. Kirkwood said the first quarterly disbursement of funds to the township’s departments happens at the end of March, so commissioners would likely need to decide on the split of funds at their meeting on March 20.

Last year township commissioners approved a split of 56 percent for Fire District 3 and 22 percent each for stations 6 and 7. But board President Dave Zarnick said the board wasn’t happy with presentations by representatives of the latter two stations, who didn’t present formal reports in the way District 3 did and spoke in a more “off the cuff,” manner, Zarnick said.

“They need to put a little more work in on it,” Zarnick said.

Township officials said there’s a little more than $348,000 to divide among the three companies — over $10,000 more than last year.