FORWARD TWP — At a special meeting held Thursday, Jan. 15, the newly-assembled township board of supervisors approved a revised version of the 2026 budget and voted to have it advertised and made available for public viewing.

The board can vote to adopt the revised budget at their next regular meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12.

A budget for 2026 had been approved in December 2025 by the previous board of supervisors. A month later, the newly-constituted board of supervisors voted to have the budget reopened and modified.

Between those two meetings, two of the three seats on the board of supervisors changed hands, with Susan Oliver-Stough the only supervisor remaining from 2025. Mark Wilson and Sheryle Long left, while former roadmaster Charles Behm and newcomer Ray Turner came onboard.

“(It was) the desire of the two new board members, under the Second Class Township Code, to reopen the budget for examination,” said township manager Tom Hartwig.

Ultimately, the modified budget is just as balanced as the original budget, with both expenditures and revenues coming out to $1,937,404. The municipal tax rate will remain at 2.78 mills, along with a fire tax rate of 1.5 mills.

In the modified budget, the township has reduced its budgeted contribution to planned America250 celebrations from $25,000 to $15,000. The township’s plans for the country’s sesquicentennial include the relocation of a stone monument commemorating the place where George Washington was nearly shot and killed in 1753, as well as a ceremony featuring historical reenactors.

The township is hoping to cover the reduction through fundraising efforts from the event’s organizing committee. The Daughters of the American Revolution, who own the monument, have also applied for a $15,000 “Preserving America” grant from the Tennessee nonprofit Americana Corner.

“We are pursuing grants and the committee is committed to fundraising also,” said Oliver-Stough, who is taking an active role in planning the township’s America250 events. “We will be working on fundraising and trying our best to gather as much money and financial support as possible.”

The modified budget also reduces the township’s financial contribution to the Evans City Volunteer Fire Department from $10,000 to $7,000. Hartwig said the fire department should expect additional revenue sources to offset the reduced contribution.

“We anticipate the foreign fire amount to creep up a little bit, along with the revenue from the fire tax because of what appears to be a fast developing plan in Maplewood Terrace,” Hartwig said.