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Print Edition Highlights - May 4, 2023
Carolyn Hoffman
Warrington Township is revamping and upgrading its financial reporting and documentation as a result of a QuickBooks review by SEK Financial.
The firm found issues with how payroll was set up and that the township’s budget is not in QuickBooks, among other issues.
Noting that QuickBooks “is complex,” SEK’s Kendra Barnhart said processing payroll should take no more than an hour, not the hours township staff currently spend on it. Getting the budget into QuickBooks will also make tracking actual expenses against the budget much easier.
SEK also found that the number of township savings and checking accounts is 31, when most municipalities have three, Barnhart reported. Consolidating these accounts, many of which are escrow accounts, will still allow for separate tracking of those accounts. Fixing the issues will take time, perhaps a couple of weeks of full-time work, but “it’s nothing that can’t be fixed,” she said.
Barnhart also recommended the township make use of “sweep accounts,” which are high-earning checking accounts and are common with municipalities. The bank invests the money overnight but returns the money to the township in the morning. She said she’d never heard of a municipality losing money by using these accounts and that Warrington could easily make $1,200 a month by using them.
SEK was brought into review the township accounts and to help switch the payroll to ADP, a payroll processing firm. After QuickBooks is set up more efficiently, the township may eventually revert to handing the payroll internally. Another change recommended was to have a set payment schedule for invoices, and now invoices will be paid every other Tuesday. A check scanner will be used to immediately process checks coming into the township.
As part of the financial realignment, Stacy Wiseman-Zohrbaugh was named treasurer at a salary of $61,000. She was serving as administrative assistant but was previously bonded from her financial work in another township. The salary is a $14,000 increase over her role as administrative assistant. However, given her expertise, both Wiseman-Zohrbaugh and Robison indicated hiring an administrative assistant to replace her won’t be necessary. The vote was 4-1, with John Dockery opposed. Robison’s salary was also increased by $2,000 to $63,000. That vote was also 4-1, with Michael Saylor opposed.
For the rest of the story see the May 4, 2023 edition.
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Photo by Curt Werner
Carlisle Town Band
Blaire Heller, a senior at Boiling Springs High School shares a laugh with conductor, David Rohrer, after playing her clarinet solo during the Carlisle Town Band's spring concert at the Carlisle Theatre on Sunday afternoon, April 23.
Staff reports
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has begun building the final phase of its All-Electronic Tolling (AET) implementation. Work is underway to relocate tolling points in eastern Pennsylvania from their current interchange locations. New highway-speed collection points are being built along the roadway between interchanges using a technique called Open Road Tolling, or ORT — a cashless, free-flowing mode of collecting tolls without traditional toll plazas or tollbooths.
With ORT, tolls continue to be paid electronically, but now vehicles will drive at highway speed beneath overhead structures — called gantries — located on the PA Turnpike between exit and entry points. Equipment installed on the gantry and in the roadway identifies and classifies vehicles and processes E-ZPass and Toll By Plate payments.
The PA Turnpike is constructing 19 gantries — with small utility buildings to house the required equipment — east of the Reading Interchange (Exit 286) to the New Jersey line and along the entire Northeastern Extension (I-476). The eastern ORT system will go live in 2025. The ORT system for the central and western PA Turnpike roadway is expected to be built beginning in 2025, with an anticipated go-live date of 2027.
For the rest of the story see the May 4, 2023 edition.
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