Welcome, New Readers. However, You Got Here

Amy Heutmaker, Russell Township Trustee

Published: May 1, 2026

My blog traffic is up. Not election-night up, not inauguration-week up, but noticeably up. And if I am being honest about why, it is because someone on Facebook has been posting some fairly colorful things about me.

I will not name them, link to them, or give them more oxygen than they have already found on their own. What I will do is say this: if their posts brought you here, I am genuinely glad you came. Whatever the reason, welcome.

This blog exists for one purpose: to keep Russell Township residents informed about what is happening in their township government, in plain language, sourced from public documents. That is it. No agenda beyond transparency. So if you are new here, let me bring you up to speed on what I have been writing about.

The Carryover and the Police Levy

Earlier this year, it came to light that Russell Township had a significant carryover balance that had not been clearly communicated to the Board of Trustees or to residents. Since then, my sole focus has been on one question: how did this happen?

That question led me to review UAN financial reports, budget commission records, and meeting documentation from 2025. What I found raised further questions about the 2025 police levy, a measure of approximately $1,000,000 per year placed before voters by the prior Board. Specifically, documents I reviewed suggest the Police Department may have had sufficient funds to meet its goals without an additional levy. I have written about this in detail, including my view that the prior trustees did not all bear equal responsibility for that decision.

Those posts are on this site. I encourage you to read them and draw your own conclusions.

Fiscal Transparency

I have also written about my push to get routine financial reports distributed to the Board regularly and posted publicly on the township website. My position is simple: no resident should have to file a public records request to find out where their tax dollars are going. As permitted by law, that information should be on the website and easy to find.

I formally requested a set of monthly and quarterly financial reports from the township's Uniform Accounting Network (UAN) system. These are standard reports. They should not be hard to get. I will keep pushing until they are routine.

The Full-Time Firefighter

Not everything I write about is a fight. The Board recently voted 3-0 to include funding for a full-time firefighter at the Russell Fire Department in our permanent appropriations as a budget request by Fire Chief John Frazier and as discussed at the March 19 meeting, something the department has been asking for for close to ten years.

As a former firefighter myself, that vote meant something to me. I wrote about it here, and I am proud of it.

The Township Administrator

Across all of these issues, one theme keeps coming up: the Board of Trustees does not have direct, independent access to the financial tools it needs to do its job. My proposed solution is a Township Administrator with statutory authority to pull UAN reports on the Board's behalf. This is not a novel idea. It is a governance structure used by townships across Ohio. I am committed to making it happen in Russell.

On the Meeting Minutes

Since it has come up, I delayed approval of the meeting minutes for our May 7 meeting. I stated my reason on the record at the April 16 meeting, and I will restate it here. I received the revised minutes the morning of the meeting. Between then and the time we convened, I had a full day of work as a mental health therapist. I did not have time to review them prior to the meeting.

Approving minutes I have not read is not something I am willing to do. That is not obstruction. That is due diligence!

What This Blog Is and Is Not

This blog is not a campaign site. I am not running for anything right now. It is not a place where I attack people, settle scores, or post things I cannot back up with documents. If I name someone, I have a reason grounded in the public record.

What it is: a running account of what I am doing, what I am finding, and what I think residents deserve to know. Every post ends with the same disclaimer, and I mean every word of it.

So again, welcome. Scroll around. Read what interests you. And if you have questions or want to discuss anything in person, come to a Board of Trustees meeting. That is where the decisions get made, and the door is open.

The views expressed here are mine only and are intended to keep residents informed about township issues. Decisions of the Russell Township Board of Trustees are made only during public meetings.