County Commissioners forgive EMA $10,000 advancement

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The director of the Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency met with the County Commissioners to discuss an outstanding balance.

Back in 2015 and 2016 the EMA’s office received an advance from the commissioners to help finish out the fiscal year. The money helped the EMA pay payroll and other expenses. Now director, Jeff Jadwin, said he had to come up with a solution to close the account.

“I was approached by the auditor’s office that we needed to resolve those two advances either by taking them out of this years budget or having the commissioners forgive the advancement as a loan and just zeroing the account out,” said Jadwin.

Ultimately, the commissioners decided to forgive the $10,000 advancement giving the EMA a clean slate. As for the status of this years budget Jadwin doesn’t foresee any need to ask for an advancement from the commissioners.

“Part of our program is reimbursed by the federal government and if you go over the amount that they allot then you don’t get that reimbursement; or if you don’t spend enough then you have to return it,” said Jadwin. “So it just makes it kind of complicated to figure your budget and work forward with it.”

Jadwin also gave an update on the tornado siren testing. The siren testing will resume at its normal time at noon on Wednesday.