Auditor of State Dave Yost on Friday announced that the City of Wellston has achieved financial stability after spending nearly eight years in fiscal emergency.
“The path was strenuous, but today the city has finally arrived at a point of financial stability,” Auditor Yost said. “I congratulate the community and its leaders for their success and encourage them to keep moving forward toward even healthier finances.”
The city was assigned the fiscal distress designation on Oct. 1, 2009, after the Auditor’s office identified treasury deficits that exceeded one-sixth of treasury receipts by $588,915 and $623,915 as of Dec. 31, 2008, and June 30, 2009, respectively.
Since then, the city has generated almost $6.4 million in savings by adjusting staffing levels and employee benefits, and by eliminating about half of the city’s streetlights.
The community of roughly 5,660 people also passed three levies that enabled fire, cemetery and street operations to continue, while also eliminating deficits in those funds.
A 1 mill fire levy passed in 2012 has generated approximately $59,000 per year, and will continue to do so through the end of this year. Voters passed a 1 mill cemetery levy the following year that will yield $59,000 annually through 2018. A 2 mill street levy passed in 2014 will generate an additional $119,000 per year through 2019.