Hanover trustees end contract with Butler County deputies

Approve resolution to begin new fire levy submission process

The Hanover Township Trustees made a motion during a meeting on June 17 to immediately end the contracts for two Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputies patrolling the area.

According to Hanover Township Administrator Bruce Henry, the decision was made to save money in the general fund in case future transfers are needed for other township operations.

During a meeting in April, the board voted to divert $300,000 from the general fund to the fire fund to help cover a funding gap. A levy intended to cover the majority of the fire department’s budget was rejected by voters in May.

Henry told the Oxford Free Press, the idea of cutting the deputies’ contracts and saving the funds was “to fill the hole, so to speak, in any part of the operations of the township.”

“Could that include the fire department? Yes,” Henry said, although he said it could also go toward filling gaps in cemetery operations or the park budget. “The idea behind the thinking of the motion was to preserve the general fund to address any budgetary shortages that may come up.”

Henry said burials and other items related to the revenue collected by cemetery operations are down this year. He said the cemetery budget was given an additional $100,000 back in May, but the office has equipment needs coming up that it will be unable to fully cover. Even so, he said the township is still reviewing exactly how short the budget is.

“There’s always something unexpected coming up,” Henry said. “Some of that money (from the contracts) would be directed to address that, but it’s premature to make those projections.”

Henry said the annual savings from cutting the deputies’ contracts would be about $261,000, or about 80% of the general operating levy funds, which amount to over $362,000. The total general fund budget for this year is more than $2.4 million, meaning the contracts made up 11%. 

Henry said the change will not affect the location of the Hanover Township meetings at the Butler County Sheriff’s District 18 office.

The two deputies whose contracts were cut were specifically assigned to cover Hanover Township. Without those deputies, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department still has general road patrol deputies covering other townships in addition to Hanover.

“The reason for (the contracts) was to serve the specific interests of Hanover Township residents and to keep (the deputies) available,” Henry said, adding the contracts have been in place for years, back to when he started working for the township nearly two decades ago.

Chief Anthony Dwyer of the Butler County Sheriff’s Department said the department will try to continue policing the area as best it can, but “obviously, it’s going to diminish the coverage out there.”

“Hopefully, we stay up on the response times, but no matter how you cut it, just reducing the people is going to change the response out there,” Dwyer said. 

Dwyer said there was “very little discussion” about the change during the public portion of the meeting, and there was no discussion with the department until after the decision was made. 

“It was a little abrupt. I don’t think it was well thought-out,” Dwyer said. 

Dwyer said, as the department is constantly in a state of “flux” with retirements and positions moving around or other contracts expanding, the deputies will remain employed.

New fire levy proposal

Additionally, the board voted to approve a resolution of necessity to begin the process of putting a 3.5 mill levy on the ballot for the fire department fund in November.

The levy to support the Hanover Fire District was voted down twice, during the November 2025 and May elections. 

The levy proposed in November 2025 would have been collected at a rate not exceeding 3.5 mills for each $1 of taxable value of a property, amounting to $123 for each $100,000 of the appraised property value for a homeowner per year. The levy proposed in May would have been collected at a rate of 5 mills, or $5 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

Now, trustees are reverting to last year’s levy proposal in the hope residents will pass it.

Levy funding supports the overwhelming majority of the fire department’s budget – around 98% – and is used to maintain fire equipment, buildings and sites for Hanover Township and pay for part-time and volunteer firefighting, communications and emergency medical service personnel, among other resources.

This was the last collection year for the fire district’s former levy that was based on property valuations from 2016. The latest levy proposal would be placed at the same millage rate as before.

Henry said the township is asking for the Butler County Auditor to certify what the levy would generate based on property valuations. He said the trustees will discuss officially putting the new levy on the November ballot during its July 15 meeting.

Henry said the levy passing in November would “make life a little easier” in ensuring fire and EMS services continue beyond the end of this year. But if it fails, the board would have to review its budget again “and make a decision as to what they want to do next,” he said.

When asked if the levy being approved would result in a reinstatement of the deputies’ contracts, Henry said, “That would be a board decision, and at least at this point, there’s been no discussion or speculation about that.”

The Hanover Township Trustees will meet again at 6 p.m. on July 15, 2595 Old Oxford Road.