BRIDGEPORT — With a Financial Recovery Plan in place, the village of Bridgeport aims to resolve its deficit of more than $500,000 by 2025.

The village was declared in a state of fiscal emergency in 2018 by the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office. In 2019, the village approved a recovery plan to help eliminate more than $760,000 in debt between the general fund and street fund. When the plan was first approved, officials had hoped to resolve the debt by 2023; however, that time has now been extended.

The Bridgeport Financial Planning and Supervision Commission met via teleconference Friday morning to vote on the recovery plan for this year.

Council approved the plan earlier this month during a special meeting.

Financial Supervisor Justin Sloan gave a brief analysis of the plan prior to the commission’s vote.

According to Ohio Revised Code 1806, the plan must address specific items in order to be effective, he said. Those items include eliminating all fiscal emergency conditions.

“For the village, the fiscal emergency conditions was the default on debt. Restructuring of the loans that the commission approved in the spring of 2020 alleviate the village’s default conditions with the OWDA (Ohio Water Development Authority),” he said.

The village defaulted on a loan with the OWDA, which led to more than $420,000 in defaulted loans and late fees.

Sloan said the plan must eliminate all fund deficits in all deficit funds. The village’s deficit funds include the general fund and street construction maintenance and repair fund.

In the recovery plan, the general fund deficit is projected to be eliminated in 2024. However, if the village is successful in passing a police levy on the November ballot, the date could be accelerated and the debt could be eliminated by 2022, he said.

The plan will eliminate the deficit in the street fund in 2025 with the aid of a transfer of funds from the general fund, Sloan said.

“With or without the police levy, this plan eliminates the deficit in the deficit funds within five years. So in that regard, the objective has been met,” he said.

Sloan said the village is subject to biannual audits, and fund balance adjustments may be made as determined by the audit staff.

The primary objective of the plan is a balanced approach to budgeting. Sloan said the plan budgets for consistent and current payment of bills, fringe benefits and accounts while avoiding any deficits of funds within the forecasted period.

Sloan said the village’s ongoing water problems have presented an issue with the funds.

“The need for the village to purchase water rather than producing its own has presented a long-term, growing concern for the fiscal solvency of that fund,” he said.

Therefore, the plan must be reviewed and revised in six months in order to incorporate any adjustments for operating as a water distribution enterprise opposed to a production and treatment enterprise, Sloan said. He added that the plan also provides proposals for potential rate increases and staffing modifications as necessary to remain solvent within the forecasted period.

Sloan said the recovery plan will help the village avoid any fiscal emergency conditions in the future.

The supervision commission unanimously approved the village’s financial recovery plan for the year.