Slabaugh’s 44 Years As Scott Township Trustee Ends
Slabaugh’s 44 Years As Scott Township Trustee Ends
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Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Slabaugh’s 44 Years As Scott Township Trustee EndsSCOTT TOWNSHIP – The end of 2022 also meant the end of Fred Slabaugh’s 44-year tenure as the Scott Township trustee.
Slabaugh said he ran for the position in 1977 because a precinct committeeman came around and asked if he would run for the position. Slabaugh said he would, “not knowing really what all I was getting into.”
Once he got into the position in 1978, he said he was able to learn along the way and had plenty of help, including from his wife. He said once the first term ended, he signed up to run again and it’s been that way the entire 44 years.
“Where the 44 years went, I have no idea,” he said.
The duties for trustees are pretty much the same in every township, he said, but everyone goes about it differently. The bigger townships are able to hire to people to help, but with the smaller townships like Scott Township, Slabaugh said he pretty much does it all. Some of the things township trustees deal with include township assistance, which includes rent, heating and food assistance.
He said he hasn’t written a food check in a while because there are other organizations that help people with food, such as area churches. He noted there are other agencies that also help with heating assistance.
Another issue is fire protection. Slabaugh said some townships have their own fire protection agencies, but Scott Township contracts with the Nappanee Fire Department for fire protection.
Once in a while, Slabaugh said he gets involved in fence line issues, who should and shouldn’t build fences. Slabaugh is in charge of taking care of the township’s cemetery, which he hired someone to take care of.
Slabaugh said the trustee position has always been called grassroots government. He said one of the benefits of the job is the trustee gets to know the people in the township. He thinks that gives him a better opinion of what’s going on in helping people with township assistance because the trustee gets to know the people paying property taxes and the struggles they go through getting that paid.
Over the last 44 years, he said the responsibility of being a trustee has pretty much stayed the same, but there have been changes in how trustees go about dealing with those responsibilities due to the state changing procedures.
“I’m sure they do it because they think they’re making it better, but I’m not so sure sometimes,” he said.
When asked why he didn’t run for re-election in 2022, Slabaugh said he just doesn’t want to do the job any more, citing some health issues and age. He plans on doing his “general things,” including some farming.
Now that he is out of office, Slabaugh said he will not miss dealing with township assistance.
“That’s a heartbreaker,” he said. He said there are some real sad situations with dealing with township assistance.
One of the jobs trustees used to do was assessing. When trustees stopped doing that, Slabaugh found he missed the interaction he had with people in regards to that. He said the people is the thing he imagines he will miss as trustee.
He said he’s been proud of keeping expenses in line with income, which he said a lot of trustees struggle with. His predecessor left Slabaugh with good balances, which he said he feels he is doing as well.
