North Londonderry Twp. approves tentative balanced budget for 2026

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

North Londonderry Township supervisors approved on Nov. 17 a tentative 2026 budget with no tax increase and voted to maintain their own police department. 

Board chairman William Buckfelder said township officials were presenting a balanced budget, noting that township revenue had increased at a greater percentage than expenditures over the past year. 

“I did a little work on it and it looks like our revenue sources have grown at about 4.5% and our expenditures are growing at about 3.8%. So we’re tracking in a good direction due to the growth that we have on the southeast side of the township. So we’re in good shape,” Buckfelder said before a unanimous vote to tentatively adopt what he called a balanced budget.

The budget will be on display on the township’s website and open for comment until the Dec. 15 meeting, which is when it is expected to be adopted. The 2025 and draft 2026 budgets are also available below.

The township manages eight fund accounts, including general, capital reserve, sewer, sewer capital capacity, fire hydrant, street light, liquid fuels/state aid, and recreation. 

The 2026 General Fund shows expected revenues of just under $5.5 million and anticipated expenditures of over $5.3 million. The largest expenditures are $2.8 million for public safety and $1.6 million for the township’s public works department. 

Board rejects police department merger offer

Supervisors also voted unanimously to maintain the township’s police force for 2026.

Read More:

• (September 2025) North Londonderry reviews invitation to collab with regional police department
• (June 2025) Palmyra Borough hears one-year update on Western Lebanon County Regional PDF 
• (May 2024) Annville-Palmyra police merger is on track to go live on May 27

At supervisors’ Sept. 15 meeting, Henri Lively, a representative of the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department and vice president of the Annville Board of Commissioners, invited township officials to consider creating a larger regional police department, which he said “may serve the community more efficiently” and “for the greater good.” Lively is secretary and treasurer for the regional police department.

Lively noted a potential cost savings to the township with a combined effort to consolidate departments. Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department consists of the former Annville Township and Palmyra Borough police departments after merging near the end of May 2024. 

At North Londonderry Township’s September meeting, Buckfelder said he was willing to attend a meeting to gather more information about a potential merger. At that same meeting, Lively told the supervisors he’s been building the WLCRPD for the past three years. 

Lively had also previously extended the information-gathering meeting invitation in a Sept. 10 email to the township and argued for the department’s “proactive” and “strength-in-numbers” approach.

“Palmyra and Annville have experienced greater efficiency and better policing since joining forces in 2024,” Lively wrote. “We warmly welcome you to open seats at this table.”

The offer led to conversations within the township.

“We’ve been talking about it for a while and we did send a letter out basically saying we are deciding not to pursue joining the regional police force,” Buckfelder said.  

In making the motion to decline the offer to regionalize, supervisor James Hartman said the township is “happy with our police force.”

Following Monday’s vote, Buckfelder said to the half-dozen plus meeting attendees that he had several statements to make.

“I’d just like to say that while the merger does not work for North Londonderry Township at this time, we currently do support many shared resources with Palmyra. And our responsibility as supervisors are to the North Londonderry Township residents,” he read from prepared notes. “But we also recognize we live in Palmyra. North Londonderry Township provides sewage treatment for the borough of Palmyra and shares with the borough financial support of their volunteer fire department.”

He highlighted other shared resources.

“A couple other resources we share with the borough in South Londonderry Township that significantly affect the quality of life for residents in North Londonderry Township: The borough and South Londonderry Township are the library and recreation,” he read. “While the three municipalities provide relatively small amounts of financial support, the success of the library and the rec department and the fire department is due to the mutual support of volunteers.” 

Buckfelder added a word of thanks as well.

“The volunteers provide talent and time to make these resources healthy and productive. Since it is the season, I’d like to thank all the volunteers, some of these people are in the room, for their time and talent and fire protection, library and recreation. Thank you,” he said.

New sewage payment system

During public comment, Joe Gryboski of the 200 block of Circle Drive voiced opposition to the recently added service fee for online payment of the township’s sewer bill. 

He said the payment system isn’t functioning properly and that the former autopay feature is no longer available, adding that the history of previous auto payments are missing in the new system.

Township officials said a new vendor was contracted to enhance security for township residents who pay online, and that some bugs still needed to be fixed within the system. 

Other township business

In other news, supervisors unanimously voted to: 

• Pay monthly invoices.
• Accept the treasurer’s, police (shown below), and library reports. The library report included the announcement that the library has a balanced budget for 2026.
• Announce that Santa Claus will be at the Lions Club on Dec. 1 to greet children.
• Approve their Oct. 20 meeting minutes. 

The next meeting of the North Londonderry Township supervisors is Monday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 655 East Ridge Road, Palmyra.