Dear Editor,
My second question about transparency in Killington was what are the town’s plans to fix the issue that the auditor pointed out about not having enough funds to sustain government operations for approximately two months?
The response we received back from Killington Selectboard Chair Patty McGrath in her letter in last week’s edition was that we should have really showed $770,500 in the undesignated account fund. Patty also pointed out that the FEMA debt of approx. $800,000 is going to be fixed by getting some $200,000 that FEMA still owed to us. Patty says we should subtract this $200,000, when received, from the $800,000 debt, which would leave us a $600,000 debt. At this point, the town would reconcile this debt with the $770,500 balance in the undesignated fund account. That would leave us with $170,500 in undesignated fund ($600,000 debt subtracted from the current $770,500 undesignated fund balance.)
So back to my question: If, according to the auditor’s report, $585,562 was not enough to sustain town operations for two months, and according to Patty’s calculations, we will only have $170,500 (which obviously is lower than the $585,562) then how does the town plan to get us to a sufficient amount of funds to sustain our town for two months of operating surplus recommended by the town auditor?
Please don’t try to escape the question by telling us that the town has outlined a plan back in March through a letter and also in the minutes of the special selectboard meeting held June 11. I read both of these documents, and while they both admit there is a problem, they never let us in on the plan to correct this situation. Please let us in on how the town plans to fix this situation, as it is pointed out by the auditor and acknowledged by the Selectboard and town management.
Thanks,
Jim Haff, Killington
