Allenstown News : Board of Selectmen

Allenstown town audit spurs concern

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:33:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Several residents showed up at the Allenstown Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday, April 7, hoping to discuss accounting errors found in the town’s 2006 audit, as well more recent errors detected by an independent consulting firm.

Selectmen decided to reserve the discussion on the accounting discrepancies for nonpublic session after reviewing the administrative assistant’s plan to correct t he errors.

According to the 2006 audit report dated Jan. 31, 2008, from t he town’s auditor, Plodzik and Sanderson, several errors had been made in balance transfers, some accounts had not been reconciled correctly, and the town’s preparation and review of financial statements was not in accordance with widely accepted accounting practices.

“The government-wide statement of net assets does not include all of the Town’s capital assets nor the accumulated depreciation on those assets; and the government-wide statement of activities does not include depreciation expense related to those assets. These amounts have not been determined because the Town has not inventoried all of its capital assets at historical cost,” the report states.

“Therefore, in our opinion, the financial statements referred to above (included in the report) do not present fairly the financial position of the government activities of the Town of Allenstown at December 31, 2006, and the changes in financial position thereof for the year then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America,” the report goes on to say.

Kelley Collins, administrative assistant for the town since 2005, was on medical leave for more than three months following a skiing accident. During that time, said Selectman Tom Gilligan, other town employees took over her day-to-day duties.

It is still unclear who made the mistakes, Gilligan said, but Collins has developed a timeline to fix them and is updating the Board of Selectmen weekly on her progress.

An outside accounting firm, Municipal Resources, Inc., is working with the town to correct some of the mistakes after meeting with selectmen at their meeting March 17.

Municipal Resources Inc. made several recommendations which included setting up funds that were voted in the 2006 election that mistakenly slipped in under the radar, correcting errors in recording encumbrances and expenditures, and regularly reconciling the accounts.

Allenstown resident Pauline Boutin said she’s not sure whether Collins should remain in her position while the errors are still being looked at. “I came to find out whether they’ve taken any action,” Boutin said at the Town Hall on Monday, April 7.

The group of residents, including former Selectman Sandra McKenney, prepared a statement to present to the Board of Selectmen, outlining concerns surrounding the errors and the board’s disclosure of them.

“Because of these inadequacies, in 2007-2008 Allenstown has incurred additional expenses by hiring consultants from MRI, grant writing purposes and possibly legal services,” the statement reads, going on to say those costs should be deducted from Collins’ salary.

“We’ve never had a report like that,” said McKenney.

Allenstown town audit reveals errors

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:40:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

A recent review by an outside accountant uncovered errors in the town’s accounts, according to town officials.

After deficiencies were found in the fiscal year-end audits for 2005 and 2006, said Selectman Tom Gilligan, and the town’s administrative assistant being on medical leave for 14 weeks, the Board of Selectmen brought in CPA Carrol Coppola on March 13 to review the town’s accounts.

What she found were mistakes in data entry, typographical errors and several revolving funds from 2006 that were mistakenly never set up, Gilligan said.

The town’s administrative assistant, Kelly Collins, was on leave for 14 weeks after a skiing accident, and Gilligan said there were several people helping to fill her shoes, including a retired municipal worker from Hooksett, a secretary at the town hall and at least one town official.

“Those people all tried their best to help us, and we’re finding out in some cases they actually made several mistakes,” Gilligan said, adding he wants to ensure residents that none of the individuals involved are suspected of stealing at this point.

Town officials have come under fire before for financial manipulations, including the former police chief, James McGonigle, who embezzled thousands of dollars from the Allenstown Police Association.

“The Board of Selectmen does not suspect any wrongdoing or malice from any town employee. Everything is traceable, it’s just a matter of realigning expenditures,” Gilligan said.

“With the history we have in town, we take these matters extremely seriously. That’s always our first thought is to make sure there’s no improprieties,” he added.

Collins is now back at work, and has worked out a schedule and time line for when the problems that she can fix will be addressed and has listed the issues she will need outside help for, Gilligan said.

At this point, the town has not finished validating all the errors, Gilligan said, and has not determined whether any of the them were Collins’ fault.

The town is also working with the Local Government Center to institute better controls on the data entry, including more stringent password protection.

The town is under a spending freeze, Gilligan said, until all the numbers are cleared up.

Allenstown cuts town positions, hours

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:33:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Allenstown Board of Selectmen has decided to cut more than needed to create a buffer for possible upcoming costs which would include paying for the outside accounting help needed as well as possible spring flooding of the Suncook.

There was a $191,996 difference between the default and proposed budgets, but in two meetings held on March 17 and 18, selectmen decided to cut an extra $43,000 from the budget.

The town’s operating budget will now be $4,822,968.

Following the March 11 vote, hours for the town clerk/tax collector, assessing clerk and secretary have been cut, forcing the Town Hall to close on Fridays.

The Highway Department took the largest blow, losing $71,100 from what its proposed budget, including two part-time landfill attendants. The remaining Highway Department employees will have to rework their schedules for landfill coverage on Saturdays. That includes the road agent, Chris Roy, who is on salary with the town.

The town will also delay the repaving of Library Street for another year to realize savings in the highway and sewer department budgets.

The Police Department’s budget was cut by $20,407, forcing the layoff of the department’s evening help.

Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said he has laid off his evening secretary, cutting the administrative hours of the department to between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., something that he said will eventually cost more to the town in Bow Dispatch service costs.

He has also considered cutting an officer from the force, but is waiting until after the town’s accounting issues are cleared up before making that decision.

The department got a federal grant to fund three officer positions in the 1990s, Mulholland said, and removing an officer from the force could jeopardize the department’s chances for receiving grants in the future. “This is a painful process,” Mulholland said.

The Fire Department is in no better shape, having to shave more than $24,000 off its proposed operating budget.

The school district budget was also turned down at the polls, leaving a default of $9,838,008.

The School Board has yet to discuss what will come out of the operating budget for Allenstown Elementary and the Dupont School, according to School District Administrator Peter Warburton, to make up for the $116,845 difference from the proposed budget.

According to statistics from the 2006-07 school year, Warburton said, Allenstown spends about $11,609.34, slightly more than the statewide average.

Sewer bond fails in Allenstown

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:39:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Voters in Allenstown said no to all the proposed monetary issues brought forth on this year’s ballot for the town and school district.

In a to 388-264 vote, Allenstown voters again nixed a $15 million expansion for the Suncook Wastewater Treatement Facility, serving both Allenstown and Pembroke.

At the town’s deliberative session, voters changed the original warrant article to stipulate the expansion would only go through if at least half of the total cost could be defrayed with matching state and federal grants the project qualifies for.

The state Department of Environmental Services put a moratorium on sewer hook-ups in 2002 after several instances in which the plant’s flow exceeded it’s allowed capacity. Since then, development in Pembroke and Allenstown has slowed.

The plans included installing secondary clarifiers which would relieve the exisiting clarifiers of their current capacity and flow problems. Overall sewage capacity would increase from 1 million to 2.1 million gallons per day.

Under the terms of the 20- year bond, Pembroke would pay 52 percent of the total costs and Allenstown 48 percent, based on flow. According to the plans, the new additions to the plant would not be up and running for about 10 years.

Mike Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm spearheading the project plans, said the expansion qualifies for a number of grants at various public informations sessions on the issue.

The Allenstown Board of Selectmen would have taken out the bond as soon as 50 percent matching grants are secured. The grant money would decrease Allenstown’s share of the cost to about $3.6 million.

Sewer commissioners have said money from the plant’s septage process, which takes in septage from other towns in a process separate from the plant’s sewage process, would also go toward the expansion.

That fund is also being used for odor control and engineering costs, so commissioners have said they cannot commit to a specific amount that would be devoted to the expansion costs.

The town will go to a default budget for 2008-09 of $4,865,968. A total of 272 voters approved the proposed budget of $5,057,964. The remaining 264 thought it best to take the default.

In the hotly contested race for one open Board of Selectmen seat, Roger Lafleur won with a total of 132 votes, unseating incumbent Selectman Sandy

McKenney.

Chris Roy, the current Road Agent, will go into his second term having gained 369 votes for his seat, more than the other two candidates, James Rodger and David Bouffard, combined.

Allenstown tries to avoid default budget

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:24:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Allenstown voters will decide whether to accept a 11.4 percent increase in the town’s operating budget after being on a default budget this year.

“It’s a big increase, but it’s like we lost a year,” said Selectman Sandy McKenney, explaining the current year’s default budget was likely a result of the sliding economy. She said the community needs to understand the budget before they can make an informed decision to pass the increase and absorb the extra taxes.

Budget Committee Chairman David Eaton said the increases in department budgets are realistic, bringing the town’s total proposed operating budget to $5,055,264 from last year’s $4,541,936.

Voters will be able to weigh in on the budget and warrant articles at the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., at Allenstown Elementary School.

The Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee agreed on everything in the town operating budget aside from $2,500 the budget committee added to the fire department’s fuel line and salaries, bringing it to $335,019, about 12 percent higher than last year.

The Parks and Recreation Department accounts for one of the largest increases in the proposed budget, an almost 75 percent jump from last year’s default amount of $21,650 to the coming year’s proposed $37,811, which includes a summer program for the Concord Boys and Girls Club and improvements.

The proposed Tri-Town Ambulance service budget is a 70 percent jump over the default to $56,500 in preparation for Hooksett’s potential pullout from the intermunicipal agreement with Allenstown and Pembroke.

That increase reflects the costs associated with splitting the current service between just the two remaining towns.

Health insurance costs for 2008-09 also jumped 21 percent from the current year’s $44,000 to $53,500, an issue towns across the state are dealing with.

Both the selectmen and Budget Committee recommended a 17.8 percent increase over last year’s default Police Department budget, the proposed 2008-09 appropriation being $778,155.

The library, which recently went wireless and is in need of maintenance and repairs, got a 15 percent increase to $55,817 from this year’s $48,572.

Highways and streets, one of the larger appropriations in the overall budget, got a 19.7 percent increase in the wake of the second hundred-year flood in two years that washed out many of the streets in Allenstown and surrounding towns. Other costs included street signs and extra equipment.

Warrant articles The Budget Committee and selectmen were in accord on the majority of warrant article recommendations, with the only difference in the budget committee’s addition of $15,000 warrant article for the library facility fund.

The first warrant article voters will see is the most expensive, wordiest and arguably the most important, needing a 60 percent majority vote.

Allenstown sewer commissioners are once again going to voters for a $15 million bond to expand the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility. The state Department of Environmental Services issued a moratorium in 2001 preventing any future hook-ups in Allenstown and Pembroke.

Based on flow, Pembroke, the plant’s largest user, would pay 52 percent or $7.8 million and Allenstown the remaining $7.2 million. The article also asks to use $250,000 in fund balance to help offset the costs.

Presentations on the issue by Mike Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm looking into the project, have explained the upgrades, which include two new clarifiers.

According to Trainque, the project qualifies for several federal and state grants the Sewer Commission will pursue should the bond pass, which could fund half of total project costs. This year, both the selectman and the Budget Committee recommended the warrant article.

The Fire Department seeks approval for a new 2,500-gallon pumper/tanker truck, a warrant article asking for $450,000 which both the Budget Committee and selectman recommended. The new truck would replace three of the town’s older trucks, the newest of which was made in 1981.

Warrant article 6, from the Police Department, asks voters to raise $47,750 for the town’s share of $191,000 in engineering and rebuilding costs for the culvert on Mount Delight Road that burst during the 2007 floods. The other 75 percent, or $143,250, would be funded through the state Department of Homeland Security’s Hazard Mitigation grant.

Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said road closings in Epsom worsened the situation, and more than 130 residents were trapped in their homes – 50 in Epsom, nine in Allenstown and 74 in Deerfield. The town would seek state grants to help with the town’s portion of the costs, Mulholland said.

Another article from the Board of Selectmen asks to change the method of choosing a road agent from election to appointment.

McKenney said the position is more suited to appointment because the most qualified person might not get the job in an election. It was something the town didn’t worry about before because Road Agent James Boisvert was qualified and stayed in the position for 20 years.