Town Notes
Published on March 13th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - Meeting is legit
Last week Town Administrator David Berry asked Stoneham’s bond counsel if the town would have any trouble borrowing money for the schools project as a result of the way the March 4 Special Town Meeting was postponed to March 11.
The attorney gave town officials a written opinion, basically saying no problem.
“It’s totally resolved,” said Superintendent of Schools Joseph Connelly.
Connelly said the School Department has accepted a low bid of $9,688,000 from Ryan Construction of Walpole to renovate and add to the Robin Hood School and was close to accepting a low bid of $8,908,000 from J&J Construction of Lowell to renovate and add to the Colonial Park School.
The School Department was waiting for the Town Meeting vote to finalize the contract for Colonial Park. Monday night voters gave the schools the green light — see story above.
Audit update
Stoneham is paying Melanson, Heath & Company $5,000 to reconcile receivables from fiscal 2001 in an attempt to finnish the year-end audit of that year, which ended June 30, 2001.
The Town Treasurer is responsible for auditing the books each year.
“We’re trying to sit down with the Treasurer’s Office and reconcile this,” Berry said. “That’s step one.”
Step two will be setting up new policies and procedures so the audit will be done on time, Berry added.
Implementing step two might require more help, for a fee, from Melanson, Heath & Company or another accounting firm. The State offers some help for free, but Berry said it might not be enough to right the ship.
“We need to finish this audit, then we’ll see,” Berry said.
Fire Department safety
At the Feb. 26 meeting, the Fire Department Study Committee voted to do three things: to recommend groups of 10 people with one captain, two lieutenants and seven firefighters each; to recommend a minimum of eight people out the door to respond to calls; and to include all recommendations made in their final report.
The Committee hopes to have a report to Selectmen sometime this spring.
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