BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – On Tuesday, May 28, the Bellows Falls Trustees met in the lower theater at the town hall. Bellows Falls Village President Paul Obuchowski asked municipal manager Scott Pickup to present his manager’s report.
“We are having two fairly large events here in the next week or so,” stated Pickup. “On the fifth of June, we’ve got the Downtown Historic Preservation Conference, so there will be quite a bit of activity.” Pickup shared with the board an itinerary of the day’s events.
“Then, on June 6, the Vermont Arts Council is here, and they’re going to be at a number of locations around town.” Pickup warned anyone coming to the town hall to conduct business that the downtown area might be a little more crowded than usual. “Hopefully we can show [visitors] the good side of Bellows Falls, and they’ll come away with a good impression of our community,” Pickup remarked.
Calling it “an opportunity to showcase some of the things we are proud of,” Pickup said they would be welcoming visitors from all around the state.
Obuchowski reminded everyone of the special town meeting scheduled for Saturday, June 22, at 2 p.m., to be held at the Bellows Falls Middle School. The special meeting will allow Rockingham voters to discuss the pros and cons of holding the annual March Town Meeting on a Saturday afternoon, as opposed to the current Monday evening, and cast their vote to determine the schedule going into the future.
The trustees voted to continue using The Shopper Newspaper as the official newspaper of record.
Pickup reported to the board some issues the village has been having with their current audit company. They have not been receiving audits in a timely manner, according to Pickup, which creates a backup in the finance department, and can affect budget approvals. Pickup recommended they make a switch. He presented a bid from Sullivan Powers & Company, an audit service in Montpelier.
Trustee James McAuliffe told the board he and Pickup had discussed the proposals. The current vendor RHR Smith & Company’s bid was for $21,500, and the Sullivan Powers bid came in at $29,000. “It’s like a three- or four-year deal,” McAuliffe commented, “so you’re talking $7,000 [or] $8,000 per year.”
McAuliffe continued, “What Scott said a minute ago is true, RHR also audits the school department, and we are a day late and a dollar short on our audits there. But they get done. It’s not a smooth process, and I understand the concern on the part of the staff.” McAuliffe felt the problem was that they had no knowledge of Sullivan Powers’ business practices, having never worked with them before. “We have no assurances of anything.”
Pickup pointed out that neither contract includes penalties if the audit comes in late.
Trustee Conor Floyd asked what the length of the Sullivan Powers agreement was, and Pickup said it was a five-year contract. “If they’re not meeting expectations, could we put this back out to bid in a year and go with a lower bidder at that point?”
Finance director Alyssa Harlow, attending online, responded, “Yes.”
Pickup said RHR had been doing the village audit for eight years, and although he couldn’t give a long history of their service, he relayed, “I’ve been here a little under four [years], and three of those four years, there has been a significant problem getting completed on time.”
Harlow told the board that Sullivan Powers had served as the auditors before RHR came onboard, but no one could confirm what caused the village to switch companies at the time.
Ultimately the board voted to go into contract with Sullivan Powers, with the caveat that the contract could be terminated if the village was displeased with the service they were providing.
Pickup reported that he’d met online earlier in the day with the village’s energy grant writers regarding a project proposed by PW Tech, a water and wastewater process technology company. PW Tech plans to implement updates at the village sewage treatment plant, then use the facility as a “demo site.” Pickup said these “interesting and innovative energy-efficient improvements will dramatically reduce costs,” and he was looking forward to presenting the proposal at the next meeting.
Trustee Wade Masure made a point to thank the voters for participating in the election and supporting the trustees.
The next regular meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, June 18, will include a public hearing on the first round of traffic and parking ordinances, and a chance for public feedback with regards to the fire feasibility study.