Town finances gets OK from auditors
Supervisor Jim Dougherty was pleased Tuesday as he and his Town Board colleagues listened to the auditor’s report of Shelter Island’s finances for 2014.
Auditors gave Shelter Island a thumbs-up for its management of money in 2014 with one troubling area that is already being addressed, according to Supervisor Jim Dougherty.
Smiling through much of the report at Tuesday’s Town Board work session, Mr. Dougherty listened to Jeffrey Davoli, a partner with Hauppaugue accounting firm Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck & Company pointing out that the town’s basic financial position for last year was practically identical to the report issued for the previous year.
What gave him pause was the Highway Department consolidated fund, an inheritance from previous operations before Jay Card Jr. took the helm in January 2012.
As of December 31, 2014, two special highway funds established by state law showed a total deficit of $124,900.
The two funds represent an estimate of expenditures to be submitted by each municipality in the state as money needed for “repairs and improvement to highways, sluices, culverts and bridges having a span of less than five feet … and also the amount necessary to construct or repair any public roads, walks, places or avenues on any sand beach separated by more than two miles from the main body of the town …”
The amount is set at $30 for each mile of highways within the town. Under the law, no town having an assessed valuation of $3,750 or less per mile must collect a tax in excess of $4 on each $1,000 of assessed valuation.
It’s the same issue that was problematic in the 2013 audit and the numbers haven’t gotten any better.
Why, if the Highway Department is spending less than allocated each year since Mr. Card took office, hasn’t the excess money gone to reduce that deficit? Mr.Card asked.
It’s because the revenues received in 2014 were substantially less than they were the previous year, Mr. Davoli said. What that means is that while his actual expenditures were less than allocated by the Town Board during its budgeting, he actually was starting each year with a deficit and when that’s added to his expenditures, it tops the allocation, Mr. Davoli explained.
In 2013, Shelter Island received federal funds that it didn’t get in 2014, the auditor said. It received federal disaster assistance funds related to Super Storm Sandy and federal aid for the Ram Island Causeway Project. Such money wasn’t forthcoming in 2014.
The answer amounted to Mr. Card being told there was nothing he could do to eliminate the deficit; that would be up to the Town Board to address in its budgeting process.
Despite that bit of bad news, Mr. Dougherty’s smile remained as he told the auditor that steps were taken in preparing the budget for 2015 to begin to address the deficit and that would be ongoing until the deficit disappears.
Mr. Davoli also asked town officials to do an audit of assets this year to be sure it can account for everything currently included in the listing.
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Police Chief Jim Read told the Town Board that reaching a solution to eliminate the danger he believes exists on narrow New York Avenue is “a work in progress.” He and Heights Property Owners Corporation General Manager Stella Lagudis have discussed problems of two-way traffic, bicyclists, joggers and walkers on the narrow roadway.
While he can’t statistically show that more accidents have occurred there, he agreed with Democratic Town Board candidate Jim Colligan that it’s “an accident waiting to happen.”
Emergency service providers don’t see restricting traffic to one way as a solution, and the possibility of creating a 6-foot sidewalk on the Ice Pond side would be “a heavy lift” for the HPOC, the chief said.
KLENAWICUS AIRSTRIP
Following three plane accidents in less than six months, Mr. Dougherty said he, Chief Read and Town Attorney Laury Dowd are speaking with Jim Pugh, head of the Shelter Island Pilots Association, about improving safety.
SOUTH FERRY DREDGING
Following several years of delays, crews are expected to begin setting up at South Ferry to dredge on both sides of the boat landings. Work is expected to begin on October 5. Current plans call for spoils to be placed at Shell Beach.
