Town manager does double duty
PUTNEY — PUTNEY - As if making one municipal budget isn't enough work, this year Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard is creating two.
“One where everything stays the same, and one with a reconstructed financial office and town clerk's office structure if Anita [Coomes] retires,” Stoddard told Selectboard members at their Nov. 9 regular Board meeting.
Coomes, Putney's town clerk and treasurer, has been in some hot water the past few years for failing to deposit dog license payments received during multiple years and for not filing payroll data and other forms with the state and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Selectboard cannot remove a treasurer or town clerk - they are elected positions, and those positions are only vacated by retirement or if someone else is elected to them at Town Meeting.
Although Stoddard said the budgets she created are “very preliminary,” she wants board members to review them at the next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 30. Stoddard said she will invite Coomes to the meeting to possibly learn if Coomes is planning to retire from her positions.
“I'd like to find a direction ... and rule one out,” instead of making two separate budgets, Stoddard said.
Highway spending under budget
PUTNEY - This year's paving expenses came “a little bit under budget,” Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard told the Selectboard at their Nov. 9 regular meeting.
The Fiscal Year 2017 highway budget included $100,000 for paving, but the town spent $99,744 on the work, Stoddard said.
When Board Chair Joshua Laughlin pointed out it wasn't that much under, Stoddard countered with, “Hey, under is under.”
Laughlin agreed. “It's better than over,” he said.