Town of Granite Quarry receives positive audit

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 9, 2020

GRANITE QUARRY — The town’s board of aldermen received a positive audit report on Monday.

Eddie Carrick, a Lexington-based accountant hired by the town to complete a required annual audit, gave the opinion that the town’s financial position aligned with standard accounting principles.

Carrick’s report included special mention of the COVID-19 pandemic, which “given the uncertainty of the situation, the duration of any business disruption and related financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.”

The town had its own analysis included as well, noting the town’s net position increased by about $186,000 mainly due to increasing revenues. The town’s fund balance, which is partially a savings account, was $2.4 million at the end of the fiscal year and climbed about $250,000 from the year prior. The town debt increased by $305,000.

The town collected 45% of its annual anticipated revenue by the end of October — about $1.3 million of its anticipated $2.86 million collection.

Town Manager Larry Smith included a proposed planning calendar for the upcoming fiscal year in his report to the board with a tentative budget adoption date of June 6 following a presentation of a proposed budget on May 21.

In other business:

• The board approved adopting a longevity pay policy to include $6,000 for disbursements, which was placed on the town’s special projects list for this year’s budget. Smith said if nothing changes the town will be able to cover that amount without touching that contingency line item.

• The board approved a budget amendment to allocate rollover funds of $114,919 left over from the Joint Police Authority to the vehicle line item of the authority’s capital outlay per previous discussion by the board. The funds were left over because of unfilled positions, and the authority plans to purchase two Ford SUVs at a cost of about $100,000. The amount was a slight increase over the original $95,000 allocated for the vehicles. JPA Chief Mark Cook originally anticipated he would have more luck securing Dodge vehicles.

• The town is still attempting to push through the Federal Emergency Management Agency repair project for Granite Lake Park. Smith said he and Public Works Director Jason Hord have been following up to get the specifications of the project finalized so it can be put out to bid. The project has been brought up at almost every meeting for the past year and the town recently met with an engineer to discuss specifications.

• The town’s holiday observation schedule will include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, with days before and after Thanksgiving reserved on Nov. 25 and 26 and two days leading up to Christmas also reserved, Dec. 23 and 24. Christmas day will be on a Saturday in 2021.

• In November the Granite Quarry-Faith Joint Police Authority received 245 calls for service, mostly in Granite Quarry.

About Carl Blankenship

Carl Blankenship has covered education for the Post since December 2019. Before coming to Salisbury he was a staff writer for The Avery Journal-Times in Newland and graduated from Appalachian State University in 2017, where he was editor of The Appalachian.

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