Last night at the Board meeting the departing President and Trustees spoke of their views of their regime's accomplishments. Trustee Grace mentioned her work with improving the Village's use of technology, which reminded me that well over a year ago I asked for figures on money spent on projects that I was told - at that time - were unavailable because the Village's books were not kept in such a way that running costs for individual projects were discernible. After a lot of back and forth it was decided that the Village would spend the money to acquire the supplementary software that would allow each check as issued or bill as paid to be charged to the appropriate project so we could see just what our dollars are buying, what we have paid and what we owe on any given project. I believe that software was acquired some months back.
Toward the end of the meeting President Gorman mentioned that an audit of the Village financial situation was being done now so that the true amount of the shortfall in our finances at this time - that is at the moment the new Board takes over - could be reliably ascertained. He said he expected it to be considerably higher than previously estimated. In light of this fact, and the recently announced tripling of the engineering costs for the upcoming Centennial project, I am requesting that the Village Financial Officer prepare a Project Accounting report for all the work that has gone on at Centennial Park/Plaza and post it to the Village web site so that all the residents may see just what has been spent there. I think this will be very useful for many residents in helping them understand just why we are in the position we find ourselves in.
Specifically, this report should show just how much has been spent to date on each of the following:
The Water Tower Renovation
The removal of the former water department building on East Avenue
The remodeling of the water works building used by the Rec Department
The Museum refubishment
The West Well house refurbishment
Landscaping and planting to date
The accurate anticipated or contracted costs for the forthcoming paving and landscaping phase
The underground electrical installation already done and/or for outdoor lighting
Tree removal
Any other projects carried out on that tiny triangle
This space is right in the heart of town. Everyone is familiar with it. People should know just what it has cost to bring this space to where it is today, and who has been paid what for the work there. If this information is accurately assembled and concisely presented on the Village web site I believe it will go a long way toward helping the residents understand who is doing what to and for whom. I personally feel that when engineering costs rise as steeply as the ones for the completion phase of this project have we are either not estimating properly, making too many changes or are being overcharged. I feel engineering is one aspect of Village expenditures that could use a bit more clarity and possibly a healthy dose of competitive bidding. Perhaps others know more about this subject and will provide information that will help us stretch our dollar. When I go to the RBHS Board Meetings they are able to give a phase-by-phase report on their expenditures for the new construction and show how much above or below - and it has generally been below estimate that they are running on each phase of the $60 million project.