Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are remote only, but some are being held in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Thursday, July 28
- Maurice’s Campground Working Group: Communications, noon
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
- Marina Advisory Committee, 7 p.m.
Friday, July 29
- Maurice’s Campground Working Group: Finances, 11 a.m.
Monday, Aug. 1
- Dredging Task Force, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 2
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 3
- Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.
Conversation starters
Free Cash Goalposts Moved
Town Administrator Richard Waldo said he expects the town’s free cash to be certified by the state Dept. of Revenue by the fall special town meeting, scheduled for Sept. 10.
It’s probably not going to happen until the 11th hour, Waldo said, “but it is still our expectation that we’re going to be free-cash certified by Sept. 10.”
Waldo said the town’s financial team is finalizing fiscal 2022 documentation to prepare for the auditors, who will review the 2020, 2021, and 2022 accounts in the first two weeks of August.
The DOR has ordered the town of Wellfleet to have these accounting records reviewed by an outside auditor — in this case the town’s longtime auditor, Powers & Sullivan — before the state agency does its due diligence to certify free cash.
Free cash is unrestricted money not spent during the prior fiscal year. The DOR reviews town accounts annually before this money can be released for use by the town. Wellfleet is expected to have more than $1 million in free cash, but the municipal accounting records are in disarray, so the account has not been certified since June 30, 2019.
Charlie Sumner, who was interim town administrator until June, had said in February he hoped certification would be done before the June town meeting. When the books could still not be reconciled, he estimated it would be done by the end of July.
Plans for the fall meeting continue, though. The select board decided to wait until August to make a decision about whether to hold the meeting indoors or outdoors.
“I very much would like to see us go back indoors but I’m having second thoughts about that now,” Moderator Dan Silverman said, citing the increase in Covid cases.
“There are obviously costs involved with having a meeting outside and complications that we don’t have in the gym,” Silverman said. For example, it would be more difficult to present audio-visual materials outdoors. —Emma Madgic
