Town of Newfield

The Newfield Town Board will meet in Work Session on Monday, June 17 at 6:00 p.m.

Below are two facebooks links to Old Home Days pages:

https://www.facebook.com/NewfieldOldHomeDays

https://www.facebook.com/groups/

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At its meeting of Wednesday June 5, the Newfield Planning Board will entertain the approval of the final draft of the Town Comprehensive Plan.  The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room of Town Hall.  

The annual Newfield community garage/yard sale will be on August 24, 2013 beginning at 9 A.M.  There also will be a booksale at the Newfield Library and a Boosters’ chicken barbecue.  Maps will be avaialbe at 363 Main St. at 8 A.M. the day of the sale.

DEADLINE TO GET ON LIST IS AUGUST 15, 2013.  Please contact Arlene McKenna @564-7243 or Barbara Ruggiero @ 564-9058 for information.

The Supervisor and the Town Board Members recently wrote and signed a letter to local media outlets responding to their reporting on the Comptroller’s Audit.  It is included below.

The Rest of the Story

Contrary to the Medias’ melodramatic reporting of The Town of Newfield’s financial woes, the sky has not fallen in Newfield.  Local papers – online and print – and radio stations in Tompkins County have played up the Town’s latest Comptroller’s audit using terms such as “State Auditors Blast Newfield Finances”.

What the public may not know is that the State auditors were invited in by the Town to review the accounting books in order the help the Town get a better handle on our financial situation. The State auditors review covered the time period from January 1, 2011 through June 11, 2012.  This was a very stressful time for the Town.   Our bookkeeper had resigned in June 2011 after working 18 months.  After the resignation, the Town discovered that the bookkeeper was incompetent, financials were in disarray, and errors in previous years were carried forward and compounded.

The State auditor findings were no surprise to the Town board.  We already knew that these issues existed.  What the State audit report does not convey is that during the audit process, the Town Supervisor had contracted with a CPA and an independent accountant to clean up the mess and reconstruct records.  At the same time the Town board hired a new bookkeeper and implemented controls to better monitor our financials.

Our Independent external auditors have completed their audit review of the Town’s financials for both 2011 and 2012.  The Town’s financial position is better than the Town board was anticipating in both years. And we have strengthened internal controls in place to review bank reconciliations, payment vouchers, and monthly financial reports.

The short version is we knew about it, we got help, and we fixed it.

The Town of Newfield Planning Board is pleased to announce the completion of the Draft Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Newfield.

The Newfield Board of Assessment Review will meet at Town Hall, 166 Main Street, on Wednesday May 15, 2013 from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm.  Persons wishing to file a response to their property assessment may do so during those hours.  Call 272-9981 for additional information.

Barnes Hill Road between Taggart Rd. and Dassance Rd. will be closed for road repair daily from 6 AM – 4:30 PM