Now, about those shortfalls regarding the school:

Email received last year when I was asking questions concerning the school project.

From: "Alix, Timothy" <Tim.Alix@colliers.com>
Date: March 2, 2016 at 7:37:05 PM EST
To: Diane Haley Brooks <1tuesdaygirl@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: MSBA Information

I think it’s OK for the Selectman’s office to enter the information and request reimbursement.  The treasurer and accountant will be aware of what is getting reimbursed electronically and can have access to the propay system at any time to take a look at the status.   They will need to understand what the net cost to the Town is on an ongoing basis to ensure that there are sufficient funds to move forward.  With each electronic reimbursement request, paperwork is generated by the system which will need to be signed by multiple parties, so the accountant and Treasurer could review the summaries of each request.  The requests can only be done once a month, so they could plan to review the info at that time.

Timothy Alix 
Project Manager
Project Management | Northeast
Main +1 413 592 0030 X123 | Mobile +1 860 930 5036 | Fax +1 413 285 8592 Tim.Alix@colliers.com

This email seems to indicate that a secretary in the selectmen's office was doing the work on the records of the new school, rather than the treasurer. It also seems to indicate that the town accountant and treasurer "will be aware of what is getting reimbursed electronically and can have access to the propay system at any time to take a look at the status."

So, at least one member of the board of selectmen was aware of this strange arrangement of a secretary rather than the treasurer entering information on town debt, The debt exclusion for feasibility study and design, totaling $1,050,000.00. Still this was allowed to happen and now there is a shortfall in both items of over one million dollars.

posted by Jeff Bennett