By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

With Town Manager Robert Peabody in the final year of his contract, Select Board chairman Bob McHatton thinks it is time to start discussing the process to hire a new manager.

An executive session will be held on Oct. 22 at 4 p.m.

Later in the Sept. 25 meeting, McHatton wondered if a financial audit should be done when the finance director leaves the town’s employment. Current finance director Holly Heymann recently announced her decision to leave the position.

“Any time a manager left or an assistant manager left, there was an audit done to protect the employee who was leaving,” McHatton noted. “At the many stores I served in, there was an audit done every time I left…showing everything was fine and dandy. It was for my protection so that no one could say, after I was gone, that suddenly $50,000 was missing. I think we should look at a policy that would.”

Peabody pointed out that by state statute, an audit is done when the town treasurer leaves — here in Bridgton, the town manager serves as treasurer. There is no policy regarding the finance director.

“We have nothing in place to do that,” Peabody said.

Tworog wondered that since the town has a financial audit done each fiscal year whether that report serves as a review of the finance director’s work.

When McHatton asked Peabody want type of audit is done when the town manager leaves, Peabody responded, “I’ve never been directly involved because I’m the one who has left. It’s always been the Select Board that takes care of it. I don’t frankly worry about it because I’m long gone. You know, I’ve taken the midnight train to Georgia by that time.”

Saying he is unable to provide a “good answer,” Peabody will look into the matter, find out costs of an audit and report back to the board.

In other board news:

Memorial School report in. Holding up a copy of the recently received environmental site assessment for the Bridgton Memorial School, Peabody informed the Select Board (members received a copy) the report was sent to the town’s attorney for review.

“The actual report is that thick,” he said. “I’ve made my way through most of it. I think once you read this, I think you will find it to be a much more favorable report than we thought we were going to get.”

Officials will likely be in a holding pattern until the attorney, who is an environmental lawyer, reviews the report “to see if there’s anything additional we need to do” or whether the town should apply for Brownfield Funding to assist with any clean-up of the site.

“I have not heard anything back from the school district. The last thing I heard from the superintendent (Al Smith) was they wanted to convey the property to us this fall,” Peabody said. “We still need to establish the boundary line between the school property and our property.”

Selectman Paul Tworog asked whether SAD 61 is now using the new storage facility, located adjacent to Lake Region HS/Vocational Center.

“I do not know. I’ve heard they’re taking stuff out of the (Bridgton Memorial) school,” Peabody added.

Time’s Up. For 15 years, Skip Sullivan has helped guide the Town of Bridgton as a member of the Investment Committee. He felt the time was right to turn duties over to “some new blood.”

“I can tell you in the 10 years I’ve been working with the Investment Committee, he’s been a very active member,” Town Manager Robert Peabody said. “He was always very concerned about looking out for the town’s interest. He’s going to be missed on the committee.”

The committee was created when Bridgton received state approval to sell property on Moose Pond, and landed about $700,000.

“We decided at that point in time to create an investment committee to look over those funds because we didn’t want to just take those funds and spend them all at once,” Select Board chairman Bob McHatton recalled.

The committee helped grow the Moose Pond Fund to over $1.4 or $1.6 million, McHatton said. Funds are used for recreational needs.

Accepted. The Select Board accepted $500 donation from the Ed Rock Community Spirit Fund, and allocated that money for the Rec Department’s summer program.

Use of public property clarified. Selectman Paul Tworog clarified a report in The News regarding the use of public property by private individuals.

Tworog raised the question whether porta-potties used as part of the monthly Music on Main free concert series should be stored at the town’s public parking lot.

“We do have regulations in place to prevent you from storing your own property in municipal parking lots or on town-owned land,” Tworog noted. “I don’t think it necessarily came across that clearly in the Bridgton News.”

The Select Board declined to vote on the issue as Tworog’s motion died due to a lack of a second by the board.