Board will meet less frequently

The Jay County Regional Sewer District Board held its last monthly meeting Monday night.
The board unanimously approved changing its regularly scheduled meetings from every month to every quarter, with the ability to call an emergency meeting when needed. It also heard an update from board member Ralph Frazee about an ongoing federal audit of the district’s grant.
With the majority of the district’s issues progressing toward completion, members decided limiting the amount of meetings the board conducts would make it more efficient.
“I think that’d make more sense,” said board member Don Denney.
Board member Phil Ford agreed with the change, but wanted to make sure their current ventures weren’t put by the wayside. Bringing up their continuing plans — including asking for reimbursements for work completed by on-call mechanic Guy Tressler after systems weren’t installed to specification, looking at more avenues for loan refinancing and seeking either a credit system or assistance from towns on increasing sewer rates — president Faron Parr assured members these would still be a priority and be worked on regardless of the frequency of meetings. With the option to call extra meetings when necessary, the board unanimously approved the change.
The next meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 8.
In other business, board members discussed missing paperwork needed for a federal audit.
The audit is to verify the board’s $498,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant origination and process, said Frazee, adding that the auditors were pleased with the financial situation of the loan but supporting paperwork was needed to finalize the audit.
And some of that paperwork isn’t in the board’s hands.
Frazee told board members Roy Bunch, Joe Sommers, Denney, Frazee, Parr and Ford that the minutes from a few meetings are missing, and copies of change orders and an asset ledger are requested. The asset ledger could be a problem, Frazee said, because it needs to be a record of everything purchased with the grant, something the board didn’t make at the time of sewer installation.
The board decided Commonwealth Engineers should have the paperwork and records needed for the audit, as it was the entity that was paid for the project. Frazee plans to contact the engineering firm to ask for the information needed.