RANGELEY — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, April 22, learned the town received the highest rating possible on the fiscal year 2024 audit. Heather Hunter, audit director for RHR Smith & Company said the town received an unmodified opinion on the audit, which covered July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

“You will also hear it referred to as a clean opinion,” Hunter explained to the board. “That is the highest opinion you can get. Congratulations to you and your team.”

Hunter reviewed aspects of the audit with the board.

“We issue what is known as the SAS 114 letter,” she said. “It outlines estimates that management makes. It talks about accounting procedures that you use. It also talks about if there were any disagreements or conflicts between the audit and the client. I am happy to say there were no disagreements related to this audit.”

The Statement of Net Position, or balance sheet, showed total assets of $39,214,751 for the period ending June 3o, 2024.

“That is an increase of about $456,00 from FY2023,” Hunter said.

Cash totals for the year came in at $9,448,994, an increase of $1.2 million, she said.

“You have an above average liquidity for your municipality. It is very strong compared to other municipalities that I have seen and presented on recently,” she noted.

Positive balances were noted on expense activities, Hunter continued.

“Your revenues were sufficient to cover your expenditures and provided a surplus of about $700,000,” she said.

Hunter reviewed the town’s two major fund accounts, the general fund account and capital projects account.

“For FY24, general fund assets continued to climb by just shy of 40 percent to $9.3 million,” she explained. “Pretty much all  of the increase was in cash, which increased by $3.3 million. Cash represents about 96 percent of all of your assets. Again, very liquid.”

The town’s investments were considered very secure, she noted.

General fund liabilities increased by about $641,000 to $3.7 million.

The general fund balance grew by just under $2 million to $5,443,043, she said.

The unassigned fund balance increased by nearly the same amount to $5,375,211.

“The unassigned portion is the portion that allows you the greatest flexibility. It is not earmarked for anything. It is not reserved for anything. It allows you to use it as you see fit,” she explained. “One benchmark we look at with municipalities is what the unassigned fund balance is as a percentage of annual expenditures. Usually that benchmark, as a minimum, hovers between five and 15 percent. You stand at 59%. Clearly you have adequate funding coverage if something were to happen.”

The Capital Projects fund decreased by $786,434 to about $3 million.

“This fund is going to fluctuate considerably as you fund projects and as those projects get expended. You will see some variances,” she said.

There were no supplemental appropriations to FY24.

“Which means once you adopted the budget, that budget stood,” Hunter explained.

A deficit in the county tax line item was offset by surpluses in other categories such as debt service, public works, public safety and general government.

“The overall plan was to draw about $500,000. You did not need to draw that half million. Between the over collection of revenue and your savings on the expenditure side, you produced about $1 million in surplus,” Hunter said. “As we went through the audit, we tend to look at internal controls and policies and practices. We did not find anything that we would recommend as a change in you internal control environment or or your best practice.”

The board voted unanimously to accept the FY2024 audit.