TOWNSHEND — The town is sitting on tens of thousands of new dollars in its miscellaneous revenue account, and officials seemed less giddy than the average homeowner might in deciding what to do with it.
But they have some ideas.
At their May 5 meeting, Selectboard members learned that the town has raised roughly $43,000 in timber sales since 2013, with final payments just coming in. No confetti fell from the rafters. Instead, officials dryly pondered, “how we're gonna allocate that general journal entry.”
“It's a lot of money to have sitting in miscellaneous revenue,” said Joe Daigneault, the town's treasurer.
There is ongoing work to improve the town offices, with major work done on the furnace last year. One member suggested that work on the project remained “can eat up that surplus without any problem.”
There also are projects pending to deal with tree removal and drainage improvements around town; highway vehicles need maintenance; and other capital expenses do pop up.
Member Dale West finally sounded a cautious note.
“The thing to me is how we're sitting budget-wise. We might need to use some of those funds to cover ourselves in overruns. I don't know how the road went over this winter, if we're over budget there, or those things,” he said.
He added, “To me, Peter pays Paul, but it's nice to have a little extra money in revenue that might bail us out.”
The board took no action on the account.