Christian Peterson
reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com
On Tuesday, Dec. 12, the White Springs Town Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting, which began with an amendment to the agenda putting the presentation of the town's 2021 audit before public comment. Caleb Perla with Powell and Jones presented the audit, stating the auditors were upgrading their opinion to a “qualified opinion.” He then told the council that there was noticed improvement, but there was still a lot of work to be done.
The council then approved the minutes from the previous meeting. This was followed by Town Clerk Audre Ruise presenting an interlocal agreement with Hamilton County for code enforcement for $50 per call. She then handed the council the agreement to be signed.
The council then turned to public comment. First to speak was Scott Gay, who said he thought Town Manager Vanessa George represented them well at the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee meeting on Monday, Dec. 11. He then asked if the town had an auditing committee, to which the council responded it did not. He also requested the engagement letter for the audits and asked if the council had read the auditor general's operational audit in its entirety. Mayor Anita Rivers was the only present council member who said she had read it in its entirety. Next to speak was Joe Griffin, who used his time to hand out the operational audit and a copy of the Lake City Reporter detailing the findings in the audit.
Nicole Williams was the third speaker, who announced that Santa would be at Nelly Bly's Kitchen on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 10 a.m. The final comment came from Kathy Malpress, who told the council she was working to help get a charter school started up in White Springs so that the children would not have to travel so far to go to school. The next White Springs Town Council meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 9, in the White Springs Town Hall located at 10363 Bridge St., in White Springs.