Selectmen officially accept gifts for town
cs.newhampshire.com 2007-11-29
The Hopkinton Board of Selectmen accepted a long list of gifts from town members to clear the books of any donations that have not properly been received since 2002.
Laws require donations of more than $5,000 to the town be accepted during a public hearing.
Some felt the Slusser Center donation was not properly accepted two years ago, as well as some recent gifts from the Hopkinton Youth Sports Association, which caused selectmen to check records for their Nov. 19 meeting.
“When we had the discussion about the new athletic field, one of the questions was what HYSA had donated to the town,” said selectmen Chairman George Langwasser. “Our records should show that we’ve accepted these gifts. This was an attempt to go back and go through, looking for any gift that hadn’t been accepted. I wanted to make sure we covered everything.”
After reviewing records, board members discovered that HYSA had donated a large amount in money and services that weren’t indicated in town records.
Selectman Scott Flood said there are multiple reasons to go back and clear the books.
“It’s important to comply with any law. That’s a goal I have, to comply with the requirements within the town,” said Flood.
“We are also able to applaud groups who have been so generous with their donations, and that is a great opportunity for us to do that.”
The first group of gifts accepted at the public hearing pertained to the Slusser Senior Center, totaling $45,145, followed by a list of donations from the Contoocook Carry to a variety of town agencies, totaling $2,329.75.
To close out the pubic hearing, the board accepted 16 various gifts from different organizations and individuals that had been donated between 2002 and 2007.
“The laws have changed so some of them were relatively small and now you don’t have to do that, but we wanted to still,” said Selectman Don Lane. “The other point is that a lot of things you don’t even think of. Like if someone says they’ll put up a new fence for you, it’s a town fence. So they put it up and you consider it a gift. It’s something we didn’t have to do because even though they needed that for themselves, it is also for the town.”
In total, 230 individual gifts have been received for the Slusser Center, according to Lane.
(editor : jane)
