{"id":13362,"date":"2014-10-07T14:11:59","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T18:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=13362"},"modified":"2014-10-07T14:11:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T18:11:08","slug":"kennett-square-honored-for-financial-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=13362","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Square honored for financial reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Borough Manager Brant Kucera resigns, takes position in Oregon<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Rick Marts, <\/b>Correspondent, The Times<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"KenneSqBoro106\"<\/a>

Kennett Square Borough Manager Brant Kucera, left, who submitted his resignation letter on Monday night, discusses the Borough\u2019s 2014 Capital Development Plan with Council President Leon Spencer at a meeting of the Borough Council, Monday night.<\/p><\/div>\n

At Monday night\u2019s Borough Council meeting, Don Pierce of Maillie, LLC, a certified accounting and business consulting firm, presented the results of the firm\u2019s 2013 audit of the financial records of Kennett Square Borough.<\/p>\n

Pierce said his firm gave the Borough a clean audit. Moreover, he highlighted the Borough\u2019s receiving an award from the Government Financial Officers Association\u2014a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for 2012, the most recent year for that award.<\/p>\n

The GFOA established this award in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles as they prepare annual financial reports in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure. This certificate recognizes the Borough for achieving that goal.<\/p>\n

Pierce said, \u201cThe bottom line is that the Borough\u2019s net position in terms of assets and liabilities has gradually improved over the last five years to where it now has a positive balance of $9.47 million dollars in its combined accounts of Government Activities and Business-Type Activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cautioning statement was offered, however, when Pierce said, \u201cThe balance in the general fund\u2014the Borough\u2019s largest account\u2014has generally decreased from one year to the next over the last five years. At the end of 2013, the amount carried over to 2014 in the general fund had fallen to $36,000.\u201d Pierce recommended that this carry-over amount be increased in the future by ensuring that revenues always exceed expenses.<\/p>\n

Borough Manager Brant Kucera is leaving Kennett Square for a position in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Announced last month, this news is not new to most.<\/p>\n

However, Kucera submitted his letter of resignation to the Council at Monday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Kucera said, \u201cTaking this position will permit me to move back out west where I lived for many years and provide new challenges that will further my career. I have enjoyed working at the Borough and will miss the employees, members of council and the vibrancy of Kennett Square.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council President Leon Spencer said, \u201cWe will greatly miss Brant and everyone should know that our receiving the financial accounting award from GFOA was principally due to this guy right here (pointing at Kucera).\u201d<\/p>\n

In other business, Kucera presented the Borough\u2019s 2014 Capital Improvement Plan for the Council\u2019s consideration over the next 2 weeks, with the intent to adopt the plan at the Council\u2019s next meeting on October 20. He outlined the major capital projects envisioned over the next 5 years, which included<\/p>\n

\u2022 Implementing remote meter reading,
\n\u2022 Completing various street and sidewalk projects,
\n\u2022 Installing a financial software package,
\n\u2022 Expanding the parking garage, and
\n\u2022 Purchasing a new ladder truck for the fire company.<\/p>\n

Kucera said that applications for capital funding for these and other projects are being prepared now or will be in the near future. He said, \u201cWe expect that most of the funding for these projects will come from sources within Chester County, with some from the federal government\u2019s Community Development Block Grant program administered by Chester County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlights of the reports from various Borough entities include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Codes Department Chief Drumheller reported conducting 267 property inspections, issuing 41 building permits, and investigating three chicken coop complaints about coops not in compliance. He said, \u201cIf you see violations feel free to call our office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Historic Kennett Square Executive Director Mary Cunningham reported that we should look forward to the upcoming\u00a0 Farmers Market Festival, the next issue of FIG coming out soon for the holidays, and discussions with Longwood Gardens about a shuttle from Kennett Square to the gardens during the holidays to serve about 200 people per day.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Claire Finfrock reported on summer activities of the Kennett Area Parks and Recreation Board, including installing new electric scoreboards at Pennock Park that operate remotely; planning for eight sets of bleachers to be installed next year; providing summer camps for 100 children and clinics for basketball and girls field hockey; and managing the Mushroom festival 5K run that successfully raised funds for various uses in the Borough.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Council approved the following special events:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Halloween Parade and Party \u2013 October 26
\n\u2022 Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting \u2013 November 28
\n\u2022 Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides \u2013 December 7, 14, 21, and 28
\n\u2022 Midnight in the Square \u2013 December 31 \u2013 January 1<\/p>\n

President\u2019s Report<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer reiterated his request from last month that all residents register for Swift Reach\u2014a robo call system that can immediately contact all of those who sign up for the system. He said, \u201cI urge that all residents become members of Swift Reach. It\u2019s a reasonable way to effectively contact the citizens of Kennett Square when we face an emergency situation as we did last month with the water contamination threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer also addressed a comment from the public questioning whether the Borough had sufficient water during the water emergency to put out a building fire, should one occur. He said, \u201cThere was no risk of not having water for an emergency. First, we have a reserve supply of 5,000 gallons of water for just such an emergency. We also have mutual agreements with other municipalities and fire companies to assist us during any emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Borough Manager Brant Kucera resigns, takes position in Oregon By Rick Marts, Correspondent, The Times At Monday night\u2019s Borough Council meeting, Don Pierce of Maillie, LLC, a certified accounting and business consulting firm, presented the results of the firm\u2019s 2013 audit of the financial records of Kennett Square Borough. Pierce said his firm gave the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":956598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[73,3904,5308,16],"class_list":["post-13362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-borough-council","tag-brant-kucera","tag-finance-reporting","tag-kennett-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13363,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362\/revisions\/13363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}