Saugus Main St. landfill audit comes back clean

SAUGUS-It took Selectman Stephen Horlick three tries to get it approved and nearly a year for its completion, but the audit on the Main Street landfill is in and it’s, in one word, uneventful.Horlick requested an audit in 2007 when he discovered there was only $185,000 left in an account that was supposed to carry enough to monitor the landfill for 30 years. Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said at the time he didn’t expect any smoking guns to appear and he said Friday he was correct.”I don’t see any fault in there,” he said. “The landfill closure was completed in a professional manner, ahead of schedule and it hasn’t cost the town a nickel so far.”Bisignani admitted there will be some post-closure monitoring costs, “but it’s a small price to pay for the $2.7 million it saved the town to close the landfill.”In 2002, Selectmen voted to cap the landfill by accepting 200,000 cubic yards of Big Dig fill, for which the town was paid to receive. A clause in the contract with the Central Artery left the door open to revisit the option of accepting up to 425,000 cubic yards, depending on how the project went, which is what the town did in the end.Bisignani finished the project that had been started by former Town Manager Stephen Angelo by taking in the total amount of fill because it would net $675,000 that would be earmarked to pay for the required post-closure monitoring.However, Horlick pointed out that the earmarked money had dwindled considerably.According to the $18,000 final report put together by Melanson Heath & Company, certified public accountants and management advisors, the revenue for the project came in higher than originally intended. The increase in revenue was attributed to fees related to rejected materials and additional testing on questionable fill.Bisignani admitted there was a question of receipt records not matching delivery slips but the audit states, “since the revenue came in as expected, we do not feel that the absence of delivery slips causes reason for concern.”Bisignani said it was unforeseen circumstances that took the bite out of the landfill enterprise account. First came a lawsuit connected to the project that ate up roughly $146,000. Next came the Department of Environmental Protection that mandated the town clean up a large patch of ground at the base of the landfill. The spot included the Department of Public Works driveway and salt shed and cost nearly $400,000 to clean up.”This (audit) should relieve any anxieties,” Bisignani said. “Everyone should be satisfied now. There is nothing further to review and we can move on.”Bisignani said he plans to close out the landfill enterprise account as was suggested by Melanson Heath during the town’s year-end audit. He said he would roll the monitoring costs into the budget rather than keep an account open that has no active revenue.Horlick said he hasn’t seen the audit yet but is anxious to see it. He said he would pick up his copy of it shortly.