CLIO — Clio Mayor Ben Petrone feels he can see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to audit issues of the town.
“And it is not a locomotive heading at me anymore,” he said.
Town officials have worked for several years to get the audits of the town current.
The town is working with new auditors Sheheen, Hancock, and Godwin LLP of Camden. Officials have been assured by the new auditor that he can catch up with all of the back audits by the end of January or the end of February at the latest.
“It looks like at the end of the month that we will be able to act like a real town by getting the state funding we are supposed to be getting and be able to apply for grants to help the town do some things we need to do,” Petrone said.
Having the audits current will take a burden off the town. Petrone said the town was extremely limited in what they could do for the town and couldn’t even apply for grants available because of the audit situation.
He added that finding an auditor who has worked with small towns with financial problems was difficult.
“We developed a good relationship with them,” Petrone said. “They understand we don’t have money to pay them upfront for all these audits we are doing. As they are doing them, we will get the money released to have them paid off.”