SILVER CREEK - The debate goes on in Silver Creek over a salt barn and a 2007 shared services agreement.
Resident Nancy Clees attended the Silver Creek Village Board meeting once again Tuesday to argue the school's case in the disagreement.
She first took issue with Trustee Romanik's statement at the Aug. 24 meeting that according to village records, the Silver Creek school district had not paid the $7,500 agreed upon in the contract.
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OBSERVER Photo by Nicole Gugino
The Silver Creek Village Board fended off questions about its 2007 salt barn agreement at its meeting Tuesday. Pictured are Trustee Thomas Harmon (left), Clerk Kerrieann Pelletter and Mayor Kurt Lindstrom.
"First of all, you have a salt barn sitting there; therefore it was obviously taken care of. Number two, anybody who knows anything about grant writing knows that the school would not write a grant out to the village but to the SMSI grant program, because they have to have those funds upfront before they will even look at your grant application," Clees said.
She then referenced the debate she and Mayor Kurt Lindstrom had about signatures on the agreement at the previous meeting.
"That said the argument before was about the memorandum of understanding. (It) is exactly that and I have been told by a very reliable source that they are often submitted as draft copies and are not required to be signed. The procedure that is normally followed and apparently wasn't in the village is that once the grant is granted it is incumbent upon the lead agency to negotiate the shared services agreement with the other entity. Which means it was up to the village to do that and if you didn't then you are bound by the agreement which is on the first page of the grant application," she said.
She added her disappointment on how this situation has been handled.
"The denigration that has taken place and has been aimed at the school system is not appropriate. The billing that has been done, I believe to be in violation of the grant terms and it would be wise if you did something to take care of that," she said.
Lindstrom responded to the comments by saying Clees has not been transparent in her case for the school on this issue.
"While we are on the subject, you and Ms. Frederickson talk about transparency, you failed to mention you are also an employee of the school system and this is direct conflict," he said.
Clees disagreed that there is a conflict of interest.
"Not really, it's my taxpayer dollars that you're spending and there's a lot of things that you don't mention, too," she said.
Lindstrom denied her accusation.
The original agreement between the village and the school was forged to get a grant to build a salt barn. Under the agreement the district would pay $7,500 in return for 10 years of free salt up to 50 tons.
However, it was recently discovered the district was charged for salt in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.
A resolution of this problem has yet to be reached.
The village board will next meet Sept. 17.
