MONTAGUE — The City of Montague was given a clean financial bill of health Monday evening by Brickley DeLong's Eric Van Dop in a special city council meeting.
Van Dop presented the results of the city's annual audit, which showed no major issues in the processes the city uses to do its finances. When city council member Laura LaGuire asked what grade Van Dop would give the city's financial management if he were to offer one, Van Dop said he'd give the city an A.
"You should be happy with the results," Van Dop said.
The city received particularly high marks regarding the funding of its retiree pension plan. Once struggling to keep those funds going, the city was at just shy of 90% fully funded in the pension department as of the audit. Van Dop the city may even be able to draw on its own assets in order to fund what is remaining.
As with Whitehall's audit report, which was given in November, Montague's report included a note of the higher investment returns (some $65,000 higher than a year ago) and property tax revenue for this year as compared to past years. The returns were thanks to higher interest rates this year, and revenues were higher due to the increased property values in the city.
Van Dop also noted that the city received revenue from the White Lake Fire Authority to pay off a debt to the city.
