Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall said indecision on the future of the Clark Historic Farm property could lead to a finding in the city’s financial audit during a work session meeting on May 20.
Findings in a financial audit indicate there is an issue or discrepancy with a business or organization’s financial records. The audit includes recommendations of how the problem could be resolved.
Marshall said Gary Keddington of Keddington & Christensen Certified Public Accountants, who is completing the audit, is concerned about the $35,000 in cemetery funds Grantsville City used for a sprinkler system and other improvements after a 40-acre parcel was designated for the cemetery expansion in 2009.
According to Marshall, the city council has two options to avoid a finding related to the cemetery in the audit: restore the money to the cemetery fund or begin using a portion of the fields behind the Clark Farm for burial plots.
“The cemetery funds are highly restrictive and they need to be transparent,” Marshall said.
At its May 7 meeting, the city council voted down the sale of burial plots at the site to give the Friends of the Historic Clark Farm four more weeks to negotiate a purchase of the property.
During a closed session at the end of its May 20 general meeting, the council met with representatives from the non-profit to negotiate a contract for over an hour.
The city had previously offered to sell the Friends of the Historic Clark Farm 12.5 acres and the home on the property for $754,500. The offer expired on April 30 but the council agreed to additional negotiations.
Councilman Scott Stice said the field behind the farm is zoned to be a cemetery and burial plots have been mapped out, meaning the property is essentially already a cemetery.
“If we wanted to next month, we could sell plots on it,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s a cemetery.”
Marshall said the auditor had not made a finding of the cemetery funds use in the past because the property’s future was in-process. If the auditor writes up the city for its use of the cemetery funds, Stice said he’s not concerned.
“If he wants to write it down as a finding, it’s an explainable finding,” he said.