By Taylor Boyd
The Stuart Town Council received a largely clean audit report for fiscal year 2025 during its May 20 meeting, with the only qualification related to accounting procedures involving the Stuart Volunteer Fire Department fund.
Scott Wickham, CPA and certified fraud examiner with Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates, presented the town’s annual audit findings.
“That’s pretty standard for you all,” Wickham said of the qualified opinion. “To remedy that, it would be to either have the fire department become a separate 501(c)(3) and move the funds there, or make sure the fire department has all of their documentation included and documented.”
Wickham said the issue is common among local governments that account for volunteer fire department funds.
“The second opinion can be challenging for fire departments,” he said.
Aside from that matter, Wickham said the audit revealed no significant concerns.
“It is a clean opinion except for that one minor modification,” he said.
Wickham also discussed the town’s implementation of Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 101, which changes how compensated absences such as vacation and sick leave are reported.
“It did not have a significant impact. It did on some localities, particularly the school boards,” Wickham said. “The change requires an increase to the liability based on an estimate of time taken off for your leave, sick and vacation leave, and things, but the size of your balances were not super significant. You did implement the required standards.”
According to the audit, the town has approximately $1.4 million invested in capital assets and about $3.9 million in unrestricted governmental funds.
For business-type activities, which include water, sewer, and garbage services, Wickham said unrestricted funds totaled about $185,000.
“Business-type activities, that’s your water, sewer, and garbage, unrestricted, that’s about $185,000. So a little low on that end,” he said.
DEQ violation discussed
In other business, Town Manager Bryce Simmons reported that the town received a notice of violation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality related to its wastewater treatment plant.
“That was due to nitrate samples that were not collected the last half of 2025,” Simmons said. “We were supposed to have collected six months of weekly samples of nitrates, however they were not done, so that is the reason.”
Simmons said the issue was related to missing samples rather than water-quality exceedances.
“We haven’t gotten an exceedance, but we will probably be issued a fine for the samples not being taken,” he said.
The council also:
*Scheduled a public hearing for its June 17 meeting on the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget.
*Approved a $1,000 contribution to the Stuart Library’s summer reading program.
*Approved the Banners for Heroes program.
*Heard updates on public works projects.
*Heard an update on the Downtown Revitalization Plan.
*Approved the April 15 meeting minutes.
*Approved payment of the town’s bills.
Council members Erica Wade and Jeffrey Houchins were absent.
