Auditors flag Hubbard Brothers invoices after town is charged finance fees

The Middletown Springs auditors discussed an email from a select board member reporting that Hubbard Brothers had begun applying finance charges to the town’s account, and agreed to dig into the matter administratively.

At the meeting Feb. 16, the chair said Terry’s email reported the select board had historically paid Hubbard invoices twice per month. The chair summarized that “we have always paid Hubbard invoices twice per month,” and members noted the company’s statements now show finance charges. Tracy Weatherhog said auditors found a line-item discrepancy and that statements showed a balance (cited in discussion as $7,636.94 as of 09/30/25) and that a finance charge of $84.29 had been applied and was increasing month-to-month.

Members said the statements the town received do not list individual invoice numbers consistently, making it hard to match checks and payments. The auditors concluded that reconciling invoices to check numbers is necessary and that the select board and treasurer should meet with Hubbard Brothers to request detailed itemized invoices. The auditors offered to examine records to match invoices and checks but said that work would be an administrative follow-up rather than action taken at a warned meeting.

Next steps: auditors will attempt internal reconciliation of checks and invoices for the months in question and expect the select board and treasurer to contact Hubbard Brothers for clarification and itemized statements.