Lewiston delves into financials as Town Board reviews FY 2025 audit

By Editor-in-Chief Terry Duffy

Monday was a delving-into-the-numbers session for Lewiston Town Board members.

News included a favorable review on Lewiston’s financial picture for 2025 by the town’s auditors, Dresher & Malecki. Also, a tender agreement on a performance bond related to the Riverfront Park pavilion project; board action on the Lewiston Environmental Commission; a proposed new local law on shipping containers; and finalizing a new Lewiston Police Department contract.

Carl Widmer, CPA, partner with municipal auditors Dresher & Malecki LLP, opened with positive remarks on the state of Lewiston’s finances – particularly with regard to the town’s management of its fund balance accounts.

Widmer said auditors found “no major issues” as he proceeded to review the spending numbers from Lewiston’s five major accounts: the general fund, town/outside village, the highway department fund, and the water district and sewer district accounts.

“When you look at the general fund, you see some years were higher than revenues and vice versa; that’s kind of how it functions when you’re operating as a government,” he said. “You almost want to have a net zero: Just raise enough revenue to afford the goods and services.”

Focusing on 2025, Widmer said Lewiston’s general fund total expenditures were pretty consistent at $3.5 million, with revenues just below $3 million, and $534,000 in spending utilized from fund balance. Here, Widmer said the town met its expectations on managing fund balance. He said the town had $515,000 in unassigned fund balance, representing 15% of its general fund spending. Widmer said Lewiston is continuing its trend of decreased fund balance spending over the past five years.

Looking at the town’s B fund (town/outside village), Widmer reported increased town spending over revenues for 2025, with $945,000 from its fund balance account in 2025. He said the numbers also showed greater town restraint, evidenced from $1.16 million in fund balance spending in 2024.

In the highway department account, Widmer said revenues and expenditures both increased in 2025. This included $1.37 million in fund balance money toward overall highway operations in excess of $4.5 million. Here, he said highway spending was “pretty much breaking even and performed better than was initially expected.” Widmer said highway currently has a fund balance of some $1.9 million available.

In the water district fund, Widmer presented revenue numbers of more than $3.5 million and expenditures taken from fund balance of $2.871 million going toward “specific use.” He said these numbers are consistent and reflect “a higher trend” among municipalities of using fund balance toward overall spending – in Lewiston’s case, a $400,000 increase in fund balance use in 2025.

“This is really (spent) at the town’s preference,” Widmer said of the monies delegated toward water district repairs and maintenance needs.

In the sewer account, he said spending, likewise, increased in 2025 with more than $4.1 million in expenditures/transfers. Widmer attributed this to outlays spent in capital spending on “some significant sewer district work” with fund balance use representing roughly 25% of that number.

Overall, he said the town audit had “no major findings” and that all fund balance numbers reported are “pretty consistent” with spending for the town’s accounts.

In other news from the session

•Town Attorney Alfonso Marra Bax announced settlement of a tender agreement with the bonding company Lexington National Insurance. The settlement is related to an earlier contract with A-1 Landcare for construction of a pavilion at the town’s new Riverfront Park.

“There was an issue with the original contact for Riverfront Park; we (declared that) that particular contact (was) in violation; (we) then entered into negotiations with his bonding company,” Bax said. “That has culminated in a tender agreement that has been agreed upon with everyone’s input that effectively will resolve the issues between the town and the bonding company.”

Bax said the agreement allows the town to again contract the work out to A-1 Landcare, which handled the first pavilion project at the park. Board members approved the plan soon after.

“This was a performance bond,” Supervisor Steve Broderick said. “And when we ended the contract with the first company, the performance bond put it out to bid. We are very fortunate that the bid was right online with what we originally (had). This (agreement) is actually costing the bond company nothing (and) the town nothing. We’re being held to our original bid that we put out there. This is a perfect example where a performance bond worked out.”

•The town announced updates on the status of the long-inactive Lewiston Environmental Commission. Last year, the town proposed Local Law No. 1 of 2025, intended to terminate the Environmental Commission, as it had been known, and replace it with a planning and environmental review board, Bax said. But the Town Board never finalized the law and its review remains in the public hearing phase.

“That was brought up last year, we had a public hearing but, for some reason, it never came to fruition for a final vote,” Bax said.

Council member Sarah Waechter presented a motion to close the aforementioned public hearing. She then proposed to table Local Law No. 1 completely for further town review.

“I would like to table the local law and give (Councilman) Bill (Burg) and I time to work on it. … I believe that there are sections that are a little vague. We’ve (been) given no directions as far as a what a breakout committee would look like, and actually what that breakout would be assigned to do.”

In response, Bax advised the Town Board to leave the public hearing review phase open.

“We can make some changes and reintroduce a revised version of this,” he said. “We can (then) publish it for a further public hearing for (any changes that are made).”

Broderick came out in support of the move.

“We’re very fortunate that our Planning Board has three qualified people” in this area, he said. Their background on environmental issues would allow town officials to “tweak” the wording of the local law as needed. “(This will) make it a little more black and white on what the environmental aspect of this is.”

With that, the town tabled any further action until its next meeting.

•Broderick announced the town has finalized a contract between the Lewiston Police Department and its teamsters union.

“Our attorney who negotiated our police contract, Heather Giambra, and I worked hard for over a year with our police department and the union that represents them,” Broderick said.

Town Board members went on to approve the new LPD contract, which took effect immediately.

•Councilman Rob Morreale introduced Local Law No. 4 for 2026. Titled the “Town of Lewiston Shipping Container Moratorium of 2026,” it seeks “to temporarily suspend approvals for shipping containers while the Town reviews and adopts appropriate modifications to its comprehensive zoning regulations.”

Once approved by the Town Board, and adopted, the local law would remain effect “for 12 months unless extended or earlier terminated” by the board.

The town announced a public hearing would be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, to review the proposed local law.

For more information on the session, visit the town’s website at www.townoflewistonny.gov.