LEDC Update
The Christmas season has arrived in Linden. If you haven’t already, I would encourage that you shop local for your holiday needs this year. Not only does supporting small businesses support your community as a whole, but I’ve also found that finding that special gift that’s been carefully crafted or curated by a thoughtful small business leaves a much greater impression on a loved one that simply buying them the newest flashy bauble from a large chain store or shopping mall.
Work on the water tower is continuing and I’ve been informed by the contractor that we should see significant work done on the structure this week with an estimated completion date sometime next week—so long as weather provides no setbacks. The initial coating work on the tower was done on the interior of the tank and now the contractor is completing the work on the outside to finish up the job. This work will ensure that our historic water tower remains standing for many years to come as a well-preserved and shining beacon of Linden’s past and future.
Our annual audit is underway for the LEDC. Every year we contract an external CPA firm to conduct a thorough audit of our finances and operations to ensure that we are functioning correctly and are keeping in compliance with state and federal requirements. These audit reports are then presented to our board in an open meeting and then subsequently presented to the Linden city council in another open meeting.
While the term “audit” may carry with it fear and images of IRS “g-men,” a corporate audit is actually very different than one that might take place under different circumstances. The goal of an audit like the one we have conducted is twofold—transparency and compliance.
Our audits are conducted to ensure that our finances and operations are as transparent as possible. As an economic development entity, we want to ensure that all of our stakeholders are fully aware of our goals, our strategies for achieving those goals, and the steps we take in implementing those strategies.
We also undergo an audit to ensure that we are complying completely with any and all regulations that we are subject to. We work very hard to ensure that we always move in lock-step with the rules that govern us and having an audit conducted at the end of every fiscal year serves to bolster that effort.
While annual audits can be fairly (sometimes painfully) time-consuming for a small corporate entity like ours, the benefits of having them are worth their weight in gold. The time we take to contract and work hand-in-hand with our auditors serves to ensure that we are acting as good stewards of our charge to create prosperity for Linden and its people.