Keeping you up to date on District happenings
Summer 2010
2009 Yellow Book Audit – COMPLETE!
A ”yellow book audit” is one which is now required by
law and arguably is the most rigorous auditing standards
in existence. This is a type of financial statement audit
that is conducted under Government Auditing Standards,
issued by the Comptroller General of the United States in
July 2007. New York State’s school districts, fire districts,
and public transportation are supported in part by the
federal government are therefore subject to this audit. Its
focus is also oriented towards financial statement
reporting, but it also includes assessing internal controls
and compliance issues. As with a financial statement
audit, a yellow book audit’s objective is to provide an
opinion on whether the financial statements are free of
material misstatements.
During a special meeting in July to review the audit,
according to Matt McCrosson, Senior Partner of the
accounting firm O’Connor Davies Munns & Dobbins, who
conducted the Fire District’s yellow book audit for the
second year in a row, reported, “Valhalla is a model
district and has done a great job in being good stewards of
the taxpayers’ money. The experience we have had here in
Valhalla should be replicated throughout the state.”The
auditors found that in spite of a difficult economic climate
the District was able to increase its assets, cash position
and Service Award investments.
1st RESPONDER CALLS
The first 6 months of 2010 have been a very busy time
for the members of the Valhalla Fire Department. As of
June 30th, members had responded to a total of 227 fire
calls. These calls were made up of responses to the
Grasslands Reservation, Westchester Medical Center,
structure fires, motor vehicle accidents, and mutual aid
calls to our neighboring districts to name a few. And
because it doesn’t seem things are slowing down, it looks
like the Department is on track to see at least 450 calls by
the end of 2010!
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Teaming up with St. Baldrick’s Foundation the Valhalla
Fire Co #1 is hosting a fundraising event. St. Baldrick’s
funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any
other organization except the U.S. Government. It does
this through events where people shave their heads in
solidarity of kids with cancer while raising money from
friends and family. You don’t have to shave your head to
help – other ways you may participate are: direct
donations, your company/organization may sponsor a
team of people made up of you and your colleagues, or of
course, you can shave your head and consider yourself a
“shavee”!
If you have an interest in participating on any level,
please log on to www.stbaldricks.org, event code E4048 or
contact Valhalla Fire Department’s Assistant Chief Bratton
@ 914-837-4156, Firefighter Joe Bonanno @ 201-9880141 or event organizer Kristine DeRenzis @ 914-8792169. The event will be held on September 19th, 11am –
3pm at Valhalla Fire Co #1, 1 Entrance Way, Valhalla.
IT’S ABOUT THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN…
Remember all the torrential rain and snow storms the
Mt. Pleasant area was graced with in the summer of 2009
and winter 2009-10? Well we’ve reached that time again,
for rain at least, but luckily Mt. Pleasant residents haven’t
had to deal with much in terms of heavy rains causing
massive flooding and other inconveniences. What you may
not realize is that not only were the residents impacted by
those storms, but the Fire Department as well. The
manpower and apparatus used during those times were
immense. That’s what FEMA is for – but thanks to 2nd
Lieutenant Vinny Moschetto for supplying the information
for the FEMA grant application and Commissioner Kenneth
Hoffarth for meeting several times on his own time with
FEMA and completing the application, the District received
a grant that helped replenish funds spent – one of the only
Districts in the area to receive this type of aid. The grant
provided the District over $11,000 in grant money.
In addition to the Department providing assistance to
residents during these storms, we have now organized an
Emergency Operations Center at each of the fire houses all
thanks in part to the generators that continue providing
power without knowing it ever went out. Whether it be
rain, snow or massive winds creating power outages,
residents can be comforted to know they can visit either
Fire Company in Valhalla (14 Columbus Ave or 1 Entrance
Way) and be provided with food, heat or air conditioning,
or just a place to stay when weather conditions knock out
power. More information to come on this new and exciting
service!
For more information, please visit our website at:
www.valhallafd.org