The Northfield Selectboard, following a special meeting on Monday, issued a press release stating that there has been a breakdown in communication between the governing bodies of the town, to wit, the Selectboard and the Village Trustees.

More importantly, “there has been a lack of transparency” between what the town taxpayers and village utility rate payers “are being told and what elected officials are doing,” said the release.

The blockbuster in the release states that the Selectboard found out this week that $92,000 which Village Manager, Nanci Allard, told the board two weeks ago needed to be paid back to the electric department had already been paid back last December by taking money out of the village road budget.

The Selectboard said that the problems are the end result of a water project where the need to replace water mains happened to be adjacent to a failed retaining wall and crumbling sidewalk. Initially, the village trustees proposed changing the contour of the land eliminating the need for a retaining wall but that plan morphed into one which proposed a new retaining wall with bench seating and recessed lighting incorporated into the wall. This was a more expensive proposal but it was judged to be more pleasing, the release explained.

Some of the funding for this new wall came from funds remaining from the water project and other monies came from grants.

However, during the project, plans were changed without notice to the public, the release states. It goes on to say that the real rub came when the trustees decided to bury the utility lines and install free standing antique post street lights. The cost of the switch in the lighting was to be $16,000 and burying the electric system cost another $74,000 which when combined with other costs brought the total to about $135,000.’

The Village Trustees promoted the project by stating that the cost of burying the utilities would be born by the electric department and that department in fact paid the bill according to the release.

After the funds were spent, the trustees refunded the electric department with highway funds which have accumulated over the years and were set aside as a savings account for equipment purchases and other needs.

The village highway budget is funded by both village and town taxes. However, some of these funds came from monies the village had prior to the consolida- tion of the road budget. The problem is, the release explained, that these monies are only to be used for highway use and nothing else. To do otherwise, the Selectboard, opined, requires voter approval and, to date, the trustees have never sought approval from anyone.

During the recent budget process, the Selectboard became aware for the first time what was happening when the trustees asked the selectboard to agree to fund additional monies for burying utilities for the construction of the north and west side of the Common which was supposed to be done this year.

The trustees also put their $135,000 shortfall on the south side work into their highway budget for this coming year.

The Selectboard has refused to accept that undesignated highway funds be spent for utility projects which have not been approved by the voters.

Therefore, the Selectboard has placed what will become Article 10 in the town meeting warning which will allow the voters to decide on whether to refund approximately $92,000. The board did agree to place the cost of the retaining wall overrun in the highway budget in the amount of approximately $42,800.

The release noted that the voters have already approved the Common project for the north and west sides but the village trustees have requested an additional sum to bury utility lines which is expected to cost up to $100,000.

The village did secure a grant in the amount of $250,000 for the Common project and unless the project is completed by August of this year.

“The grant expires in August of 2013,” and “absent a complete and transparent understanding of what is involved” in finishing the project, the Selectboard intends to look into rescinding the project supervision which it turned over to the Village Manager last year.

The release stated that “halting the project will further stop late breaking development which continue to occur such as last week at a joint meeting [of the Selectboard and Trustees] when the Selectboard was told the Village needed to refund the electric department $92,000” and “then later discovered that the money had already been repaid last December.”