John Poole, a CPA from Hendersonville, serves as the city auditor for Lafayette, and he had some good news to report to the City Council tonight.

"This board receives financial information on a monthly basis," said Poole. "You'll be glad to know that that information is accurate.

"Nothing was found that was unusual. The city has good business practices as far as collecting the money it's owed. All appropriate documents for expenditures were accounted for."

Poole said that some municipalities ran into some financial trouble during tough economic times, but that the City of Lafayette, from a financial standpoint, was holding up well.

He reported that the city had a $413,681 surplus in its utilities budget as well as a surplus in the water budget, which made up for the defecit in the sewer budget.

"Sewers are just expensive to operate," he said.

According to Poole, most of the city's departments came in under budget.

"It's nice to know in tough times that you've got people in those departments that are managing their budgets."

Also, at tonight's meeting, the Council approved a bid from Oldham Roofing in Smith County for $24,972 to put a new roof on the police department building. The bid was the lowest of two received.

For full details on tonight's City Council meeting, check next week's edition of the Times.