Finance director flags upcoming budget ordinance, audit prep and a short federal grant window for water-reservoir work

Director Vasquez delivered the finance director's report, briefing trustees on upcoming budget work, audit preparation and a time‑sensitive grant opportunity.

"I sent a memo to the board along with the list of invoices that were up for approval tonight," Vasquez said, describing a plan to circulate the appropriations/budget ordinance numbers ahead of the March board meeting. She said the numbers will reflect year‑end expenses and revenues and will be based on discussions from a prior finance workshop.

Vasquez told the board she is finalizing audit preparations before fieldwork begins at the end of March and said she will try to submit a short‑window federal grant application this week for shovel‑ready projects. She said the village's likely candidate is "the water reservoir work that's being done," and that the EPA permit is already in place for that project.

She also said the accounting vendor BSNA notified municipalities that beginning in 2027 third‑party payment providers will no longer cover maintenance for real‑time integrations, and that a quarterly API fee will be billed to customers who use third‑party providers unless they switch to BSNA's payment platform. Vasquez said the village had planned to migrate to BSNA's platform but staffing constraints had delayed the move and staff would pursue next steps to avoid the new fees.

Trustees asked clarifying questions about the grant criteria and which projects were shovel ready; Vasquez said staff would prioritize the reservoir project because permitting and preparatory work are in place. No formal budget ordinance or grant appropriation vote was taken at the meeting; Vasquez said she will circulate documents before the next meeting.