The title, ‘Town nets $187,597 on Depot sale’ that appeared in The Voice (Dec. 21, 2017), was accurate.
However, in the financial summary provided to The Voice by Town Hall on Dec. 20, documenting expenses and revenues for the construction and sale of the Depot, the preconstruction expenses were incorrectly totaled at $147,872, which was $16,201 less in preconstruction expenses than the actual total of $164,073. This resulted in an incorrect net sale total of $206,797 in the Town’s document.
A scan of the hard copy of the document provided to The Voice by Town Hall.
Before going to press on Wednesday, Dec. 20, The Voice alerted Ed Parler, the Town’s Economic Development consultant, to the addition error in the Town’s document. The Voice printed the preconstruction expenses as listed in the Town’s financial summary but corrected the total of those expenses to $164,073.
The County Chronicle stated in its Dec. 21, 2017 issue, which published on the same day as The Voice, that, “Despite erroneous reports in other media outlets, Parler’s estimate was accurately based on the payment of $147,872 in [preconstruction] costs…”
However, it was not mentioned which media outlets published those ‘erroneous reports.’
Asked if the Town provided the net sales document to any media sources other than The Country Chronicle and The Voice, Mayor J. Michael Ross told The Voice on Dec. 27, that he was not aware that it had.
