SKOWHEGAN — Municipal officials are working to straighten out the town’s finances as they try to get Skowhegan up to date on three years of pending audits.

Town Manager Nicholas Nadeau said there is no indication anything is wrong with the town’s books. But he said Skowhegan — like many Maine towns, counties and school districts — has fallen behind on its required annual financial audits, in large part due to the lack of certified public accountants who can do that work.

Skowhegan’s last audit was for the fiscal year ending June 2022, according to a database the Office of the State Auditor maintains. That audit was completed in May 2023.

That leaves audits hanging for three fiscal years: those ending June 2023, June 2024 and June 2025.

An audit gives officials — and the public — accurate information about a government body’s finances, which in turn informs budget decisions. It can also flag mistakes or issues that need to be addressed.

In Washington County, for example, some have pointed to a lack of recent audits as a contributing factor in the Down East county’s recent multimillion dollar budget crisis. 

“I’m all for getting those audits done as soon as possible,” said Whitney Cunliffe, chair of the Skowhegan select board, in a phone call Friday. “(Nadeau) knows it. It’s very important to the town to get their finances in line.”

Nadeau, who was hired in Skowhegan on an interim basis in May 2025 and to a permanent role a few months later, said he hired an accounting firm to prepare for the 2023 audit as a first step.

“They’re ‘untangling,’ is the best way to word it,” Nadeau told the select board Tuesday.

The firm, By The Books Accounting Solutions, of Johnson, Vermont, quoted the town in December $9,750 for an estimated 65 hours of work, records obtained under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act show. The estimate included 50 hours to reconcile fiscal year 2023 financial records and to prepare other records for the auditor.

In an interview Friday, Nadeau said his first impression of the town’s books was that they were in pretty good shape. Town officials had just fallen behind, he said.

The accounting firm preparing for the fiscal year 2023 audit has agreed, at least so far. Nadeau said the accountants think Skowhegan has good financial systems in place.

“It’s very good news: We’re not a mess,” he said. “It changes the game. Because if we were a mess, then they’re going to have to take more time, the auditors are going to have to take more time, and we’re only talking about 2023. We’re good. We’re in a much better position than a lot of other small towns, which is so good to hear.”

By The Books is expected to complete its work by late March, Nadeau said. After that, the timeline for completion of the audits for 2023 and subsequent years is unclear. Nadeau said it will ultimately depend on the availability of the town’s auditor, Craig Costello of Brantner, Thibodeau & Associates in Bangor.

Giving the auditor good information to start with should speed up the process and save the town money in the long run as there will be less back-and-forth needed to complete the audits, Nadeau said.

Cunliffe, a retired certified public accountant, said completing the audits as soon as possible is necessary to ensure the town is transparent and operating in a fiscally prudent way.

“I don’t see anything concerning yet,” he said. “But until the audit is done, we won’t know.”

Nadeau attributed the lack of timely audits largely on the lack of accounting firms available. He also said rural towns, generally speaking, struggle to recruit and retain qualified staff.

Skowhegan has seen significant turnover in administration in recent years.

Christine Almand, who was town manager for nearly a decade, resigned in November 2023 after several months of medical-related leave. Police Chief David Bucknam pulled double duty as interim town manager for the next six months.

The select board then hired Dawn DiBlasi, a local attorney and former Somerset County administrator, as town manager. DiBlasi, who signed a three-year contract, quit after one year. 

Nadeau came on board a few weeks later, at first splitting his time between the Skowhegan position and another in Vermont.

The town’s finance and human resources director position, meanwhile, has been vacant for five months. Nadeau said he is waiting to have the 2023 audit squared away before hiring someone.

“We don’t want to set someone up to fail,” Nadeau said, adding he wants to give the new hire a “clean slate.”

That position, in charge of town bookkeeping, has been vacant since Trisha Austin resigned in September. 

Austin, a longtime town employee who held the post since 2014, had been placed on administrative leave the day before she told Nadeau she was stepping down from the position, according to a separation agreement. The agreement included stipulations for confidentiality and nondisparagement; town officials have said little about Austin’s resignation.

Renee Belliveau, who was Austin’s assistant in the finance and HR department, has been overseeing finances with Nadeau in recent months.