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The town of Marion is setting the stage for future growth with expansion of water and sewer lines and saw an overall increase in its financial position, the Board of Aldermen learned Tuesday.

Tom Windham of Windham & Lacey PLLC, an accounting firm contracted to do the town’s annual audit, said Marion is in good financial health overall, and no significant issues were discovered during the auditing process. The firm did have one finding, Windham said, that being the lack of an annual inventory of the town’s assets.

“You need to start doing an inventory of your fixed assets,” he said.

State law requires an annual inventory be performed to account for the municipality’s assets and make sure nothing is missing. Marion officials have been working to develop an inventory of the town’s current assets to be used for the annual check.

Mayor Larry Gill said several departments have completed their inventories and several more are underway.

“We’re working on it,” he said.

Alderman Barbara Anthony asked what penalties the town may face if an inventory is not performed. Audit reports are sent to the state auditor’s office for review, she said, and the state auditor could decide to enforce the inventory requirement.

Although it is a law, Windham said it is rare for the inventory requirement to be enforced with penalties. In the cases where it has been used, he said, the situation usually was due to inventory going missing.

Should that happen in Marion, the auditor could decide to hold the Board of Aldermen responsible, Windham said, but that would be unlikely. And, he added, with the town still working to develop its original inventory, there’s nothing to check the town’s assets against to see if everything is still there.

“They don’t know what’s missing or not,” he said.

Inventory aside, Windham said, the town overall received a clean audit. Not only did the town not have any critical problems with its finances, he said, but it increased its financial position, which is the amount of assets minus debts, by approximately $250,000 across the general fund and water fund.

In other business, aldermen approved expansion of water and sewer lines along Lindley Road to set the stage for future growth.

Gill said the town’s water and sewer lines currently stop just east of where Ole Town Pharmacy is building its new location next to the Subway. The expansion will take the lines west, beyond the pharmacy site, he said.

Ole Town Pharmacy is getting ready to pour its concrete driveway, Gill said, and future growth of the town along Lindley Road would require breaking up the driveway to access the water and sewer lines. By expanding the lines now, he said, access will be quick and easy saving time, money and headache for all involved.