The good news for Newcastle's cemetery fund is that it earned approximately $7,700 in 2014. The bad news is it lost all but approximately $100 a year later.

Auditor Vernice Boyce spoke with the Newcastle board of selectmen Monday, Aug. 10, about some of the town's accounts, specifically the cemetery and worthy poor funds which are in a trust fund.

“My primary concern is the possibility of losing money,” Boyce said. “The principal has been gifted to you, and the bigger picture is that it's not our money; it's been gifted to you.”

Boyce said that while the town has been the beneficiary of strong financial years, there is always the possibility of losing money.

When the town sells a plot at a cemetery, it is given a certain amount of money which will eventually be used for the plot's upkeep. The cemetery fund then cannot fall below a certain amount, but the interest generated from the account is how the town pays for maintenance and upkeep.

Boyce said most towns put the funds in a CD or savings account and allow the interest to slowly grow instead of the potential risk of losing money in investments.

Finance committee member Eva Frey said that a low interest rate has meant that if the town had kept the money in a savings or CD, the money wouldn't have grown.

“(If the money had been put in a savings account) it would have just languished there while we waited for a direction to know what to do,” she said. “(Savings and CDs) are very conservative as everyone understands and there are fail safes that have been put in place.”

Frey said that emergency fail-safes would have been triggered had the accounts dipped into the principals.

Ben Frey asked the same question he asked at town meeting: could the town combine all the smaller funds into one to accrue more interest and generate more money.

Boyce said the town would be within its rights to do that, so long as each individual account is able to be differentiated.

All together, the fund would total approximately $150,000, which would generate a larger amount of interest and more money for upkeep.

“If we invest these funds separately or individually, the fees outweigh the profits,” Ben Frey said. “It doesn't make sense (to keep them separate).”