Town Manager James McKenna announced at the Town Council meeting Tuesday night that Winthrop has $1.5 million in “free cash,” which is the amount of money the town had after paying all of its expenses from the previous year.
That announcement is great news for Winthrop and represents another huge step forward for the town which was in a financial crisis just a few years ago. McKenna and his finance team, including current Chief Financial Officer Tim Gordon, have worked hard to get Winthrop back on a strong financial footing and the state’s certification of the free cash figure represents a recognition of the town’s much-improved financial status.
McKenna has been our own John Farrell (the manager of the Boston Red Sox) as the new leader who came in with a fresh approach and turned it around quickly and efficiently. It’s a credit to McKenna that Winthrop now has a bright and promising financial outlook and there is money available for the “rainy day” fund.
Council President Peter Gill credited McKenna, CFO Gordon, and the accounting firm that helped the town over the past year for their efforts and teamwork. Winthrop’s department heads also drew praise for keeping their budgets in line and continuing to look for cost-cutting measures that will help the town in the long run.
McKenna isn’t resting on his latest success. He was “up and at ’em” early Wednesday morning, traveling with assistant to the town manager Joseph Domelowicz Jr., to a Chelsea Chamber of Commerce breakfast where Greg Bialecki, state secretary of economic development, was the featured speaker, where no doubt our Town Manager was seeking some more ways to make our town government work better and more efficiently.