Cattlemen's legal bills way up this year

By Ken Johnston
Editor

While the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association would not release its financial statements to the media for the first time in years, they did say they ended the year in the red in some accounts and in the black in others.
Auditor Stacy Hahkula reported that the balance sheet for the RRCA shows them with $8,549.25 in bank indeptedness, however “There were many accounts receivable to come at the end of the year.”
She also noted that due to the flow-through of monies for the sales barn renovation project the organization is still waiting for a large amount of G.S.T. to be recovered.
The Weighmen’s Account had $280 in revenue but did $557 in repairs to the scales so it lost $277 in 2008.
She also noted that there were about $70,000 in commissions brought in at cattle sales. “That is about an $11,000 increase over the previous year’s sales,” said Hahkula. The RRCA ended with a $313.06 profit in the cattle sales account.
Hahkula said that she did not do a complete audit on RRCA’s books this year. She just looked them over for any items that needed further looking into. She did note that accounting and legal fees were up dramatically over the previous year due to the pending law suit, but did not say by how much.
Her auditor’s report was approved unanimously by the members at last Wednesday’s annual meeting of the RRCA.