RIDGECREST — The Town of Ridgecrest is awaiting the arrival of state auditors to begin investing discrepancies in bookkeeping that leave $25,399 unaccounted for in its 2010 budget.

During a special town hall meeting Monday night, Mayor Dwayne Sikes said the investigators will begin with the 2010 budget, but can go back further if they see a pattern.

“They could be here (Tuesday), they could be here Monday, but they won’t just be here one day,” Sikes said. “I told them, ‘Don’t think you’re coming down here and going back to Baton Rouge in one day.’”

The aldermen discussed several options to ensure situations like these don’t happen again.

“I will be the first one to admit, I didn’t do my job as an alderman,” said alderman Robert Maples. “But from this day forward I will.”

Sikes said a level of transparency must be established among the entire board.

“There’s nothing in the records that these aldermen can’t look at it,” Sikes said. “People have to take interest in this little old town.”

Sikes discussed a total of 10 certificates of deposits that were closed out in 2010 and said none of those should have been touched.

“None of the aldermen knew about that,” Sikes said. “One person on this board should be responsible of checking those CDs.”

Sikes said he knew of some of the discrepancies when he was appointed and wanted to get the state auditors involved to resolve everything.

“This has been my home a long time, and I care about this little town,” Sikes said. “This ain’t no witch hunt.”