By DAN GEARINO for SentinelSource

SWANZEY CENTER -- Eyebrows arched and accusations flew in early April when Monadnock Regional School District's long-distance phone service was cut off in a billing dispute.

But this week, the long-distance carrier, Lightyear Communications of Louisville, Ky., issued an apology.

"On behalf of Lightyear, I would like to apologize for this billing error and the time frame on getting the dispute resolved," wrote Lucy Alexander, the company's supervisor of legal affairs, in a letter dated May 21.

The district disputed $10,430 in charges from Lightyear. School officials said they were being charged for taxes from which schools are exempt. Lightyear disagreed and pulled the plug for several days. The N.H. Public Utilities Commission stepped in and got the service resumed while the parties sorted out the dispute.

The letter is a vindication for school officials, who are trying to recover credibility on financial matters since the discovery in the fall of 2000 of more than $1 million in debt from past accounting errors. The superintendent and business administrator on staff when the most of the errors were made have since left the district.

"Some people were suggesting that we were mismanaging money because the long-distance got turned off," said Superintendent Curtis J. Cardine. "But we would have been mismanaging if we'd paid this bill."

Sentinel Source

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