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Morristown City Finance Director Michelle Woods was ordered from her usual seat in the gallery at Tuesday’s City Council meeting by Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney to appear in front of council, where she was promptly awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.

The city was once again awarded the certificate for fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. The award was given by the Government Finance Officers Association.

In a press release, city staff noted the GFOA judges the audit reports to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate citizens and other groups to read the report. The City has been proud to work with the auditing team at Brown Edwards over the past 7 years to complete this audit. They have worked with the City to ensure that it achieves a superior level of financial reporting.

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting. Earning this award represents a significant accomplishment for the City of Morristown and its management. This is the 10th year that the City of Morristown has received this award.

City Administrator Tony Cox said of the award: “Our finance staff always performs above expected levels. Having received this recognition for ten years shows the continued professionalism of Michelle Woods our Finance Director. Michelle and her team work tirelessly to serve our community and protect its assets. We’re very proud of them.”

After Chesney’s presentation, Cox commented that on one particular morning, he decided to ‘start early’ on some budget work at around 6 a.m. – “I already had an email from Michelle at 5 a.m. that morning saying, ‘Here’s what I’m doing; I’m trying to stay ahead.’”

Council members, along with a majority of the community according to social media, are curious about a particular $35 million city project.

During the portion of the Council meeting reserved for non-agenda Council member comments and questions, Tommy Pedigo asked if city staff had heard anything about the opening of Morristown Landing, which is commonly referred to as the Landing by staff and Council.

“We are currently open in a limited capacity,” City Administrator Tony Cox said. “We’ve had some events there. On Friday, we had a Regional Stormwater meeting there. We will be having some larger events in the next week or so.

“Currently we are waiting on approval of a number of things, one being the elevator inspection, some work in the kitchen area. The pool will be the last thing to come online; we expect that at least by the first of April.

“We’ll slowly be ramping up over the next few weeks and should be in full operation in April,” Cox added.

Mayor Gary Chesney noted the Morristown-Hamblen Hospital Foundation Gala will be held at the Landing on Friday, March 10.

Gala organizers have contracted with an outside catering vendor for the event.