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Morristown City Council voted to adopt at second reading the annual budget for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2023 and ending June 30, 2024. The vote was taken during its regularly scheduled meeting on June 20.

The council also approved its members’ pay structure, along with increased garbage fees of $5, bringing the monthly fee for city residents to $20.

The council pay structure, which includes the city mayor’s salary, had not been adjusted since 2012.

“It is just catching up with the county commission and the school board,” City Administrator Tony Cox said during the pre-agenda work session on June 6.

Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney’s salary will be increased to $950 per month. Council members’ individual salaries will be increased to $500 per month. Hamblen County Commission and Hamblen County Board of Education members’ salaries were increased in FY23.

The Mayor and members of Council will also each receive an annual supplement of $50, along with an annual longevity payment of $25 for the first year in office, with $5 added for every year of service thereafter. The new pay structure will take effect July 1.

The Council voted disbursements totaling $341,500 to 20 nonprofit charitable and civic organizations.

The disbursements per organization are: ALPS $13,000; Boys & Girls Club of Morristown Inc. $26,500; The Child Advocacy Center $1,000; Girls, Inc. $15,000; Helping Hands Clinic, Inc. $7,125; Keep Morristown Hamblen Beautiful $19,950; MATS $8,000; M-H Child Care Centers $23,925; Rose Center $13,000; Senior Citizens Center $48,625; Stepping Out Inc. $5,000; McNabb Center $32,875; Morristown’s Task Force on Diversity / HOLA $16,000; M-H Imagination Library Advisory Council $5,000; Friends of Hospice of the Lakeway Area $10,000; Holston United Methodist Home for Children/Hope & Thrive Academy $2,500; Morristown Composite SQ Civil Air Patrol 2,500; Safe Space $10,000; Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce $71,500; Crockett Tavern Museum $10,000.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the Morristown City Council also voted to appropriate additional funds for the Fiscal Year 2023 in relation to to a purchase of land (the former Home Lumber site) various operational needs, an increase in Hotel/Motel Tax and, and a grant-funded airport project; and to appropriate and establish the funding source for each appropriation via the General Fund.

Additional funds were also approved for necessary vehicle repairs and salary-related items via the Solid Waste Fund.

In other business, Council voted to approve the annexation of a portion of a parcel into the corporate limits of Morristown by applicant Sandip Patel on behalf of property owner John Bell. The approximate 10 acres are located between Merchants Green Boulevard and South Bellwood Road.

Patel requested a High Density Residential District (R-3) zoning designation in order to place a multi-family development.

The annexation approval would result in a “donut hole” as there will be an adjacent parcel not within the City limits but surrounded completely by the city. Morristown Utilities owns the parcel in question and has agreed – as discussed in the Morristown Regional Planning Commission meeting on June 13 – to request for annexation also with the R-3 zoning as it does allow public utilities as a use permitted. A plan of services for the Bell property was also approved by Council, as it had been voted by MRPC during its meeting to include: police, fire, water, sanitary sewer and electrical, along with other city services.