It was Christmas music to an accountant's ears as Middleburg's Town Council broke into applause on November 5, when the Town's auditor, Mitchell and Company of Leesburg, concluded their delivery of this year's preliminary audit for fiscal year 2006-2007.

As smiling Council members clapped their hands and nodded approval Mayor Betsy Davis expressed special thanks to Town Administrator Jerry Schiro, Town Treasurer, Debbie Jewell, and to Claudia Dornin, the Town's former Economic Development Manager, who had served as interim Town Administrator for nearly six months, before Schiro's arrival.

In stark contrast to last year's premature predictions of massive shortfalls, this year Mitchell and Company reported a healthy $394,068 surplus in the Town's General Fund, as of June 30, 2007.

In last year's "sobering" preliminary audit, Mitchell predicted that Middleburg's General Fund would be some $94,000 in the red for 2006, reflecting what was then believed to be a negative shift, in one year, of some $718,000.

Mayor Betsy Davis worked with Dornin, Schiro, Jewell, and a Council that eventually included three new members, to institute tighter oversight procedures, spending cuts, and a series of revenue enhancements, including selective tax increases, new taxes and fees, higher rates for some town services, and formal annexation of the Salamander properties on the north side of Town, roughly doubling the town's taxable acreage.

After reconstructing records, pursuing uncollected funds owed to the Town by the State, and other measures, the actual deficit for 2006 turned out to be only $54,777.

Increased tax revenues and prepayments of fees by Salamander Development since June 30, have put the Town firmly in the black, with a restored cash reserve large enough to consider shifting part of it to higher interest bearing investments.