The Kannapolis City Clerk, Bridgette Bell, is retiring after serving the City for 37 years. Bridgette has worked with six Mayors, 21 City Council members and four City Managers. She has recorded the minutes of over 1,700 city council meetings. The City recently celebrated its 40th birthday of incorporation and Bridgette has been with the City for almost the entirety of the City’s lifespan.
“I have had the pleasure of meeting lots of amazing people and forming lifelong friendships, both in the private sector and internally with my co-workers. It is with mixed emotions that I say goodbye, but on the other hand I am excited that I can finally start doing the things that I always said I was going to do, but never actually got around to doing,” she said.
Bridgette was hired in the fall of 1987 through a temp agency by Gene McCombs, who was the City Manager, at that time. He asked her to “tryout” the position of clerk and she never looked back. She was permanently employed soon after. There had been one clerk prior to Bridgette assuming the position. In the early years, there were few city employees and Bridgette wore many hats including finance, payroll, reconciling bank statements, entering water and sewer receipts and maintaining all the City Council, Board of Adjustment, and Planning and Zoning meeting agendas and minutes.
Three decades later Bridgette attends every City Council meeting, preparing the agendas and recording the minutes. She coordinates calendars for City Council members, handles public records requests, fields calls from the public and much more. Additionally, she handles updates to City ordinances, tracks City Council resolutions and signing of contracts and official documents.
“Bridgette has been an integral part of Kannapolis for 37 years. She has touched nearly every important document we have generated as a City since our incorporation in 1984. Bridgette has recorded the minutes of 1,700 council meetings and witnessed many historical moments and milestones as we evolved as City. She will be greatly missed but her retirement is much deserved, and we wish her the very best in this new chapter in her life,” Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg commented.
She is a native of Kannapolis and a graduate of A.L. Brown High School. She has earned the prestigious designation of Certified Municipal Clerk and Master Municipal Clerk and has served on the board of the N.C. Association of Municipal Clerks.
She is married to Larry and looks forward to traveling with him in their retirement.
Bridgette was honored for her years of service at the Kannapolis City Council meeting with a proclamation of thanks and appreciation as well as a resolution honoring her service by the N.C. Association of Municipal Clerks.