We conducted some business affairs at the special call meeting of January 6th including the council's approval of a new drug testing policy for employees and prospective employees. But the main item of business was the proposed hiring of a city administrator (CA). Councilman Alvin Evans made a motion to return to the old mayor/council form of government. Councilman Jim Dobson seconded the motion. The motion failed with Councilmen Bill Barton, Allen McClary, Lonnie Vann, and Jerry Neal voting no.
A motion by Councilman Allen McClary to hire Bill Partin for the job was delayed due to the request of Alvin Evans who said that he had not had an opportunity to talk to Partin. Dobson said that he too had not been contacted about any meetings with Partin. A motion to hire Betty Hurst on an interim basis was also delayed since she had to be absent from the meeting. Indications were given that Partin will probably be officially hired by the council during the regular January meeting (this Thursday night).
A long discussion followed in which City Attorney Jeff Hall made it clear that once the city administrator is in place, that councilmen will not legally have jurisdiction over deparments and personnel. According to Hall, the mayor will now be a "figure head". The mayor and council will only legally set policies, approve the budget and basically meet once a month for those and other "housekeeping" chores. A member of the audience arose to say that if that is the case, then we do need a city council or mayor. He stated that he had once been a strong supporter of a city admistrator but since it has been made clear to him exactly how the arrangement will work, that he now equally strongly opposes the position. He said the move effectively kills the need to even have elections. Someone else stated after the meeting that a lot of other citizens have similarly changed their minds and now oppose the CA position. (That is the reaction that I have been receiving from our citizens as well).
Councilman McClary explained that the city will be run as a business. But a group who gathered outside the buildidng folllowing the meeting commented that we do not want our town to be a business but that we want it to remain a community where everyone can feel a part.
Councilman Barton was reminded during the meeting that he had been one of the most vocal opponents of the city administrator but now favors it. Barton agreed but said that he feels he must abide by the law since it is in the charter. But it was again pointed out that changing the charter back to its original form is a simple matter requiring only four votes of the council and sending a request to the Tennessee State Legislative session at any time before it recesses. (As reported above, Barton, Neal, McClary and Vann had just voted against that action.) The old mayor/council form of government could be in place and functioning prior to June 1st if the council majority had voted for that action.
This article was written and forwarded to the Advance-Sentinel shortly after last week's edition hit the news stands. So I had no way of knowing what the outcome would be at that time. A group of citizens has announced a meeting for (Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000) to work for a return to the old form of city government. I was not an organizer of that event and I plan to take no leadership role with the group. I will attend the meeting as an interested citizen just as I attend every community function that I possibly can. But I want to say publicly that I agree with their goal of returning to our original mayor/council form of government. I have been advocating that action for many months now. I am still evaluating what course of action I will take if a CA is hired. I did not run for the office of mayor to be a figure head (even though I did favor hiring a CA at that time), meet once a month and then forget about the city for another month. I don't believe the people elected me for that purpose either.
I will continue to evaluate my position but I do not have plans to resign as mayor. If the position is filled I will, in all probability, remain away from the municipal building so that I can not be accused of interfering with the new CA. As a " figurehead" I will have no real reason to be there except for the third Thursday night of the month when I will attend to call the meeting to order and to read off the agenda. In light of the city attorney's statement and without the authority of the mayor's position, I simply cannot take the chance with liability to carry through on any more plannned projects. And with no specific duties and no authority, all that I could do at the municipal building would be to get in the way of the CA. I would be in a lose/lose situation.
Before leaving the subject of the city administrator, I want to make it perfectly clear that my remarks are in no way directed toward Mr. Bill Partin. I was introduced to him at one of our downtown activities and he impressed me as the type of person that we need to hire if indeed we must hire someone. He would have been my choice for the job although I never saw the other applications. I have known Mr. Partin's family for many years and he has the added appeal of growing up in our area. If the four councilmen are determined to hire someone, he would be a good choice. I do not believe that they could have found a better candidate than Mr. Partin. I wish him nothing but the greatest success in the job if he is hired.
And Betty Hurst would be the ideal person to serve on an interim basis and could perform the job on a permanent basis. She knows the city's business affairs better than any other individual due to her years of experience.
I am neither naive enough nor egotistical enough not to realize that there are individuals that can accomplish as mush as I can accomplish and possibly more. I only want the best for Jellico and if someone can provide that better than I, then they should be placed in the position. And they will experience no resentment and/or interference on my part. But I can honestly say that I have done everything that was humanly possible for me to do during the past two years and I am proud of what has been accomplished although it clearly made absolutely no impressiion upon the four councilmen.
I stated last week that I had looked forward to spring and getting some projects underway designed to continue to improve our town and someone asked me exactly what projects that I had in mind. The list is long but some things that I and some members of the council had hoped to accomplish before next fall include: scheduling and contracting of extensive street repairs and resurfacing; complete cleaning of the old Presbyterian Church and establishing its usage; establishing of policies, rules and fees for utilization of the new "community conference room" and to begin renting it out for public meetings and other functions (that may have already been accomplished); submission of grant application for funds to tear down the old city hall and replacing it with a single story "visitors center"; blacktopping of Veterans Park Annex parking lot; construction of public rest rooms in that area; erection of a decorative fence to separate tract I and tract II of Veterans Park Annex and opening of a "citizens/farmers market"; working with the Community Health and Development Team to obtain seasonal/decorative banners for the downtown area; working with the Rescue Squad to obtain funds to complete exterior of the squad hall, doing landscaping and preparing caboose for summer use; conducting our second annual "clean-up, paint-up, fix-up week" during week of May 22-27; continuing work on renovation of downtown buildings; painting of the metal awning over the sidewalk on North Main Street; resuming our summer time activities on Friday and Saturday nights; scheduling one or more of the "old fashioned nights" that was so successful last year; working out the traffic, parking and other details that would have enabled us to move all of the Fourth of July activities to the downtown area; continuing with plans for sidewalk improvements/walking trails that have already been approved; placement of the spectator benches in Veterans Park Annex; working toward closing the open ditch on South Main Street that has been approved; continuing to work for a "miners' monument" for Veterans Park; and continuing to work for correction of the median problem on our four-lane highway.
And of course, we had planned to keep working to attract an occupant for the vacant factory building at the industrial park and where possible, to assist those who are interested in the industrial development for southern Whitley County and the proposed "reserve on Jellico Mountain".
I talked last week with Mr. Mike Smith of Walmart in Lafollette. He has granted $1,500.00 to the Jellico Rescue Squad on behalf of Walmart (Mike lives in Jellico). He has been very good to help our town including some other public service organizations. His help is greatly appreciated and I want to publicly thank him for that help.
Mike is another one of our citizens that has seen progress and has stated on several occasions that he wanted to help with that progress where ever he could.
I recently lost two good friends in Mr. Hobert Stephens with whom I worked at Jellico High School and Mr. John Louis Turnblazer whom we used to call "Mr. Jellico".
I was out of town part of the time during the New Year holidays and was unaware of the passing of Hobert until I saw his obituary in the newspaper. He was a wonderful man who did a lot for our school and he meant a lot to both the Jellico and Newcomb communities. We had a lot of great times working together and after his retirement that I will never forget and I will always remember him.
John Louis Turnblazer had resided in Corbin for the past several years. But for all intents and purposes, he still "lived" in Jellico - coming back to town anytime that he could find an excuse to do so and sometimes without any excuse other than the fact that he missed Jellico so badly. In fact his wife told me recently that she sometimes wondered which town he actually considered home.
John was active for many years in the Local American Legion Post and in our Jellico High School Alumni Association. He was constantly calling and writing former Jellico High School students and other former Jellico residents. If you wanted to know where some former Jellicoan now lives, chances are John could tell you. It will take a while for me to discontinue looking for him in Hardees almost every Saturday morning and especially Saturday mornings before a Tennessee football game. A great Vol fan, he always wanted to meet Phil Fulmer and I finally had an opportunity to introduce them. They talked for some time and John told me several times that was really a high point for him.
The great number of Jellico citizens and former citizens that attended the wake, the funeral and the graveside service, demonstrated the vast number that called John friend. Some came from great distances to honor his memory. The Jellico High homecomings just won't seem the same without him.
The veterans list this week includes Ernest Carpenter, Clarence Carpenter, Abe Carpenter, Sam Carpenter, Edd Lee Frazier, Junior Flowers, Sonny Turner, Bobby Greenlee, Kent Goins, George Carpenter, James Zecchini, Sammy Wenders, James E. "Willy" Smith, Sam Davenport, Charley Campbell, Gene Gault, Harry Gault, Jesse Gault, Audrey McNealy, Spencer Eugene Douglas, Floyd Long, Jerome Hill, Chalk Brown, Earl Lawson, Morris Carroll, Gene Carroll, Elmer Carroll, A.J. Poole, Riley Troxell, Earl Fredericks, Clifford Draper, James Herbert Sexton, Tonya Moses, Jean Hicks, Barton Siler, Joe Siler, James H. Siler, Billy Jean Lamb, Ronnie Daugherty, Danny Walden.
It seems a little lonely around the Municipal Building since Mike's Graphics has moved to the building that formerly housed "Bowlin's Pizza" on Bowlin Strait. Mike was very good to help with community projects and sometimes did them free of charge to the city when requested to do so.
I hope that he will continue his interest in what we are attempting to do to improve our town and I also hope that he will be very successful in his new location.
Congratulations are in order for former Jellico resident and an old school mate of mine, Reverend Arlie Bill Petree. Rev. Arlie now has one of his songs at the top of the gospel music charts. His "Roll That Burden on Me" was recorded by the famous gospel group, "The McKameys" and it recently reached the number one position on the best seller list.
Rev. Arlie lived on South Main Street when we were growing up and I remember his love for country music singers Hank Williams and Hank Snow. They inspired him to write songs even then. But he later began writing only gospel. He has now written over 500 songs including three that were recorded by the McKameys and several by the famous southern gospel quartet, "The Inspirations". One that he personally recorded, "Through the Open Window" was a hit during the 1960's. He has had as many as six different songs on the "Top 80 Gospel Chart" at one time.
Rev. Arlie says that he has tried to quit writing three or four times but just can't quit. He was quoted in the Church of God, Mountain Assembly Gospel Herald as saying that "the words just continually come" and that he even writes songs while his wife Jean is shopping. But he adds that it is inspiring to receive calls from such people as former Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis, recording star Betty Jean Robinson, and from all those who record his songs and who appreciate his music.
FINAL NOTE:
Last week I stated that I would continue this column as long as my health and available time would allow me to do so or until such time as our citizens indicated that they prefer that I stop. However that was before I was "broadsided" with the declaration that my mayor's position will now be only a figurehead. I must now change last week's statement to the fact that I will continue this column until the new city administrator is hired and then discontinue it at that time. As I said above, I am presently in a lose/lose situation.
There will simply not be enough information available for me to continue after the CA assumes his office. If I report positive actions that the CA is taking, I will most likely be charged with taking credit for what he is doing. If I report upon any negative situations, those same individuals can accuse me of working against the CA and using this column against him which I certainly will not do under any circumstances. If a CA is hired, I urge our citizens to support him in his efforts to improve our town.
But I do hope that the new CA will publish his own weekly column and do a weekly radio program since our people need to know what takes place with the city's business. Not having a newspaper located in Jellico means that we must collect our own news in most instances and furnish it to the Advance-Sentinel in Lafollette. But we do have our own radio station that has always been extremely willing to do public service as has our local cable TV outlet. I am sure that all three media sources will work with him just as they have worked with me.
Since this could be my last column, I want to thank everyone who has read it directly from the paper and from the internet and who have passed so many compliments to me concerning its content. I greatly hope that it has been informative and enjoyable and although it is time consuming during a time when I am holding down a full time job in addition to working the job of being mayor, I will miss doing it in the future. I certainly never intended it to be a means for self promotion and propaganda as charged by the four councilmen and I sincerely apologize if my readers considered it to be that. My intention for this column was to be "Jellico promoting".
And without fail, I want to thank every single citizen who has tried to help in what I worked to accomplish - whether they voted for me or not. That was never a consideration with me. I just wanted to work with everyone to improve our town. In the views of the four councilmen I failed. But it was not due to lack of effort and if I must give up the mayor's authority, I do so with a completely clear conscience that I did everything possible to keep the commitment that I made to our citizens when I was seeking the office.
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