The Tennessee Legislature, along with numerous environmentally involved citizens and organizations, have become increasingly concerned about the growing problem with littering throughout the state.
Anti-littering commercials are being run on local radio and television stations; litter control officers are being hired by County Commissions and instructed to issue citations; and local judges, including our own newly elected General Sessions Judge Joe Ayers, are becoming more inclined to level fines for those who are officially charged and convicted of littering.
Legislation is expected to be proposed in the current session of the legislature to raise fines that can be assessed for littering from $ 500.00 to $ 1,000.00. And under that proposal, both individuals and businesses can receive citations for violations.
The Campbell County Commission has hired Mr. Glennis Monday as the Campbell County Litter Control Officer based upon his long and demonstrated efforts to see the highways and roads in Campbell County cleared of litter along Highway US-25W near Morley for several years and has been active in helping to organize and conduct voluntary "pick up litter" days throughout the county. He is very knowledgeable concerning regulations dealing with littering and was a very good choice for the job.
Since his appointment to the position, officer Monday and crews from the Campbell County Sheriff's Office's "Work Release Program" have been working all over Campbell County to clean up areas with long standing problems and to keep them clean. The crews recently cleared the always littered Sandy Beach area along 25-W only to find several bags of garbage thrown there a few days later. A search of the bags revealed a name and that individual has been cited to court. Monday says that he will continue to issue similar citations until the problem shows dramatic improvement.
The crews spent several days working the Jellico area and collected 47 large bags of rubbish the very first day. Monday and the crews plan to continue to work in this area as much as his schedule will allow.
We appreciate the help of officer Monday and his crews and we hope that everyone will cooperate with their efforts to clean up the local environment.
Our own recycling program is doing very well as evidenced by the decreased monthly amount that the city is now paying to the landfill. But we are severely limited in the amount that we can recycle at the present time because our small building stays full to capacity.
We recently completed a small expansion of the building but the extra space basically only provided for protecting the baling machine by getting it inside and out of the weather.
However, Sanitation Committee Chairman Bill Barton is currently searching for a larger building that will enable Bruce Recycling to process a greatly increased volume and begin the door-to-door collection of recyclable items.
We will have a "Clean up, Fix up, Paint up" week during the week of May 3-8, 1999. Eventually all of the efforts will begin to make a visible improvement in both Jellico and surrounding areas.
I recently met with Vicky Smith, Representative of Norfolk Southern Railway, and I showed her the open storm sewer on South Main Street (in front of Jellico Drug/Llewellyn Furniture Store/Family Drug).
Hopefully we can get something done this summer about getting that ditch closed. It is unsightly, unhealthy and has been the scene of at least two or three vehicle accidents.
Closing the ditch would greatly improve the appearance of that area and we also might be able to provide parking for two or three additional vehicles along that street.
I have been asked when I plan to do another report on our downtown renovation project. Little work of that nature is done during the winter months so I have not talked with downtown property owners and merchants since early November.
But spring is just around the corner and we will again start working on that project within the next few weeks.
We have had a couple of inquiries from out-of-town businesses concerning the availblility of our city owned building located next to the municipal building. We have invited both to come to Jellico to inspect the building and to look over our town as a possible site for relocation.
However everything is still in the talking stage with both parties but we will continue to work with those contacts and any others that we can locate who might be interested in bringing jobs to Jellico.
Last week I ran information concerning the city's contract with our new City Administrator, Mr. Mike Jones. several have also asked me to include some personal information about Mr. Jones.
Mike Jones was born in Bristol, Tennessee and will be 36 years old in July. He attended East Tennessee State University for both his Bachelors Degree (1993) and his Masters Degree (1995). (Areas of study included Communications and Public Relations). He has been working for an agency in Virginia that is very similar to the development districts in Tennessee.
He is married to the former Dede West of Bristol, Virginia and they have one daughter, Kennedy, who is 3 years old.
Final Note:
I will never quit hoping that someone will open a restaurant in the downtown area that will have good food and a pleasant atmosphere.
Our new city building (Trammell Building Replacement) with the library, Office of Tourism and Community Conference Room located there, should attract potential customers to that area as have the two new dollar stores and the existing businesses located downtown.
As buildings are renovated and occupied, even more employees and customers become possible patrons of a restaurant. And there is even the possibility that enough people visiting a restaurant would also shop at the existing businesses and stimulate opening of new ones.
When I was a high school student in the early and mid-1950's we had "Lois's restaurant" with those great hot dogs; "Melda's Restaurant" noted for home cooked meals; "Tibby's Restaurant" where you could get those big hamburgers with even bigger french fries; and the "Central Drug Store" and "Smith's Drug Store" with soda fountains and serving sandwiches on toasted bread. And a juke box and pinball machine were almost always in play in most of them.
It is hard for me to imagine growing up in Jellico today with no similar attractions in the downtown area. The kids are missing something!!! We all are!!!
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