Our regular City Council meeting for January had to be delayed until this Wednesday evening January 22nd (7:00 PM) due to the weather conditions last Thursday night. Neither the press nor the auditor could get here for the meeting that night and we felt that both needed to be present - especially the independent auditor from Knoxville who will give us our official report of audit for the last fiscal year. As I reported earlier, I along with Linda Meadors and Betty Hurst, were given preliminary information concerning the report but the finalized version is now complete and ready for presentation to the Mayor/Council in open meeting.

We would have preferred to have this special meeting on an evening rather than Wednesday but there were so many conflicts in the schedules of everyone involved that no other date could be worked out that would allow for maximum attendance by myself, members of Council and everyone scheduled to be involved in the meeting. And even then, some may have difficulty in attending.

Note: I want to remind everyone that all regular meetings of the Council start at 7:30 PM and all special call meetings begin at 7:00 PM according to long standing custom.

Several including one out-of-towner, commented to me that our city crews did a good job in keeping our streets open during the recent snow - especially our main thoroughfares. One local businessman stated that the only streets that he found that had not been touched were on Kentucky Hill and our folks can't go outside our city limits.

Certaily not all streets could be worked that first night but by the time that I got out on Friday following the previous night's snowfall, virtually every street that I drove was close to completely clear. According to Councilman and Street Commissioner Clarence Gene Beck, the snow kept falling in spurts and forcing retracing of the routes and the crews are to be complimented for a job well done! (I wish that I could say the same about the job that I did clearing my own drive way. But it's long and was still covered with snow and ice when this article was written. I've been trying to think of an excuse to give Jenny.) But like men getting haircuts, the crews have got to get ready to do it all over again!

The entire $ 50,000.00 grant is now on hand and "The Committee for Downtown Revitalization" has let the contract for the study of our downtown to determine the best way to carry out proposed renovation and revitalization of that area. And I am anxious to see the results of that study and exactly what recommendations are made.

The group selected to do the survey says that they will attempt to obtain as much community involvement as they can and I am glad to hear that. Our folks need to participate in developing any plans since we will have to have everybody involved from start to finish if we are going to accomplish our objective of bringing our town back to life!

I have not yet discussed the improvements at length with Johnny Baird that are being made on the building next to Jellico Drug Store on South Main Street. But I understand that work is planned for both the interior and the exterior of that building and to be completed by spring - which will coincide with our plans for a major push at that time to bring about renovation of several downtown structures that so badly need repairs.

And I have been told that at least one building owner has possibly contracted for work to be done on the exterior of his building and I sure hope that that report is correct. But as I have stated so many times in the past, we need for everybody to get involved. The spirit is growing once again that we can bring our town back and we need to keep that spirit going!

Although not all activities that are planned for Jellico during the next several months are organized and conducted by the Jellico Tourism Commission, a large percentage of them are and Tourism Director Jake Bennett is in the process of compiling a master schedule to include at least one activity per month. That too will be a big help in attracting folks back downtown. (The first entertainment scheduled for last Saturday night also had to be cancelled due to the weather. But watch the community bulletin board for future activities for the Community Conference Room.)

I personally will not be satisfied until we get several new businesses back in the area and especially that "community" restaurant where folks can meet everyday and solve the problems of the world. I sure don't want to detract from any existing restaurants but it would be good to have a central location downtown where our folks could gather throughout the day. Most small towns have a "watering hole" and it does a lot to build a sense of community in those towns.

Throughout the years we had civic organizations that maintained that feeling of community, e.g. Lions Club, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Jaycees, Garden Club, etc. Most if not all are gone now leaving a vacuum and we badly need something to promote that feeling once more.

I understand that Jim Arnold plans to come before the Council and ask for permission to sponsor a Carnival to benefit an activity at Jellico Elementary School (possibly the football team) and to locate it on city property near the baseball field. Many of us can remember when we had Carnivals every year (and even Circuses many years ago) and folks always looked forward to them. We haven't had a Carnival in quite a spell although towns around us still have them. I hope the Council will give its permission and that there is good attendance - since proceeds will benefit a school activity. (The Whitley County High football team annually sponsors a Carnival right on the school grounds.)

I recently received the following e-mail from Tim Rettig, ERoCC official: "John, Thanks for the mention in your most recent column! You bet we are working to make this year even better than last year. We just had a booth in the Cincinatti Cavalcade of Customs promoting ERoCC. Over 50,000 people attended the car show and saw our booth featuring pictures and videos from the events in Jellico. There is a four page article in the March issue of "4 Wheel Drive & Sports Utility Magazine", so make sure you watch for it. I will drop one by for Jake this weekend when I am in town meeting with Robert (Cox)." (Tim's address is tjrettig@perfectlan.com should anyone want to contact him.)

The car show and magazine article are great publicity for us and as I stated in the referenced column, the ERoCC competition has the potential to develop into a real "happening" in Jellico and White Oak. It brings in a lot of awfully nice folks and we need to support it to the greatest extent possible.

As I often mention, our Jellico websites on the Internet are grabbing the attention of countless folks from around the country and from even outside our country. And several talk about former residents. A granddaughter of Will Harkness, Louanna Harkness Freeman, USA only residence listed Lfre966301@aol.com signed on to mention her family. I understand that the Harkness family helped to build Jellico by establishing and operating a dairy, our telephone company (before it was sold to Southern Bell) and our electric system (before we switched to the Tennessee Valley Authority for our electric power). And Jellico Hich School graduate Billy Harkness was an outstanding football player at the University of Tennessee, elected as General Neyland's first captain and served on his coaching staff following graduation - helping Neyland to build the Vols into a national football power.

B.J. Walden of Yoakum, Texas (bjwalden@awsomenet.net) inquired as to why M.L. Wheeler has never been mentioned in the historical notes about Jellico. Wheeler was the contractor who built and developed many of our area roads and highways. And he was also an officer (possibly president) of the old First National Bank (now offices of Netlink) next to the Post Office.

And a grandson of Frank "Bulldog" McCurry living in Wyandotte, Michigan whose address is frankmccurry@wyan.org came on line wanting to know if anyone remembers his grandfather as a Jellico High School athlete. (I do not personally remember him but some who do including George Wilson and Curt Weaver, have told me that he was truly an outstanding player. And he was unanimously voted to the All-Time Jellico High School Football Team that was selected many years ago. Only a hand full of other former players received all votes cast for that team including Herman Land, Dave Speaks, George "Walshy" Redmond and possibly two or three more. But if an all-time team were selected today, Tommy Bowlin, Jr. (and possibly Tommy, Sr.) would almost certainly have to be unanimously included in that category based upon their record breaking performances.

One very interesting request comes from Robert Baynes, Citrus Heights, California, located at 111725@msn.com who was a soldier on the troop train that wrecked at High Cliff. He is attempting to locate a newspaper story of that accident and I hope that someone will contact him as to where he might be able to obtain a copy of the account (or possibly the book about that tragedy, "She Jumped the Tracks"). I am sure that it would mean a lot to him to have someone furnish him that information.

But the really encouraging thing about the large number of responses on our websites is the fact that so many folks from all over comment on how much they like our area and our people as they pass through. In fact some write that they either plan to move here or would like to live here. We can't get much better advertisement than that!

All of the favorable publicity that we have on the Net just helps to sell our town and our area. Let's just hope that some industries looking for a place to relocate find and access our sites. They will find some awfully favorable enticements if they do - especially at www.jellico.tn.us

The Lafollette Press has recently been doing some very positive articles about what we are trying to accomplish in Jellico. And the current staff of the Jellico Advance Sentinel say that they are making an effort to restore that publication to a true "Jellico paper" once again - which would be the first time in many years. They state that they genuinely want to cover our news and activities and that certainly is a welcome change from past practice. As I have written many times in the past, the Advance-Sentinel, after it was moved from Jellico to Lafollette, often reported everything but Jellico area news. We sometimes did not see a representative of that paper in Jellico for periods of weeks and even months.

The staff has invited me to once again resume publishing these articles in that paper. They apparently feel that the popularity of these notes would help to stimulate local readers to again purchase and read the Advance-Sentinel while at the same time helping me in accomplishing the printing and distribution.

I plan to give careful consideration to that request but with stipulations. I would not want cutting of my articles except in situations where space limitations absolutely require such reduction in column length - and only then with my concurrence; I would not want anyone deciding what I can and cannot write since this is a personal column as well as news notes; and I would insist upon careful proof-reading for accuracy by staff personnel after any recopying. But if everything can be worked out, I may once again submit my writing to the Advance-Sentinel for publication in that paper. I would love to see the Advance-Sentinel once again become a Jellico newspaper as it was intended to be when it was founded in the 1880's - as well as continuing the distinction of being Campbell County's oldest publishing newspaper. That is a tradition that needs to be maintained and some of us have not given up hope that it can someday be purchased by someone in Jellico and returned to its rightful home!