I met last Monday, March 10th with Mr. George Piper who is directing the McCarty, Hopsaple and McCarty Task Force study of our downtown. The objective of that study is to develop a plan for its renovation and revitalization. Mr. Piper and I went over some ideas that he had collected from interviewing some of our citizens and amazingly, his list and my list coincided to a great extent. And he especially liked my idea of a restaurant with a canopied balcony and tables out over the sidewalk somewhere in the downtown. That would certainly be an attraction.

His firm will sponsor an open forum this Tuesday, March 18th (6:30 PM - 8:00 PM) to allow for input from all of our citizens. (City Hall). I hope that there is a good turnout for the forum which can serve to build interest and momentum for our goal of accomplishing a lot of improvements in our town and area during April and throughout the spring and summer seasons. The Task Force would especially like those with whom they have already talked to attend the meeting. But everyone is invited and all input is welcome.

The Trail Keepers earlier committed to furnish workers and equipment and to voluntarily help us free of charge in restoring one building needing repair . (We already have a building in mind if we can receive permission from the owner). And an out-of-town business has agreed to donate the paint needed to paint that structure.

We are starting to get more and more local participation as well. John Leach has informed me that he plans to get involved in our April project in a big way by painting two buildings at the corner of North Main Street and Fifth Street and to place nice fabric awnings on both. That will be a major contribution and will add immeasurably to the appearance of that area as motorists enter our town from the direction of the Interstate as well as coming down North Main Street from the state line.

John Fawaz of Financial Partners of Tennessee with an office in Jellico, has been coordinating with Tourism Director Jake Bennett and Park Ranger Jerome Cummins to hold a 'HEALTH WALK" at Indian Mountain State Park on Saturday morning, April 12th (9:00 AM) Purpose of the walk is to help place added emphasis upon our special "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Month". Fawaz will personally obtain sponsorships, organize and conduct the event. In addition to the health and social aspects, free entertainment and refreshments will also be available at one of the park shelters. There will be no charge for anything - but donations will be accepted and any funds that are raised from the walk will be given to the city of Jellico for helping us in our efforts to "spruce up".

That is the type of spirit and involvement that we need and the idea of a special month appears to be catching on with a lot of folks. Eudell Sowder, who says that she and her husband Charles faithfully read these articles every week, likes my idea of planting flowering trees in town and throughout our area. And she has been attempting to locate young planting stock - either free of charge or at a very low price - and getting the information out to the public before April 1st.. According to Eudell the state of Tennessee has such a program but their supply has been exhausted. (Federal forestry will also be contacted.) But she says that residents of Kentucky Hill, Black Oak, Boston and all of Whitley County can obtain very inexpensive small trees including dogwoods by contacting David Perry at 549-1430.

( Speaking of a faithful reader of these articles, Mrs. Ruth Sharp, Ivey Street, told me a few days ago that she had recently gone to Indiana on a visit and upon arrival, immediately went to work to locate a computer so that she wouldn't miss the current edition. Now that's dedication and I certainly appreciate her taking the time to pay me such an outstanding compliment. Comments like that make the effort worth while that is required every week to get these notes to our citizens as well as the out of town accessors on the Internet. The site counter has already recorded about 750 hits since January 25th.)

Getting back to our downtown renovation and revitalization, an area resident remarked to me a few days ago, "I believe that Jellico is finally going to get behind you in what you have been trying to do in Jellico for such a long time. Maybe they actually are getting serious about doing something to the downtown". People do notice the run down condition whether they live right in town or not!

I hope that she is absolutely correct in her assessment and that there is a spirit of cooperation and effort developing. We just need to ignore our resident critics, skeptics and "nay sayers" and keep right on "hammering" and building that spirit! April is almost here!

If you have been missing the activity in the Community Conference Room for the past several Saturday nights, then you have been missing some good entertainment from Bill Rigney, Angie Heatwole, Billy Elliott, Ron Dabney, Larry Meadows and others.

I don't know what the group's future schedule will be but they have built up a following of "regulars" that are going to miss them on non-performing Saturdays. (It won't be too long now until we can move back to the stage in Veterans Park for outdoor entertainment.)

The March/April edition of the tourism publication, "Tennessee Festival", printed in Abingdon, Virginia has included some of our Jellico activities - possibly for the first time ever. The EROCC competition is mentioned and has been placed on its "Tennessee State Map of Events" that is generally of great interest to tourists.

Additionally publisher/editor Keith Robinson of the Tennessee Festival will be here on June 26th to see for himself just what all is taking place with EROCC as well as activities sponsored by the Tourism Commission . He is certainly most welcome and let's hope that we continue to attract the media to Jellico. We simply cannot get too much favorable publicity.

We are going to have plenty of activity taking place in Jellico and our area for the next few weeks. Some of the events planned prior to the Fourth of July include EROCC competition during the weekend of April 26-28; a Nisson Club Mountain Ride May 2,3,4; the Jellico Student Government activity sometime during the month of May; a Trail Keepers Mountain Ride May 23-25; annual classic car show on June 21; EROCC competition on June 27-29..

And the Cupp family is doing its usual great job of rounding up outstanding gospel groups for our Fourth of July observance. (Some loved last year's singing so much that they have already been asking what groups we will have this year). Reports are that some of the top gospel singers anywhere in the country will enter this year's line-up and they should attract media attention as well. (In fact three days will be required to complete the entire planned program.) Local area groups will perform on Thursday, July 3rd followed by national gospel and national blue grass gospel "headliners" on Friday, July 4th and Saturday, July 5th..

John Fawaz, Steve Morgan, Tom Barclay and possibly others knowledgeable in the field, will conduct a series of "Financial Planning Sessions" later this spring that will be free of charge to the public. (Community Conference Room). The sessions will run for six (6) weeks and be offered on May 1st, May 8th, May 15th, May 22nd, May 29th and June 5th.

That's a generous offer and a fine service that would cost a good sum if those fellows required a fee.

In addition to the meeting with the Downtown Revitalization Task Force on Monday, March 10th, I also attended the meeting at Jellico High School that evening concerning selection of our next Campbell County Director of Schools. There was a good crowd considering the fact that several other activities were taking place around town and there was a very good discussion among those in attendance. (We had at least three members of the Board of Education from the Lafollette/Jacksboro/Caryville area in addition to our representative J.L. "Sarge" Collins. Bo Buckner was prevented from attending due to the athletic banquet taking place at Jellico Elementary School at the exact same time.)

There was a lot of give and take from a large percentage of those in the audience. I expressed my strong belief that we badly need an instructional leader and I further believe that finding and hiring one is crucial. The nation's focus is now on academics and it needs to be there locally. That was not the place nor the time to go into great detail about what is needed for overall improvement in the Campbell County School System. But I wrote in an issue several weeks ago that we need genuine reform in all systems - local, state, and nation. The federally mandated "No Child Left Behind" has made it imperative that we do things differently in the future - and the system and state in which I presently work has already implemented most of the measures designed to bring about the needed changes. And those measures are working! Kentucky now ranks third in the entire nation in improving its school system - falling only behind New York and Florida with their superior financial resources. Compare that to only a few years ago when Kentucky ranked in the very bottom tier of states when its educational system was evaluated.

Under the federal legislation such factors as poor socio-economic conditions, family background, lack of funding, low teacher pay, etc. will no longer be acceptable as reason(s) for failing to educate every child. Whether we agree with those provisions or not, they are now the law that governs public education throughout our country. The day is gone when teachers can report to school each day at 7:45 AM, leave at 3:00 PM and meet the presently required student achievement levels. It is crucial that new teachers coming into the profession understand that fact.

And as I have written before and strongly believe, we simply cannot pay good teachers enough. But in that same light, every system has poor teachers that are already overpaid and a detriment to their school(s). More importantly, they are a detriment to their students.

Bob Daniel has released the schedule for the annual series of "Old Timer" baseball games. April 5th, May 26th, May 17th, June 7th, June 28th, July 19th, August 16th, September 13th to be followed by picnic at Indian Mountain State Park, and October 18th . All games start at 1:00 PM. (The August 16th game is the date of the Pruden reunion and that event along with the baseball game brings in a lot of former residents of that once thriving mining community.)

Gene Tye will sure be glad that baseball is starting back up. Those who know Gene know that he not only dearly loves the game but that he was once an outstanding power hitter. In fact he can still hit some shots.

Last summer I became convinced that Gene would also make a great teacher. At least he taught me a valuable lesson! He has always swung from the heels but in one game, I had to play first base and in deference to my age and slowed reaction time, he started popping the ball to the outfield. In my ignorance I began encouraging him to take his full cuts while at bat - and during one trip to the plate, he took me up on my request. His liner literally screamed as it passed my ear and I didn't even have time to move - let alone attempt to catch it. (I immediately became very concerned for his health and asked him to go back to popping the ball to the outfield. I just didn't want to be responsible for his possibly injuring himself from swinging his bat so hard.)

JOHN CLIFTON, Mayor, City of Jellico www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm with link to "Mayor"