I have complained several times about Jake Bennett's inability to do much about the weather during some of our tourism activities. And now I find that the City Council and I are just as inept in that realm.

We have annually selected a week in April for our "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Week" and almost without fail, there has been rainy and/or very cool weather. This year we sat the entire month of April aside for that purpose and true to tradition, we have not yet had a break in the weather. But forecasts are beginning to look at least a little better for the last of this week and part of next week - if the weather professionals really do know more about it than Jake, the City Council and I seem to know. (According to Irving Berlin's once very popular song, "April showers bring May flowers". And I am sure that farmers are glad to be getting all of the moisture in the ground as a safeguard against the hot and dry summer periods.)

But this Saturday morning April 12th is predicted to be precipitation free and with crisp but not too cool morning temperatures during the scheduled period for the "HEALTH WALK". (Indian Mountain State Park starting at 9:00 AM). No charge for anything including participation, the "walking music" or refreshments consisting of soft drinks, water and fruit..)

The walk is sponsored by an individual, John Fawaz, along with financial sponsors Union Bank, Jellico Community Hospital, Wilkens Medical Group, Day Spring Family Health, Appalachian Health Services, and an anonymous donor, Jake Bennett, Larry Meadors and park personnel. It is designed to be a community activity and here's hoping that we have an excellent turnout. In addition to John, I certainly want to thank the listed sponsors, Jake, Larry and the park personnel for their all their help. We often complain that there is nothing to do in Jellico and participating in such activities as the community wide health walk may help to motivate folks to sponsor and conduct other such activities that are good for us all - including recreation, healthy exercise, opportunities to socialize and other positive benefits.

And a "Support Our Troops" type rally has been scheduled for this Saturday evening in our downtown Veterans Park. That activity will start at 7:00 PM and although the temperatures will probably have dropped at least some from the predicted high during the day of 68 degrees, it still should not be too cool for an outdoor activity starting at that time. However be sure to bring a sweater or jacket just in case.

But as someone stated when we were discussing having the rally, our troops go into extremely hot temperatures like those that are being experienced at the present time in Iraq. And they serve in the bitter cold of such places as Korea where winter temperatures sometime plunge to around the twenty-five degrees below zero level and stay there for days and weeks on end. So a little cool weather should not deter us! (Some want to carry through with it even if it is raining.)

A short patriotic type program is planned that will include an opening prayer, singing of our National Anthem; Pledge to the Flag; a minute of silence for our killed in action, prisoners of war, missing in action, and wounded in action; recognition of all known servicemen and servicewomen; recognition of our veterans, audience singing of patriotic songs such as "God Bless America", "America the Beautiful", "Battle Hymn of the Republic", and any comments and expressions of support and recognition for our troops and our country from those in attendance. The totally patriotic portion of the program will end with audience singing of "Amazing Grace".

Wear the red, white and blue and anyone wanting to bring photos, signs of support, American Flags and any other such items are encouraged to do so! (Veterans come in uniform or civilians.) There is absolutely nothing wrong with showing our patriotism and support for our troops who have their lives on the line.

Angie then plans to then sing some songs of tribute to troops of different areas of our country such as "Georgia On My Mind", "Sweet Home Alabama", and a number sure to warm the hearts of all troopers from Tennessee if they were here - what else but "Rocky Top"?

(Hopefully we will soon have all of our troops home safe and sound and it would be great if they can be here for our Fourth of July celebration. What a great time that would be to honor them. And wouldn't they make great grand marshals for our Christmas Parade?)

The group that has been providing our Saturday night entertainment will also perform following conclusion of the entire program. (Angie, Bill Rigney, Billy Elliott, Ronnie Dabney).

We have a bunch of activities planned for the next few weeks including: the quilting classes starting Saturday, April 26th; Eastern Rock Crawling Competition on April 25-27; the series of financial planning workshops starting May 1st; Nisson Club Mountain Ride May 2-4; the Jellico High School Student Council "Spring Sensation" on May 17th; Trailkeepers Mountain Ride May 23-25.

Note: I want to remind everyone that both the quilting lessons and the financial planning workshops ("Budgeting", "Insurance", "Retirement", "Taxation", "Estate Planning", "Investments" and "College Funding" will be completely free of charge. But John Fawaz will limit the number attending the workshops to twenty per session and he asks that those who are interested to please call him at 865/919-3489 or to call 784-9446 and ask for Helen.)

Someone signed on to the Internet to question whether the groups taking the mountain trail rides do damage to our local environment. But someone else immediately signed on to state emphatically that all those groups do to the environment is to improve it. (And Jake Bennett and I were amazed at how much of their meetings time is spent discussing ways to protect the local environment. They physically work to improve and preserve the trails and they often conduct litter "pick up" campaigns after usage. If all groups were as dedicated to preserving our environment as those, we would have no problem in that respect.)

Wanda Perkins, Director of the Mountain Women's Exchange (MWE) and a member of our Jellico Tourism Commission, was involved recently in two outstanding events in our town. The MWE is now working with the "Center of Hope" and "Feed the Children" programs and had a "grand opening" at the MWE Center on Saturday, April 5th to commemorate that arrangement. Attendance was estimated at something like 150 and food and entertainment were provided for the visitors to the opening.

The "feed the hungry" program is on-going and a food pantry will now be available to area citizens at the MWE center on Tuesday and Thursdays and as needed.

(Wanda and I also represented Jellico and our area at the kick-off ceremony for "National Victims of Crime Rights Week" conducted in Veterans Park on Monday, April 7th..)

I am in receipt of notification that the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Forestry Division plans to conduct a gypsy moth eradication project of 16,000 acres in this area. According to a letter from that agency that may have received wide spread dissemination, the specified area will receive a double application of Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring biological insecticide that is safe to humans and wildlife. The treatments are expected to be applied between the last week of April and the second week of May - depending upon insect development and weather conditions. (For more information prior to the start of the spray operations, we are advised to listen to local radio stations WJJT, WQLA and WLAF starting April 28th.)

The recent collapse of a section of the building roof on North Main Street was still being checked to determine the cause at the time these notes were written. Although unfortunately one injury was reported, the situation could have been much worse (and many of us can recall a similar situation that occurred in Lafollette several years ago when a very large section of roof collapsed with several folks inside the building.)

Wayne Barton says his building will be inspected thoroughly by a structural engineer and any and all recommendations instituted before making required repairs. But he also is emphatic about his intentions to complete all repairs, to include the improvements that were planned prior to the accident and to reopen that business as quickly as possible.

John Leach informed me that he will soon get work started on one of his two buildings at the corner of South Main/North Main/Fifth Street that he plans to paint as well as adding awnings. (He plans to do both buildings before spring and summer are over.)

And I talked last week with Steve Jarboe, owner of "Total Fitness" on North Main, and he has some plans for improvements for that business including paving of the parking lot. (I have asked him to consider a row of Dogwoods in line with those already down North Main including Netlink and the Post Office.)

Former Jellicoan Condy Alley who now calls Alabama home and who takes this column from the Internet, sent me a very complimentary e-mail concerning this column and to say that he thinks the wedding chapel is a great idea and that he hopes that Jellico will benefit greatly from having such a facility. Condy says that he can vividly remember down through the years when so many, many people came to Jellico to get married and that in his mind, he can clearly see the line at R.B. Grinstead's office on North Main Street (folks waiting to complete applications for marriage licenses).

Condy made me hungry by mentioning some of our former eating places that he can still recall including "Lois's Restaurant" with that great chili; "Meldia's Restaurant" (Meldia Williams); The Greenway Restaurant" (run then by Sam and Sarah Abrams); "The Country Kitchen"; and the lunch counters at our local drugstores including Central Drug, Downey Drug and Brown Drug.

Condy also responded to my previous request for an Internet user to contact the survivor of the troop train wreck at Highcliff who now lives in California and to inform him as to how he might obtain a copy of the book, "She Jumped The Tracks" that records the details of that tragedy. Condy e-mailed him the ISBN number for that publication and hopefully he will be able to find a copy. What did we do before the Internet?

Officer Robbie Rutherford and the Jellico Police Department asked me to publicly thank Rev. Trent Stewart and the First Baptist Church for the use of that facility for Tactical Training Exercises.

An awful lot of folks do not realize the amount of time that emergency personnel spend in required training of all types and I also want to thank the Church for their contribution in helping our local police to be better prepared for any emergencies that they may have to face.

The rain was still coming down at the time this article was written but the city crews were out in the downpour and attempting to unstop numerous culverts, drainage tiles and ditches. Those fellows are going to really have their work cut out for them when it finally does dry out. There has been breaking of earthen banks with the washing of soil and gravels into streets and roads and filling culverts. And some tiles may have to be replaced if the mud and debris cannot be extracted.

And there are places in the streets where the water has literally forced the pavement up and broken it into pieces. Street Commissioner Clarence Gene Beck has been getting prepared to do some resurfacing and it's a good thing because our streets and roads have really been damaged by the winter (and now spring) that we have experienced. (If anyone was not totally familiar with the problem that we face with storm drains, they should have seen the water gushing up from one of the manhole covers over one of our largest drains right in the middle of North Main Street. We sit on a flood plain and once the bottoms are full, there is simply no place for runoff water to go and it begins backing into town as it has done throughout our town's history.)