I announced a couple of weeks ago that the Presbytery of Lexington, Kentucky had donated the Presbyterian Church building located on Kentucky Street to the city of Jellico.
Since that time Joann Watts, Director of Tourism, and myself have received notification from the Presbtyery that that organization will spend $ 6,000.00 on the building to accomplish all necessary repair work.
We certainly appreciate the willingness of Presbyterian Church officials to help us in our drive to restore and preserve that historic structure that has been a part of our town since circa 1901. We did not have city funds available for the restoration and the work could not be accomplished without the monetary funding for the project from the church.
I earlier wrote a grant application and forwarded it to the Tennessee Historical Commission requesting a historical marker to designate the site where Grace Moore spent her childhood (present site of Jellico Towers "A"). Tourists sometimes ask where her home was located and it is an item of interest to many visitors.
As previously reported, the application was approved with no matching funds required. It was also erected by the Tennessee State Highway Department - also at no cost to the city of Jellico.
Many of our citizens have wondered whatever happened to the old water fountain that sat on the corner in the middle of town from circa 1909 until a few years ago.
Mr. Johnny Mays, Chief Executive Officer, Barton-Carey Medical Products, Inc., 460 Fifth St. (old Jellico Hospital and later Jellico Clinic) has the fountain and plans to make it visible to the public once again.
Mr. Mays is going to place the fountain back on the lawn in front of the Barton-Carey building and that should bring back a lot of memories to a lot of folks.
Those who can remember what the interior of the old hospital/clinic looked like during the days it served as a medical facility will be amazed at the interior renovation that is currently being accomplished to that building and the technology that is being installed by Barton-Carey.
Mr. Mays recently gave me a guided tour of the facility and says that an open house is planned for the public sometime in the future.
Barton-Carey is now one of the very largest manufacturers of medical dressings for burn victims. And all are individually tailored to insure proper fit and with even a large choice of colors.
At our regular City Council meeting in March, the Council hired Attorney Jeff Hall as our new City Attorney.
Changes and additions required by the State of Tennessee were approved for the proposed new waste water treatment facility. The changes will cost an additional $ 600,000.00 but that added cost will not be passed on to users.
We were notified during the meeting by Gwen Brown and Mike McIndroe of Barge, Waggoner, Canon and Sumner, that our last grant will be a little larger than previously announced; the interest rate on our loan from the State Revolving Fund is even lower than what we originally expected to pay; and a small amount of contingency funds is available. The combination of factors enabled us to approve the necessary additional funding without having to raise the monthly sewage rates that were established a few months ago.
Representatives from Begley Manufacturing, Barbourville, Kentucky once again failed to attend the Council meeting as scheduled. Members of Council agreed to begin negotiations with other prospective employers who have expressed an interest in the city owned building next to the Municipal Building.
Our bill for solid waste delivered to the landfill in Kentucky dropped again last month. We were $ 1,500.00 below the record monthly bill of $4,300.00-meaning that our recycling program has resulted in a savings of $2,500.00 to the city in the last two months alone.
However we know that the bill cannot continue to decrease due to the fact that Bruce Recycling has reached the maximum amount that it can process under the existing situation. February was also a short month and had fewer delivery days.
In one Council action we did agree to pay the final payment on the new Trammell Building replacement minus some utility bills. We are currently debating the date upon which the city became responsible for the bills.
It is the city's position that we assumed responsibility for the bills only upon signing the "Certificate of Completion". But the contractor insists that we became liable for the bills when the work was actually completed although we did not sign the release for several more days.
Both the city and the contractor will have to work the problem out together. But in the meantime we will withhold the amount of the bills until final resolution of the issue.
We did not take any action concerning the cable TV contract but agreed to hold a workshop to discuss the contract prior to our regular April meeting. (we have been told that governmental regulations upon cable prices will be lifted after March 31, 1999 but do not yet have confirmation).
Our regular March meeting was attended by the members of boy scout troop # 456 along with sponsors Mrs. Leann Bowlin Mozingo and Rev. Wayne Hedrick, Pastor, Jellico Methodist Church.
We were happy to have the scouts there and hope that they learned something from the experience. We would like to see more young people in attendance at Council meetings to include classes and groups of students from Jellico High School and Jellico Elementary School. Social studies classes in particular might find them educational.
Gasco earlier attempted to install the gas poles/lamps in front of the new Trammell Building replacement but experienced a problem with spacing on the anchors.
Hopefully that problem has been corrected and the lamps installed by the time this article is published.
I have been furnished information concerning the prospective new owners of Jellico Towers "A" and "B".
According to the information packet, "Kohner Properties" founded in 1920, is a regional real estate development management and investment company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm owns and manages properties in Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio (and now Tennessee). Cities with substantial investments by Kohner include Houston, Little Rock, Louisville, Kansas City, Cleveland and St. Louis. Assets total more than two hundred million dollars.
The Jellico Ministerial Association, along with help from volunteers, is erecting an Easter display downtown (three crosses) in Veteran's Park.
The First Baptist Church always had a live nativity scene and an easter display but gave them up to get involved in community wide projects such as "Christmas in the Park". And we certainly appreciate the willingness of the church to do so.
If you have not yet purchased a copy of Rev. Chuck Summers book, "A Year in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area", I strongly recommend that you get one.
The book contains some of the most beautiful nature photos that I have ever seen and includes remarkable scenes from all seasons. The book cannot be adequately described in words but the photos speak volumes. They truly are outstanding by any means of evaluation.
The book sales for $ 9.95 and is certainly a bargain at that price. But $ 2.00 of that amount goes to the Youth Group at First Baptist Church which is another good reason to purchase a copy.
As I went through my copy I kept thinking that it would make a great gift for anyone who loves nature or just appreciates a thing of beauty.
Those who read this column on the internet and may be interested in a copy (or copies) can contact Rev. Summers at (423) 784-8215 (church) or (423) 784-8556 (home).
When local utility rates, or garbage fees, or taxes, etc. are raised, we sometimes tend to think that we may be the only ones who have to endure such raises. But that is far from the actual situation.
The Corbin Times-Tribune recently reported that the Corps of Engineers is currently considering a fifty percent increase in monthly water fees for Corbin, London, Barbourville, Manchester and the Cumberland Falls Highway Water District.
And to make matters worse, an annual maintenance fee may have to be added on to the large increase just so the supplier can meet operating costs.
When we have an opportunity to compare our rates with those from surrounding areas, we often get a much more favorable impression of our own rates. We found that situation to be very true last year when we surveyed other areas for their water, sewer and garbage fees.
Final Note:
I have recently had requests to run the dates for Jellico High School Homecoming '99 in this column and also to list the other web sites for Jellico in addition to www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm.
According to JHS principal Fred Kahre, Homecoming '99 is scheduled for the weekend of October 15-17 (the football opponent will be Knoxville Gibbs High School at 7:30 PM on Friday, October 15th).
Mrs. Lisa Casey, Interstate 2000, says that the base page utilized by that firm for Jellico is www.jellico.com. Jellico High School can be found at www.jellico.com/jhs/. According to Mrs. Casey, the Jellico High School Alumni Association site can be reached through a link from the Jellico High School page.
There is no doubt that the number of people accessing the sites is continuing to increase. We know that we have had hits as far away as Washington State and Arizona and in all neighboring states.
A recent visitor to Jellico from southern Ohio said that he accessed our site after seeing the designation listed in this column. Another gentleman from northern Ohio said that he located our page simply by doing a search using the word "Jellico".
As I have said many times in the past, I never cease to be amazed by the new (and constantly changing) technology.
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