The mayor warned the city council that next year's budget will no longer be allowed to tap into its savings to make ends meet. And property taxes will have to be raised or city services will have to be cut even further. The mayor said that if the council thought this year's budget constraints were hard................. (Although he stopped right there, everyone could read into that, "just wait until next year".) But the mayor was hopeful that the recent upturn in the economy will provide some help with the present and future budgets.

No!!! The above cited mayor was not me again repeating what I have repeatedly written in this column! That is the situation in Knoxville as outlined by Mayor Bill Haslam to the city council during a recent budget workshop retreat and reported in the February 20, 2004 edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. But it sounds almost identical to what I have written in recent columns about the financial situation that we are presently facing in Jellico.

The financial crisis that earlier faced the entire state of Tennessee (and many other states) had to be dealt with by new Governor Bredesen when he took office and funds furnished to municipalities were reduced - which of course forced city councils to make decisions also as to whether to raise taxes and/or reduce personnel and services. Simultaneously the national economy went into one of its periodic downward spirals that further complicated the problem. That combination of events plus tremendous increases in employee benefits including the cost of health insurance and other totally unanticipated expenditures has placed a tremendous burden upon virtually every municipality. And some towns in our area are reportedly already reducing their work force and curtailing public services. And it looks more and more like we might be forced to do the same - in spite of the fact that we have not replaced some employees who have already left the city's employment. We are hoping to avoid any additional reductions in the work force and employee benefits and we are diligently attempting to determine any other cost cutting measures available to us to help bring expenditures into line with our revenues.

Like Knoxville and many, many other municipalities, we will have to dig deeply into our reserve funds this year and it appears that there is very little that we can do to avoid that action. But unlike many towns and cities, raising property taxes in Jellico would do almost no good since our city taxes are so very low that even a fifty per cent increase in our present rates would only generate a few thousand dollars. So reducing the number of employees and/or cutting services could turn out to be our only alternatives although we are going to do our best to avoid that. And as Mayor Haslam pointed out, it's going to be even more difficult to make ends meet next year.

During one of our recent budget discussions Vice-mayor and Councilman Alvin Evans stated somewhat jokingly that we will probably all have to leave town once we do whatever we will be forced to do to solve our current problem. And unfortunately, he might even be correct in that prediction. But from all indications, regardless of wherever we go to hide out there is going to be plenty of company there since so many other towns and cities are in the same shape as we find ourselves!

xx Hats off to Steve Zecchini for the resumption of work upon the front of his building (Zecchini Heat and Air). That's a beautiful door that has been added and it goes without saying that the painting is helping as well. It's nearing time for us all to get back at the task of improving our town's appearance. And Reverend Trent Stewart, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, in one of his recent sermons even mentioned the possibility of the congregation of that church helping out and painting a structure or helping in some other way.. And we need churches, schools, civic organizations and individuals to get involved in such a positive manner. As I often write, its our town and it will be what ever we all make of it! And to paraphrase Rev. Stuart's words, what better way for a church to become more visible in our community. Many such outreach programs have been instrumental in helping to demonstrate the mission of the church as can be evidenced by the success of the outreach program of community service at Cumberland College that has reached and influenced so many folks in isolated mountainous regions.

And our civic organizations can expect a favorable response from our citizens when they are observed doing public service much as our Jellico Rescue Squad that receives such good public support. It would be good to see every single local organization take on a project this year for our "Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up Week" scheduled for May 8-15.. If we all work together we can bring Jellico back!!! But it will take us all!!!

In that same light, I had the opportunity to drive through downtown Lafollette recently including the "old town" section where a great deal of renovation has been accomplished. Some of the buildings such as the formerly badly deteriorated old Russell Hotel are now beautiful and add greatly to the appearance of the heart of town.. But the thing that stuck me the hardest was the fact that although it was sometime around 2:00 PM on a cool Monday afternoon, there were several people on the sidewalks and entering business places. And that can happen here!

Joe Brown says that the dead dogwood tree in front of the Jellico Housing Authority office will soon be replaced and I have talked with someone about pruning the other trees that are beginning to really grow and spread out. But the recommendation was to wait until after they bloom.

Some things are better forgotten! And other things should always be remembered! And a prime example of the latter was brought to my mind by the photo recently shown on the television networks depicting presidential candidate John Kerry at an anti-war rally several years ago and standing just a few feet from Jane Fonda. Without getting into the politics of that photo, probably no single individual in this country brings up more resentment and ill feelings among those old enough to remember her actions than does "Hanoi Jane". Her trips to North Vietnam when we were engaged in warfare with that country was totally inexcusable and although she has "apologized", she will go down in history among many in the same light as "Axis Sally" who supported Germany against her own country during World War II and "Tokyo Rose" who did likewise for the Japanese. Both of those two were later sent to prison for their betrayal of America. But to many veterans, what Hanoi Jane did was far worse than the treachery of either of those two. Yet many people are only aware of her movies and her exercise videos.

The photos of Hanoi Jane sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun used to fire upon our American fliers overhead and her wearing of a Vietnamese Helmet and flashing a big smile, will never be forgotten by an awful lot of veterans. And the reports of her visits to prisoner of war camps in Hanoi where our servicemen were held, tortured and starved and her reputed broadcasts and statements of support for the enemy were sickening and incensed and awful lot of Americans - veterans and non-veterans alike. I know that a very, very small percentage of Vietnam veterans are said to have supported her actions but I have never personally met one who did. And many veterans have descriptive names for her that cannot be reprinted here!

As I often point out, I never served in Vietnam but I served with many who later did. And some did not return or suffered severe injuries that will affect them for the rest of their lives. And every time I hear her name I am reminded of two incidents.

When Dollywood was first scheduled to open, Fonda reportedly was invited to attend the opening activities at the theme park and that rumor sat off a firestorm all over Tennessee and throughout much of the country. Veterans organizations quickly began to organize protests and acts of civil disobedience including blocking all highways leading into Gatlinburg. I was commander of our Jellico American Legion Post # 29 at that time and I was contacted from Nashville asking for the help of our post as were other post commanders of the Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, etc.. The plans were to bring hundreds and even thousands of buses, eighteen wheelers, vans, cars, and anything that could be rolled, pulled or pushed to Gatlinburg, park them in the middle of the roads and streets thereby creating a massive traffic jam that would have taken days to untangle. And several local veterans were prepared to do our part and we were already making plans to rent a bus and to fill it.. But due to the tremendous pressure applied by veterans and others; or upon second thoughts on the part of those who had invited her to be there in the first place; or for whatever reason, it was announced that she would not be coming to Gatlinburg for the opening activities. It was a great feeling that we might have had at least some small part in thwarting her plans! But in one way, we would all have liked for her to have been there to see just what we thought of her actions.

Many years ago I attended a popular movie that I had heard a lot about entitled, "On Golden Pond". I saw the name of her father, Henry Fonda, on the billboard as I entered the theatre. But I did not see Jane Fonda listed on the playbill.. It was a very good movie and I was greatly enjoying it until suddenly in one scene, an automobile drove up containing Hanoi Jane. That was enough for me and I immediately got up and left the theatre along with a lady who was with me and who was shocked by the sudden turn of events and could not understand my action. Later I explained to her why I would not watch the remainder of the movie and then she too was glad that we exited when we did. Even until today and after all those years, I do not know how that movie ended and I never will. Like countless other veterans, I simply can't stand to look at her!

For years while I was principal at Jellico High School, I kept a bumper sticker given to me by the retired Army officer that commanded our JHS Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and who had apparently witnessed first hand Fonda's disloyalty to this country. His disdain toward her actions knew no bounds. That bumper sticker described her as "Hanoi Jane Fonda! American Traitor (expletive)"! Although I was often tempted to place it on the bumper of my car as was customarily done by a lot of folks at that time, I could never bring myself to do so since I was employed in the school system and it would have been inappropriate in that situation. But for that fact, I would have probably lined my vehicle bumper with the stickers if I could have obtained enough of them. Hanoi Jane certainly earned the "honor"!

(I stated above that some things should never be forgotten. And apparently the American public agrees that Jane Fonda's actions should not be! Fox News Network recently ran an admittedly unscientific poll as to how we should deal with Hanoi Jane and her support for the North Vietnamese during that war. The last figures that I saw had 67 per cent of the respondents voting to "keep reminding everyone". Of the remaining 33 percent, 22 percent indicated "Get over it", 7 percent said that they " did not care" and 4 percent were not even aware of what she did. And that 33 percent who did not vote to keep reminding everyone about her actions is all the more reason to be sure that we do keep informing them about Hanoi Jane - lest we do forget. We can and must forgive her if she truly wants and asks to be forgiven. But forget? NEVER!!!)