APRIL 9, 2004 JELLICO NEWS/MAYOR'S COLUMN Wonder how many folks were late for church last Sunday?
It takes some getting used to but once the first few days have passed, I love "springing forward" one hour and enjoying the extra daylight in the evenings. But for a week or so I feel like a zombie in the mornings since like a lot of other folks, I have to get up very early each day. And subtracting an hour from our built in biological clocks is not as easy as setting our time clocks. It's the reverse of a statement reportedly once made by Yogi Berra, the very popular member of the Baseball Hall-of-Fame, in referring to late afternoon shadows in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. The stories hold that according to Yogi, "It gets late early out there!" For those of us having to now arise so early, it "gets early even earlier around here"!
Our school system's spring break this year was made up mostly of rainy and damp days that certainly were not what we had hoped for. (And I was greatly upset that I did not get to do all of the yard work that Jenny had laid out for me! That really hurt me!)
But we are having a few beautiful (although still cool) springs days mixed in with an awful lot of cloudy days with the accompanying seasonal showers. And the few warm sunny days just make us long for the time when the sun shines virtually every day and the temperatures consistently remain in the 70-plus degrees range. When I was a kid, Irving Berlin's song, "April Showers", that was made into an American classic by Al Jolsen, was sung by every school class to remind us that April showers bring May flowers. And that can't happen too soon for me. I love spring time and it is by far and away my favorite time of the year.
( Several have told me that their Bradford Pears just did not bloom as heavily this year as they have in the past. And Dogwoods located throughout our area seem to either be very late this spring or they may just not be going to bloom as much as usual either. However the creeping phlox, tulips, different species of cherry and fruit trees and other flowers and trees seem to be especially beautiful this year.)
Members of police departments often get criticized for every perceived deficiency but seldom get praised for their positive accomplishments and the dangers that they face every time they report for duty. And as a police official from another area told me recently, that is true all across this country. But our police officers are generally the very first or among the very first to be called when an emergency suddenly arises.
So it was good to hear the compliments paid to Councilman and Police Commissioner Jim Dobson, Chief Ned Smiddy, Sergeant Tony Day, Officer Jeff Partin, and Officer Jeff Smith for the way that they conducted themselves during the recent tragedy in our town. And according to Campbell County Sheriff Ron McClellan whose department also responded very quickly, the actions of the Jellico Police Department ranging from their immediate response throughout their investigation were appropriate and that the Sheriff's Department was at the scene solely to offer the assistance of their special crime detection facilities to the Jellico PD..
In past years, we have reportedly had serious or potentially serious incidents that posed possible threats to our town and our community. And all have been handled in a manner that resulted in no additional injury or loss of life outside the initial incidents themselves. No police officers, fire fighters, rescue squad members or any other emergency workers know what they will face when suddenly called out. (It is extremely doubtful that any member of the New York Police Department and Fire Department had any idea that their lives would end within a very short time when the alarms went off on 9/11.. And we hear of numerous deaths of emergency workers throughout this country on a daily basis including two firemen who recently lost their lives attempting to rescue a trapped senior citizen from a fire although they knew the danger they faced and the fact that their chances to succeed were not good. Such situations alone are reason a'plenty for the appreciation of our citizens for the work they perform.)
And on the subject of emergency services: The following e-mail was received from Rodney Minton, Board President, Jellico Rescue Squad. "Dear Mr. Mayor: I am e-mailing you to let you know that a rumor has come about. This rumor I am sure has been started by some unhappy squad member(s). As you know in any organization when one or more people are unhappy things like this happen. The rumor I am bringing to your attention is 'the City of Jellico has helped with the purchase of the new tanker and it will only be used inside the city limits'. I as well as other members feel this is ridiculous talk. Anyone who has been keeping up with the budget crisis knows this would not be possible. I on behalf of the members of the squad send our apologies if this rumor has been spread in town. We certainly would not want City Hall to be filled up with mad citizens over untrue statements such as this. I hope you can make the citizens aware in your next column that this rumor is just that. An UNTRUE RUMOR! Thank you Mayor for your time, and again I and the members of the squad apologize for any inconvenience this may cause or may have already caused." I hope this helps Rodney. But rumors are constantly spread around town ranging from "the sky is falling" to "the city is going bankrupt". A perfect example is the budget crisis you mention. As I have pointed out, we do not yet know for sure (and will not know until June 30th) if we even have a budget crisis. It will all depend upon our revenues for April, May and June.
Down through the years I have heard "nepotism" in Jellico discussed probably more than any other subject. And at one time I favored the city of Jellico enacting a policy to deal with that issue. But in recent months I have developed very mixed feelings concerning the concept.
In talking with folks from other areas, I have been informed - rightly or wrongly - that some small governmental entities of under 5,000 population have been reluctant to adopt nepotism policies due to the fact that they greatly limit the available pool of capable individuals eligible to work for the entities. And that could certainly be true in our town since our official population from the U.S. Census 2000 is only half that small number ( 2,448 folks). I have also heard but have not confirmed, that there have even been cases in this country where Courts have refused to recognize such policies of very small entities when legally challenged by eligible, capable individuals who were refused employment due to their being related to city official(s).
But I also have others reservations concerning such policies. I want to say right up front that I have no relatives and never expect to have any relatives either needing or wanting jobs with the city of Jellico. And if I did I would not want to take unfair advantage of my position on their behalf to hire them over some more highly qualified person(s).
But should relatives of public officials here -or anywhere else - who are taxpaying, contributing citizens be eliminated as potential employees simply due to their birth? If I did have a son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, nephew or niece needing employment, who was equally or even more capable of doing a job and willing to work for the low wages that we are able to pay our city employees, would I try to help them? Without a doubt! And I believe that the overwhelming majority of loving parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts would do the same.
Not every hire for a city, county, state, or federal governmental agency turns out to be a capable and dedicated employee and that is true throughout the entire private sector as well! We need to always hire the best candidates applying for a position. But I can think of individuals down through the years who were hired that were relatives of city officials serving at the time. They proved to be very capable of doing their jobs, made some of our very best employees and served our city in an exemplary manner for years long after the hiring relative had left office.
I have not discussed the merits of a nepotism policy with the Jellico Utilities System that has such a policy. But I would dare say that they have known of instances where they would have liked to have hired qualified individuals but could not do so due to the restrictions of the policy. Surely no one would argue that the salaries of $ 100.00 monthly (before cuts) is justification enough for having members of Council to make the sacrifice of being prohibited from employing their relatives if they are qualified to do a job.. I know that the Council will have to decide what it feels is best in dealing with the issue and the above are just some of the considerations that I hope that the members of Council will consider in deciding whether to adopt an official nepotism policy for the city of Jellico that will affect not only present officials, but also future officials and any otherwise qualified relatives that may be interested in applying for employment with the city.
The state of Kentucky in recent years has really gotten involved in the drive to clean up our environment and it is not unusual now to pass groups of citizens voluntarily picking up litter in their neighborhoods and along their streets and roads. The Congressional District in which Whitley County and our Boston Elementary School are located, each year sponsors PRIDE activities that encourage and support citizens in their drive to maintain a cleaner environment.. (Our school was recently once again named as one of the finalists for the "Campus of the Year" Award and our staff and students are very hopeful that this will be the year that we win that honor. Our school community really takes great pride in our facilities and their appearance.)
The annual district PRIDE Spring Cleanup kicks off this week and will run April 10th -24th and that reminds us that our yearly "JELLICO CLEAN-UP, PAINT-UP, FIX-UP WEEK" is scheduled for a little later this year since we have not enjoyed good weather for that event in past years. Our Aprils have typically been cold and often wet which prohibited what we could accomplish outside. We will have our clean up this year during the period MAY 8TH - MAY 15TH and hopefully we will have the widest participation possible.
As I have written on previous occasions, it would be great if individuals, organizations, schools, churches, scouts and all kind of groups get involved - especially those that include our young people. We are beginning to have more community interest in what we are trying to accomplish toward improving the appearance of our town and we have a great opportunity to really make some strides this spring and summer. Help where you can and encourage others to get involved! We all know the sore spots and the work that needs to be done to some buildings, residences, vacant lots and other areas. That work will not get done if we do not get busy
.. I was recently visited at home by a couple of individuals interested in the possibility of establishing a coffee shop in the downtown that would be clean with a pleasant atmosphere and offer a soup and sandwich type menu. I gave them as much information as I could and I also expressed my opinion that there is an opportunity for such a business since we are beginning to get more people downtown who either work in that area, visit the various offices or shop. Many of those would probably enjoy patronizing such a place for lunch as well as a place to socialize.
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
Visit the Archives of the Mayor's Column .
Visit the City of Jellico's Web Site at: www.jellico.tn.us