Shortly after being elected mayor two years ago, I promised to set goals for my four years in office and to publish an evaluation each year as to what progress has been made toward achieving those goals. My graduate classes in administration at Ohio State University and at the University of Tennessee as well as the leadership schools I attended while serving in the military, all emphasized the necessity for establishing goals and then working toward those goals to achieve success.
The four major objectives that I quickly announced were: (1) To complete the water purification plant and water lines extensions while simultaneously dealing with the overwhelming problem of meeting state deadlines for correcting the problem with untreated sewage polluting the streams of both Tennessee and Kentucky; (2) To renovate and revitalize our downtown; (3) To attract prospective employers to our town and our area, and (4) To develop an attitude among our citizens that we can indeed reverse the decline that our town has suffered since the collapse of the coal industry several years ago.
It is now time for my second "report card" on what progress has been made during the past twelve months in attempting to accomplish those four goals:
The problems with waste water treatment and sewer system rehabilitation were other problems of a far greater magnitude. That situation easily qualifies as the biggest financial crisis that our town has ever had to face. Many knowledgeable individuals predicted that we would have to raise our monthly sewer rates by $35.00 - $50.00 in order to raise the necessary revenue to comply with the state directive. Non-compliance would have resulted in a possible daily fine of $10,000.00 levied upon our local users.
But through aggressive pursuit of grants and extremely low interest rate loans, we were able to find sufficient funding to take the required corrective action and only gradual and minimal increases were placed upon households. Even those relatively small raises were more than we would have preferred to institute but they were far, far lower than almost everyone had predicted would be required.
We also have both construction plans and sewer rehabilitation plans ready for the waste water treatment facility that have already received state approval with some modifications still to be incorporated. All details should soon be worked out and ground actually broken for the new treatment facility. Work is currently being done toward sewer system rehabilitation without a great increase in monthly rates, that that accomplishment alone would make the four years in office a very successful four years. We are well on the way to meeting that goal!!!
He was very impressed with the development presently taking place on both sides of the Interstate highway but he too believed that it is essential that we complete the renovation of some of the deteriorating buildings in the downtown that have reached "eyesore" status. And he further agreed with me that such buildings and empty store fronts are a serious detriment to business investment.
We were one of the first small towns to start downtown renovtion work but now most area towns have followed suite and are attempting to restore their downtown areas as well.
According to current reports, restoration of downtown areas is a nation-wide trend and the Knoxville News-Sentinel and the Lexington Herald-Leader have both recently done stories on towns and cities now undergoing renovations - ranging from Knoxville and Lexington to Maryville and Middlesboro. But those towns have had council cooperation and support which we have lacked in Jellico.
Virtually the same situation is true of our plans for revitalizing our downtown. We had hoped to have activities in that area that would attract people from other areas as well as locally who would also be potential customers for both our downtown businesses and those located near the Interstate as they travel to the downtown park.
I have heard that the three councilmen voted to place the stage under control of the Tourism Commission in order to have the activities under the "right" people or the "right organization" or something along that line. I do not know if any councilman made that statement or not but the "right" people to conduct the activities are the people who did all the hard work to organize and conduct them for most of a summer season. And I certainly have nothing against the Director or any member of the Tourism Commission. They have worked hard to conduct the activities they already sponsor and I have been told that at least some do not want the added responsibility of every Friday and Saturday night in the park. But that is what the people now expect and they have the right to expect the two nights weekly since others did it voluntarily and planned to contnue two nights a week this summer season until refused council permission.
Ronald Dabney, Marvin and Betty Douglas, Robert and Dessie Johnson, Bessie Steely, Charles Marples and many others worked hard along side Councilman Jim Dobson and myself to develop the activities that would attract people back downtown. And we were very successful!!!
The "Old Fashioned Night" with the horse and buggy; the ladies in their long dresses, aprons and bonnets; the music of the "Twin Rivers Band"; the very small childrens' "dance" competition; and the businesses that remained open well past their regular closing time all combined to draw what was unquestionably the largest downtown "night" crowd that we have had since the 1950's. Everyone had a great time; some of the businesses reported brisk sales; a large number used our library; and we all realized that night that our downtown could once again become the true "center" of Jellico. Everyone called for park benches and blacktopping of the area around the stage. Robbie Woodson quickly volunteered to donate the benches free of charge and the city council majority indicated that it would finally begin to cooperate with our community efforts by voting to blacktop the parking lot --- only to disappoint and anger a great number of our citizens through the totally inexplicable action of three councilmen in reversing that decision during the March meeting. The Rescue Squad developed plans for a permanent concession stand to serve the large crowds expected this summer and we had already constructed the bridges to allow us to establish the "Farmers' Market/Citizens Market". (Mr. Eddie Barton suggested that activity since a similar market in Lafollette has been successful beyond all expectations. We had hoped to provide an opportunity for local farmers and gardeners to sell excess produce in Veterans Park Annex while simultaneously providing a convenient location where our citizens could purchase fresh fruit and vegetables. And of course both would hopefully create potential customers for other items sold by downtown businesses as it has in Lafollette. Most Lafollette businessmen enthusiastically endorsed the idea when Eddie was gathering information for our proposed market).
I regularly search the Internet for leads; I ask everyone to furnish me the names of any potential employers of which they may be aware; Interstate 2000 has a great array of advantages of our area listed and shown at www.jellico.com and at www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm with numerous links; and Mrs. Lisa Casey recently placed a photo of our new fire engine online. Prospective employers located literally around the world can now see the effort that we have made to improve our fire fighting capability - an item of great interest to most employees and their fire insurance carriers.
I cannot possibly make all of the meetings to which I am invited but I have never missed a meeting of which I was aware, that held any promise at all of helping to attract potential employers to our area. And I constantly contact local, state, out-of-state, and national officials for advice and help with industrial development.
All U.S. Department of Labor statistics indicate that we now have the lowest percentage of unemployed workers in our area that we have had in many years. Our new businesses have created over 100 jobs and I often see "help wanted" signs at those businesses.
Successfully recruiting "Jamie's Curtains and Decor" has provided an occupant for our city owned building that promises to add as many as 20 to 25 new jobs once the new machines are in place and the training completed.
At the time this article was written, the prospects looked good that the vacant building at the Oswego Industrial Park will soon be occupied with a work force of 120-150 employees. If that concern does in fact become a reality, we will have utilized every inch of available space and provided more jobs than the labor survey indicated that we have people available to fill.
I talked with an official in Nashville a few days ago and at that time he felt very confident that the interchange on I-75 will be approved. Final approval of the interchange would allow for construction of "The Reserve on Jellico Mountain" - a development that is projected to employ 6,000 temporary workers and 300 permanent personnel. And the proposed industrial development in southern Whitley County is far from dead according to the contacts that I have made. That concern if it develops would be located only three miles from Jellico.
I have also worked with the Campbell County Chief Executive's office and received a piece of property located in the flood plain free of charge that lies adjacent to our city property. I have plans to build the area above flood level with fill dirt and material in order to provide a possible manufacturing site if one is needed in the future.
Our potential success in meeting the goal of "attracting prospective employers to our town and our area" makes the argument by some councilmen that we need to hire a city administrator to "bring some jobs in here" a mute one. Some appropriate questions now for any applicant for the position of city administrator are: (1) What specific employer can you bring to Jellico and this area? (2) In what facility do you plan to locate them? and (3) Where do you plan to obtain the work force if all of the above jobs are created in Jellico?
Anyone can say that, "we need to bring jobs in here". But bringing in those jobs requires an awful lot of contacts, planning and downright hard work. I, and others, have worked extremely hard toward achieving that goal and it appears now that our efforts are beginning to pay off in a big way with tangible results. And those results have been accomplished without paying the salary of a city administrator. (That remark is directed toward the position itself and certainly toward no individual).
A positive community spirit is essential if we are to accomplish the things that we want for Jellico. Little can be achieved without developing a military type "can do" attitude and a willingness by our citizens to become involved in the work that is required. And it is extremely important that we make our citizens feel welcome and appreciated when they do get involved in something designed to promote Jellico. We certainly do not need to rebuff and discourage them and the last thing that we need to do is to play petty politics with the future of our town. We will get nowhere fast with that approach.
We have made gains in the past two years toward developing the desired positive attitude although some of the council's recent actions have discouraged a lot of folks. But under the right circumstances, I still believe that most would go back to work once again.
Final Note:
I have mentioned in the past two articles that a lot of our people have asked me about what our city charter states concerning recall elections. And last week I printed the section from the charter that deals with that subject in this column.
I recently received a call from an individual who said that some of our citizens are indeed planning to seriously pursue a recall election and that they have obtained professional legal advice and assistance in drawing up the required petitions. The petitions must be forwarded to the appropriate state office for review. If the cited justification for a recall is adjudged adequate cause for removal of city officials from office by the state officials, the Campbell County Election Commission would then be instructed to place the named city officials on the August ballot. The petitions would require the signatures of 234 registered voters qualified to vote in city elections. Sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of those voting in the election would need to vote yes to bring about the actual removal from office.
If a recall election is approved and conducted in August, it would probably be the first of its kind in our town's history. But there is a first time for everything!!!
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