Can you believe all of the national publicity that Jellico received over the past weekend? If you tried to call Tourism Director Jake Bennett last week, you may not have been able to get through due to all of the calls he was receiving concerning the UROC competition and our car show. One lady called to say that she had seen the UROC pre-competition publicity on national television. A Knoxville TV station did an interview that reported that we were being covered by the ESPN television network and at least one other television network, Newsweek magazine, etc. (Jake was interviewed by Newsweek among others.) That does not include all of the intense coverage by local media and there may have been wire service reports going out to other national media as well.
Our usual very large UROC crowd did not appear in the downtown this year due to the fact that there was no Friday technical inspection in Veterans Park for this one-time event. But our motels and Indian Mountain State Park sure had the folks – as did some surrounding towns.
However we definitely had the largest turnout of viewers for any Classic Car show yet. And although we did not have quite the number of entrants that we were shooting for, we sure had some beautiful and interesting vehicles including that absolutely perfect and totally authentic 1931 “Model A” Ford driven here from Paris, Kentucky by a young lady who had only recently learned about our show. And we talked with exhibitors and viewers from Lexington, Lawrenceburg, Morehead and numerous other Kentucky towns and communities. And we had entrants from Nashville, Knoxville and Cleveland as well as those from nearby Laurel, Knox, Whitley, Campbell, Anderson, Claiborne and Scott Counties and various other locations throughout our area.
With all that regional and national attention, it was a great time to put our best foot forward and we appreciate the help of everyone who pitched in to present Jellico in the very best light possible!
Reverend Billy Carpenter and the Mountain Ash Baptist Church have been showing a series of four movies in our Veterans Park on Friday evenings with the onset of darkness. The showings will continue through this Friday and next Friday evenings. Everyone is invited!
Our next city sponsored activity on the schedule is our annual Fourth of July celebration (Friday, July 2nd and Saturday, July 3rd). Jake says that exhibitors, vendors, etc. can claim sites in Veterans Park a few hours earlier this year than has been the custom in the past. The park will be open for staking our areas starting at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 1st. Security will not be provided in the park on Thursday night by the city other than police patrolling through the area as they make their regularly scheduled rounds. But a watchman will be on duty there all night on Friday.
Jake expects some very interesting exhibits this year including the displaying by Rocky Slover of some of the model locomotives and other hand made items created by his deceased father Charles Slover who was extremely talented in so many areas including crafts, painting, etc.
Dormas Miller, Campbell County Register of Deeds who has become so familiar to all of Campbell County and other areas for his singing of the National Anthem, will be here on Friday to sing the Anthem and participate in any patriotic observance that is planned.
Local entertainment and line dancing will be available during the days and early evening and of course each night will have featured entertainment including the “John Christopher Knight Family” on Friday and the “Boys Night Out” on Saturday. The annual fire works display will follow that group’s performance on Saturday night. No city sponsored activities will be held on Sunday, July 4th but local churches generally have patriotic services on that Sunday.
(Jake will publish a much more detailed schedule of activities within the next few days.)
Increasing downtown business is one of the goals that we have established as a part of our downtown revitalization project and working toward that objective seems to be starting to produce some very definite results. I talked with a manager of one our downtown businesses last week who emphasized to me that our greatly increased number of activities in that area has been a help to that particular business. According to that individual, folks attending our events are purchasing a variety of items in town – especially food and camping supplies. With the opening of Wayne Barton’s service center on North Main Street at the state line, hopefully gasoline and other items will be added to that list. And eventually when a restaurant does open downtown, prepared food can be added as well. (The increased number of potential customers led Terry and Ester Loudin to open their new flower shop, “The Galleria”, on North Main Street. If you haven’t yet stopped by their shop, you will be surprised at all they have available.) And John Davenport and Christy Rigney recently gave me a progress report on the new First State Financial Bank’s upcoming opening – which too is based upon new business and developments in this area.
And you only have to drive by businesses located near the interstate including fast food outlets, service stations, and local motels to see the positive effects that our activities are having upon those businesses as well. As Mike Neely pointed out to me several months ago, anything of a positive nature that brings increased businesses into Jellico – and whether or not it benefit any one particular place – is good for everyone in the long run. Jellico’s downtown will never again be exactly the same as it was years ago when coal was king and we had bus lines, passenger trains, hotels, etc. But it can be alive once again with folks coming to the downtown to visit, attend entertainment, eat and shop – if we have facilities there that will attract them.
Our City Council voted last Thursday night to approve the 2004-2005 budget on first reading. The Council felt that it had to increase the city tax rate from .88 to 1.00 (same as the city of Lafollette) to balance the budget since two full time police officer positions had been eliminated from that department as well as reducing a formerly full time position to only one half the hours. And there were few if any further areas where cuts in expenditures could be affected. There is at least some chance that some lost state money will be restored in future years but that will not help during the upcoming year. And as stated earlier, we can no longer take any funds from our reserves of approximately $ 400,000.00 to balance our annual budgets. (Since our property is taxed on 25% valuation, the raise will translate to $ 6.25 on $ 25,000.00 of taxable assessed value. Funds to be created for the budget by the raise will total only approximately $ 26,000.00 each year.)
The Council did not deal with the proposed site location for the Radio Station WJJT. The Tennessee State Office of Planning will require more information and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must evaluate the site before the Jellico Planning Commission can act and send a recommendation concerning the proposal to the full Council for its consideration.
In spite of some problems that they have encountered, Mike Siwinski and his wife Janie are in the process of renovating the interior of their building on North Main Street at the state line and plan to do the exterior as soon as the interior is finished. And it sure looks as if they are going to need the additional office space. Their newspaper, The Christian-Journal, has really taken off and I am told that it can now be found in all of Campbell County and several surrounding counties. Some of the articles in that paper have already been picked up by nationally known newspapers. And I have been informed that the material from one article in that publication concerning a Campbell County veteran may have been discussed on Fox Network’s very popular “Hannity and Colmes”.
As I understand it, their Jellico office will be only one of several already in operation or soon to be established in East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. And the thousands of copies that are being distributed have sure increased interest in these articles. I’m now approached by folks living in other towns who read this column and apparently recognize me from my accompanying photograph. Individuals and groups of individuals from Caryville, Jacksboro, Lafollette, Williamsburg and Corbin have told me personally that they read and enjoy them. And I also was sent word to that effect from a lady living in London, Kentucky. (Circulation has reportedly increased until it now reaches into Kentucky as far as Somerset.)
I recently talked with a lady in a United States governmental office concerning our town and she said that she personally had not realized that there is a Jellico, Tennessee – although she did say that she had heard of Jellico, Georgia. (I had not!) I am aware of the fact that at one time there was a Jellico, Texas founded by folks who left here and moved to that state. (Only a large sign painted on a building remains there to designate the former existence of that town.) And there reportedly is – or was – a Jellico, Alabama but I am not sure that that town maintains a post office.)
The name “Jellico” is somewhat unique and I can’t help but wonder just how many states have towns with our name. That would make for an interesting search on the Internet and someone overseas has been conducting a world-wide search for the origins of both “Jellico” and “Jellicoe” (In our case it came from the Gelica or Gellica plant that grew in profusion in the mountains of Whitley County and that for years was used for medicinal purposes. Early settlers usually named areas for the wildlife, geographical features, land marks, or other distinguishing features and those who first settled that area named it “Gellica Creek” that with the passage of time became pronounced as “Jellico Creek”. When their descendents moved here in the early 1880’s (to then Smithburg as our town was originally known) to be near the new railroad, they brought the name Jellico with them. And they eventually were able to incorporate under that same name. (One has to wonder what the Smiths, who made up a good percentage of our very small initial population, thought about the newcomers coming in and taking over like that!)
“What do you do when you meet the President of the United States and his wife?” Although I was the last person in the world to answer that question, that was the question I was given during a call that I received from Jenny Ruth’s granddaughters, Ashli and Jenny Ann, the other night in Washington, D.C. Jenny’s daughter Kim is married to Kevin Buchanan, a close relative of a Congressman from Georgia and the congressman had arranged to take them to the White House as his guests for an activity being conducted by President Bush and Mrs. Bush for children of Congressmen. They of course were nervous and wanted to be sure to address the President and his wife (and Vice-President Cheney and his wife) in the proper manner. And they were even more nervous about whether to offer to shake hands, etc. upon being introduced to the President.
But they need not have worried! As they and the other children met the President, he simply ignored the formalities and gave every child a great big hug. They took a lot of photos and needless to say, those photos will be the center of attention at our house for the next several days. I recently read an article in a local paper where the reporter had happened to be in the close presence of a former President who would not speak to him on two occasions. Compare that to the willingness of our present President to take the time to give some children the thrill of a lifetime!
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