Our regular April meeting of the city council will be held this Thursday evening starting at 7:30 PM. It could be one of the most important meetings that we have had in our town in a long time.
Two items to be placed on the agenda include the present vacancy on the council and a proposal to return to our former city charter that calls for the mayor/council form of government that we had for so many years. And some citizens want to return at the same time to the practice of two-years terms for elected city officials.
I have been called by two individuals who want me to place the blacktopping of Veterans Park Annex back on the agenda. Rumor also has it that some members of the Tourism Commission are having very serious reservations about the action the three councilmen took in asigning them the added responsibility for the stage and the Friday and Saturday night activities each week. One Commission member said that the three councilmen had not even discussed their action with him prior to proposing and passing the issue and that he believes that activities were going very well and should have been left alone by the three councilmen - unless they want to do all of the work that is required to have them. He said that the work will all be left up to the three councilmen as far as he is concerned. Another member of the Commission told me that he did not realize what had happend during the March meeting when he attended the last Commission meeting. He stated that if the Commission is to be used for politics that he will resign his position.
Another member told Jimmy Dobson and I that he has no intention whatsoever of being tied up every week for an entire weekend and that he wants the issue brought back before the council for discussion. We reminded him that the assignment now has the legal authority of council action and that the Commission is solely responsible and liable for both the stage and all activities including scheduling, preparation, security and crowd control, providing rest room facilities, nightly clean-up and the many other tasks that are required. And only the council can reverse that assignment, liability and responsibility. (However should the council reverse its decision, Councilmen Dobson and I will no longer accept the responsibility that we assumed voluntarily last summer and were agreeable to performing prior to the action of the three councilmen during the March meeting.)
The council may also make a decision as to what action to take concerning the vacant building on South Main Street that was recently returned to the city by Taylor Manufacturing.
I do not know who the council will name to fill the vacant seat but it certainly needs to be someone who is interested in our town; not interested in playing petty politics; and has a positive attitude toward progress and development. I often write that we have had too many negative attitudes in our community in the past and those negative attitudes have helped to hold our town back.
Naming the right person with the right attitude is extremely important to the future of Jellico. I hope that every citizen that possibly can will attend this important meeting and see for themselves exactly what takes place and what actions are taken by myself and each councilman.
I want to again publicly thank Representative William Baird and Senator Randy McNally for all of their efforts to save Indian Mountain State Park and to keep it under state financing and maintenance. As I reported earlier, Baird has introduced a bill into the state house of representatives that would do those things without any new sources of revenue being required. McNally has been giving him a very strong strong voice of support in the state senate.
But what has impressed me most about Baird and McNally is the fact that they have both taken time from their hectic schedule to call me and give me progress reports. Although it was far from a done deal at the time that this article was written, both feel optimistic about the possibility of saving the park that we all want so badly to keep.
No definite announcement has been made but I continue to receive very encouraging signs that the vacant building at Oswego Industrial Park will soon have an occupant and begin gradually providing jobs for local workers. And our utilities department has been working to be sure that all services are readily available to allow for the successful occupancy.
I have also been assured that the cleaning and painting of our city owned building occupied by Jamie's Curtain and Decor should start very soon and may already be under way (the work had to be delayed again due to the rainy weather last week). Completion of the cleaning and painting will make a great improvement in the appearance of the building and the area around the Municipal Building.
Another two years should have our Dogwoods large enough to begin seriously planning for a "Spring Festival" or some activity designed to attract tourists. But we need more along the sidewalks and had the tree grant been accepted nearly two years ago, we would be well on our way to having them in the ground and growing.
But the council did vote recently to accept another "tree enhancement grant" of $4,900 with a match of that same amount from the city. However all but about $450.00 can be "in-kind" services. I hope to also give some of the trees to the Jellico Rescue Squad for landscaping the area around their building.
And the East Tennessee Development District has informed me that the grant application for constructing a visitor center from our old city hall has been completed and forwarded to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Those grants are expected to be considered for approval sometime in June or July.
Last week I announced the upcoming passion play at the Church of God, Mountain Assembly on South Main Street (April 21, 22, 23 at 7:00 PM). I want to also announce some more planned community activities:
Our Senior Citizens Chapter will have an "Open House" on Sunday, April 30th (2:00 PM - 4:00 PM) at the Senior Citizens Center.
Our second annual "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Week" in Jellico has been scheduled for May 22-27 which will be the week immediately proceeding Memorial Day.
The Veterans Association is in the process of ordering flags for placement on the graves of deceased veterans during the Memorial Day weekend and Wayne Barton has proposed placing over two hundred and fifty (250) burning candles in Veterans Park the night before Memorial Day in honor of each name on the monument. One candle would be placed on the monument base itself in honor of all the "unknown" veterans who also made the supreme sacrifice. Veterans that I have talked with greatly appreciate that gesture. (One national publication recently named the American veteran as the "Man of the Twentieth Century". How could anyone argue with that award?).
Although still six months away, I want to mention that the Crazy Quilt Friendship Center is developing plans for a "Fall Festival Week" and an "Open House Week" for that organization to be conducted in October. The activities will be held to commemorate the Friendship Center's twenty-fifth (25th) anniversary.
I suggested last week that those with computers on line might want to call up the "guestbooks" for our Jellico web sites. And at least one lady has apparently taken me up on that suggestion.
I recently talked briefly with Mrs. Nadine Perkins and Mrs. Betty Lawson concerning the information that we have on line pertaining to Jellico. Mrs. Lawson accesses the sites and greatly enjoys the comments left by signers of the guestbooks from all around the country concerning this column, the progress that we are making in Jellico, and just Jellico topics in general.
I also received a letter from a young lady in the Toledo, Ohio area. She stated that she has only been to Jellico one time and that when she was a very young child. But her grandparents were from this area and she recalls some of the names and events that were related to her during her childhood.
She recently found my column on the Internet and actually saw a name that she could recall having heard many years earlier. She has since begun accessing the archives and reading all of my previous columns. According to her, I am probably making a lot of former Jellico residents homesick and wanting to move back here or to at least visit Jellico.
I have been told by others that our web sites are being made known in northern Ohio and that I now have regular readers in that area.
(I want to remind everone that Interstate 2000 relays my e-mail to me that is received at webmaster@jellico.com. Just be sure to designate that the mail is intended for me personally.)
Final Note:
Sometimes a song just "needs" to be written by someone. And the current hit song by country music superstars Allen Jackson and George Strait that is rapidly rising to the top of the charts, is an example of such a song. "Murder Down on Music Row" clearly states the way a lot of us feel about what has happened to traditional Appalachian/country music. According to that song, "Someone has killed country music, cut out its heart and soul" and "The steel guitars no longer cry, you seldom hear fiddles play; drums and rock and roll guitars are mixed up in your face".
I love all kinds of music ranging from rock and roll to country to hymns and "gospel" to classical. (That statement does not include "acid" rock or "metal" rock or "rap" because I don't consider those to be music). I grew up during the golden age of rock and roll (1950's) and all of the hit songs by Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Big Joe Turner and all of those original members of the rock and roll hall of fame.
I still remember some of the first gospel quartets from the early 1940's including "Wally Fowler and the Oak Ridge Quartet" that may have been the fore runner of the "Oak Ridge Boys".
During my days in the regular U.S. Army, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York compliments of the N.Y. Opera Company and the United Service Organization (U.S.O.). And when I return to New York, I always try to visit the Metropolitan now located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The last time I was there, my inquiries about Grace Moore memorabilia attracted the attention of some of the permanent staff as well as a lady conducting a small group on tour. Once they learned that I was from Moore's hometown, I was asked several questions about her early days growing up here in Jellico. I ended up giving an impromptu "lecture" on Moore in the lobby of the Metropolitan. Grace Moore still has great appeal with opera lovers from around the world.
(It was a great experience for me when Mary Costa came to Jellico for the dedication of the Grace Moore Memorial. Costa is an internationally acclaimed member of both the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera Companies and provided the voice for the Walt Disney classic animated movie, "Sleeping Beauty". During her visit I had an opportunity to talk with her at length concerning her illustrious career that has included performances at many of the great opera houses and concert halls throughout this country and Europe. There are few things that I have ever enjoyed more than that conversation with such a marvelously talented but totally unpretentious lady).
As an eleventh grader in high school, we made school trips to the Smokeys, Nashville, and Washington D.C. and other areas. We experienced some things in our nation's capital that I will never forget although I have now been there many times since that first trip. Some of those experiences I plan to discuss in future columns.
And I certainly will never forget our class attending the "Grand Ole Opry" at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 1955. My favorite at the time, Webb Pierce, performed as did Faron Young, Roy Acuff, Hank Snow, Chet Atkins, Carl Smith, George Morgan, Minnie Pearl and several other all-time greatest performers in the history of country music. (The greatest of them all, Hank Williams, Sr. had passed away five years earlier).
In the first days of radio (early 1920's), the only live music available for broadcasting was generally classical music. Radio station WSM in Nashville had only been on the air a short time when it began inviting some local singers, "pickers" and "fiddlers" to perform following its regular Saturday night broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.
In introducing the local performers, the announcer stated, "You have been listening to Grand Opera. Now you will hear some "Grand Ole Opry". The program became an immediate success, the name stuck and today the "Opry" is the longest running program in the history of radio (it is now televised also). WSM has been honored for that achievement by being granted continued "clear channel" status by the Federal Communication Commission with no other stations assigned that frequency.
My personal favorite song writer today is Travis Tritt and I love his "Keep Country Driving On". In that song he relates his desire to combine country and southern rock and he does a great job in doing just that. There is a place for that kind of music and a lot of folks love it.
But as the song "Murder Down on Music Row" points out, Nashville with its "Music City USA" is the home of traditional country music and the last hope for keeping it alive for future generations.
We all have individual tastes in music and not everyone likes country music. But it is for sure that a lot of people in this area love it judging from all of the requests that we received for country, "bluegrass", and gospel during our Friday and Saturday night activities in the park last summer.
From all indications, the song by Jackson and Strait is having a real impact upon the recording studios in Nashville. And that's good!!! Traditional country music does not need to fade into oblivion. It's a tradition that has been with us for too long and is loved by too many "folks" to ever allow that to happen.
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