Volume # 2, Edition # 9 April 24, 2002
April 24
As I am sure everyone knows by now, we did not have a quorum for our regular April meeting of the city council so no business could be conducted. (Present were Councilmen Alvin Evans and Jim Dobson.) However all newly elected city officials were present on Saturday night for the special call meeting including the swearing in ceremony. We had a very good turnout of citizens for that activity and I want to thank everyone in attendance and to also thank everyone who worked and contributed food and other items.
We immediately got down to business and the first item to be brought before the new council was a proposal from Indian Mountain State Park Ranger Jerome Cummins that will hopefully lead to the opening of the swimming pool this summer. The council listened intently to Cummin's proposal and then voted unanimously to appropriate the sum of $ 12,000.00 from the general fund to help bring that about - realizing that the proposal is still just that and that state approval will be required before the pool can be reopened to the public.
The council did vote to strongly consider returning to the mayor/council form of government and workshops are to be conducted with that objective in mind. A change in the city charter will be required and the process will require the workshops, public hearings and council action (vote of four members of council before the proposed revised charter is sent to the Tennessee State Legislature and vote of four members of council once it is returned from Nashville.)
One large problem faced by the council is the fact that City Judge Don Moses feels that he is losing too much income from his practice as an attorney to continue to serve in that position past April 30th . And his letter of resignation effective that date was read to the council. The position pays only $ 800.00 monthly and there is a stipulation in the city charter that requires the city judge to reside within the city limits. The proposed revised city charter will need to address that problem immediately.
In the meantime, city attorney Jeff Hall has been asked to make finding a possible solution one of his top priorities. In addition to quickly having a backlog of cases to build up, the city will lose revenue. (If a Campbell County judge must be appointed for us until we do find an alternative, all collected revenue from "city court" will go to the county.)
A lot of us sincerely regret that several members of the Tourism Commission also had letters of resignation turned in for the meeting. We certainly appreciate all of the contributions that they have made to our town during their tenure of service on the Commission. But everybody has their reasons for doing what they do and none of us can fault anyone for resigning who does not want to continue in any position - paid or unpaid. And certainly no one appeared to be surprised by the resignations.
Regardless, we do definitely plan to go on with tourism events (including possibly a "locals" gospel singing on Saturday, June 8th, the second annual car show on Saturday, June 22nd and Fourth of July celebration activities on Friday, July 5th and Saturday, July 6th. We expect some of our country's top gospel groups to be here those two days for a "gospel fest". Our fireworks display will take place that Saturday night and we should have folks from far and near. And that will be a great night for a "downtown night" for all of our business places to remain open. There should be an unlimited number of potential shoppers.)
Everyone will be invited to have the arts and crafts displays in Veterans Park on Thursday, July 4th and we will attempt to have other activities although no definite schedule is available at this time.)
We will have to face a transitional period with the change over of personnel in the tourism department and some events may have to be curtailed and possibly even postponed for a period of time. But as I said in an article before the election, "our town's business must go on regardless of who is elected as mayor and members of council". I could have added, "and regardless of who does or does not agree to serve on the various city committees and commissions".
Three enthusiastic individuals have already volunteered for future service along with the three remaining members on our Tourism Commission. And another has agreed to help in whatever way that she is needed. We hope that others will also offer their assistance. We need citizens from a cross section of our community and anyone will be welcome to voluntarily serve who desires to do so. I will appoint three of the above to the Commission and possibly others at our regular monthly meeting for May.
Additionally we did agree to post the position of Director of Tourism with a May 24th deadline (close of business day) for receiving applications. And we will employee whomever we considered to be the best qualified individual for the job from among the applicants. We would like to have her or him hired and in place prior to the June 22nd car show and the Fourth of July activities for on-the-job training. (We do expect a lot of help from sponsors of those activities which should allow the new director time to learn the responsibilities of the job by working with the sponsors.)
The budget was one of the main items discussed and a workshop was scheduled for that purpose for Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:00 PM.. Equally important was the scheduling of the much discussed council hearing for suspended police chief Ned Smiddy and the hearing was set for Tuesday, April 30th at 7:30 PM.
Assigned to work with departments were Councilmen Alvin Evans (vice-mayor, parks/recreation and tourism); Jim Dobson (police and fire); Jeff Brown (sanitation); John Davenport (finance); Dwight Osborn (economic research and development); Clarence Gene Beck (streets).
I also appointed (with the consent of the city council) Melvin Weaver to serve out the remainder of an open term on the utilities board. And there were numerous other housekeeping items covered during the meeting that I am sure will be covered by other media.
But the main thing accomplished was the way that everyone left the meeting so encouraged by the harmony and good spirit that was displayed throughout the entire evening!!!
It is great to see the new shoe store going in to the old Central Drug Store building on North Main Street. It is something we have needed in Jellico for some time. At the time of this writing I did not know any details concerning the store but it will probably offer other items as well. (More information later!)
Retired Federal Administrative Law Judge and apparently "mayor for life" of Sweetwater, Tennessee Billy Ridenour, has long been interested in what takes place in Jellico. Although he has been gone for many years, he still always refers to Jellico as "our town" in his comments and his correspondence. The annual Jellico High School Homecoming brings him to town at least once yearly and he sometimes visits at other times. And he has seen significant improvements in recent years.
I received countless congratulations on my reelection - personally, by phone, by mail and by e-mail - and I sincerely appreciate everyone. And one such compliment that came from Judge Ridenour really pumped me up since it was from someone who does not reside here and is an impartial observer. And also because he thoroughly understands the problems faced by a mayor of a small town.
(Our Jellico High football team faced Sweetwater High in a state playoff game a few years ago and I know who Judge Ridenour pulled for openly. And I don't doubt his loyalty to his adopted town one bit! But I have always wondered in his heart of hearts who he REALLY wanted to win that game that ended up with Sweetwater on top. As so many who have left here and returned will all agree, Jellico is just awfully hard to get out of a person's system.)
Everybody is reminded that our annual Jellico area "CLEAN UP, PAINT UP, FIX UP WEEK" will start this Saturday, April 27th and run through May 4th (which is actually an eight day period). And we request that every individual, church, school, business, group, organization, club, etc. get involved in a community-wide effort to improve the appearance of our town and our surrounding areas.
Three groups have already assured me that they will participate in one way or another. And there is a good possibility that we can get some badly needed work done on at least one or two downtown buildings during our special week.
It is important that we get the greatest participation possible if we are to make the event the success that we want it to be. GET INVOLVED! PLANT DOGWOODS, BRADFORD PEARS, AZALEAS, ETC.! PAINT SOMETHING NEEDING A FRESH COAT! REMOVE A DIPLAPIDATED AND UNSERVICEABLE STRUCTURE OF WHICH WE HAVE MANY! PICK UP LITTER AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD! MOW GRASS! TRIM SHRUBS! ETC.. There is just no end to the list of things that need our attention and springtime is the time to get them done!
Jimmy Lemons has agreed to organize and establish an open air/farmer's market on the former railroad property that was donated to us. We certainly want the area to be appealing and I have requested that the city council provide a nice decorative fence along with flower beds, shrubs, etc. to separate the area from Veterans Park Annex. (Similar markets have been very successful in some of our neighboring towns.)
One citizen told me that he plans to greatly increase the size of his garden this year in the hope that he can sell the extra produce in our proposed farmer's market. (And a lot of good fresh green beans, tomatoes, corn, etc. should be in great demand when they come in this summer.)
The beauty of the Dogwoods in bloom in our downtown sidewalks gives an idea of what our town can look like in a few years if we give the trees proper care, replant trees that have not survived and plant new trees in additional areas. And we need to place more waste receptacles throughout town and we also need to replace our flags on utility poles and to increase the number of brackets on the poles for additional flags. In fact the past council earlier voted to do just that and I believe that city administrator Tom Barclay stated during the meeting that they may already be on hand. But if not, we need to move quickly to approve these and other items that are intended to "dress up" our downtown as well as demonstrating our love of country and respect for the flag during this time of national crisis.
We are fast approaching Memorial Day and the flags will again be placed on the graves of our area deceased veterans as has long been the custom (since World War I veteran Clarence Lay began working alone to accomplish that task sometime in the 1920's or '30's). And I sure hope that we can have beautiful all-weather flags flying by that time on our main thoroughfares from city limit to city limit. But if not by Memorial Day, then certainly by July 4th.. It's a small price to pay in order to honor some who paid such a tremendously high price. And I love that statement, "All gave some and some gave all!" Certainly all are deserving of our gratitude that is symbolized by the displaying of our American flag.
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