I could not attend the recent Special Call meeting of the City Council to discuss health insurance for city employees since 8:00 AM in the morning is one of the busiest times of the day for a school principal. Substitutes have to be obtained for absent staff members, buses may be off schedule due to mechanical problems, slick roads, flooding of certain areas, etc., heat may not be working in one or more classrooms; and a myriad of situations have to be dealt with. And Councilman Jim Dobson was suffering with the flu or flu like symptoms and could not attend. But five members of Council did make the meeting which gave them a quorum for the purpose of discussing our present problems dealing with employee health insurance.
During the meeting, a motion was made by Councilman Dwight Osborn and approved by unanimous vote of all members present to advertise for bids to provide the employee insurance coverage. According to the advertisement "The City of Jellico is considering a plan which would include a health spending account and higher deductible". Additional information can be obtained from the Office of the City Recorder, 410 South Main Street, Jellico, Tennessee 37762, at (423) 784-6351, or contact Dwight Osborn at (423) 912-0671 or Alvin Evans.
Bids should be received by 4:00 PM on March 17, 2005 and may be opened and discussed at the regular March 17, 2005 meeting of the Jellico City Council."
This article was written just prior to Ground Hog Day when that fancy eastern ground hog "Punxsutawaney Phil" accompanied by folks in formal attire was to make his weather prediction for all of us after emerging from his hole, cage or in whatever he habitats in Punxsutawaney, Pennsylvania. For some reason, virtually the entire country looks to that particular woodchuck to predict our country's weather - although as I wrote last year about this time, Mississippi has its own "Dixie Dan" and Georgia has "General Beauregard Lee", groundhogs who are entrusted with the all-important job of long range weather forecasting in those areas.. Those folks simply do not intend to rely on some pampered Yankee rodent. And as I also wrote back then, maybe we need to designate one of our local groundhogs as well to forecast our weather.. Who's to say that our groundhogs don't have as much expertise in the field of meteorology as those with such fancy names? (I'll have to admit that the badly overweight groundhog that lives near a branch running through our property probably wouldn't make the effort required for weather forecasting. All of his time is spent looking for something to eat while keeping a sharp eye out for our dog. But as overweight as he is, he still easily beats the dog to his hole.)
Regardless of whether one or all of the designated and non-designated groundhogs saw their shadows or not, it will be incorrect to say that we will have six more weeks of "bad" weather. If it turns cold and the snow and ice come this month and even throughout next month, we sure can't complain about a bad winter so far. To date this has to be one of the mildest winters on record for this area. A televised event in Knoxville a few days ago had participants dressed in shorts and T-shirts. And I have personally seen shorts being worn in a few places.
Although we have not had a lot of bad weather, we have had times when roads were coated with "black ice" and I tend to believe that it was unseen ice on street/sidewalk that led to my broken ankle.
And did you see the recent story on the news concerning the East Tennessee county that had only three salt-spreading trucks in its inventory and all three trucks were placed out of commission within a matter of hours due to accidents on black ice. The county ended up having to pay to have salt brought in from other areas and spread which really got into their budgeted amount for that purpose. And it could happen anywhere because that ice can be hard to detect.
No matter what weather we may experience from here on in, baseball is starting spring training, the red, red Robins will be arriving before we know it and it's time for all of us to start thinking spring. And since I became mayor, I have each year proclaimed a week for a spring "Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up" campaign and I have scheduled the period May 7 - May 14 for this year's activity. Some folks completely ignore the special week but others really get involved and it is apparent that their efforts have made a difference.
It would be great if we could have the special "sprucing up" prior to the Easter Holiday weekend but every time that we have scheduled it for April, the weather has turned out to be cold and often rainy. And this year Easter falls on the last Sunday in March thereby greatly increasing the possibility of unsuitable weather - especially for doing any painting of structures. If we are lucky, May will be warm and sunny and we can continue the progress that we are making in improving the appearance of our town.
As I have previously reported, there may be some major building renovations taking place this spring. And here's hoping that everyone will mark those May dates on their calendars, make plans to improve their own property and pitch-in in any community wide projects that may be planned for that week such as repairs, painting, litter removal, planting of flowering trees and shrubs, etc. etc.. And County Environmental Officer Glennis Monday has always been good to help us with our special activities and I am sure that he will be available again this year.
With everyone working together we can have the prettiest small town around this area anywhere. But it will take us all in combined effort to achieve that goal!
Not only have we been very fortunate weather wise this year but we have also been blessed in the fact that the number of flu cases has been far below the number expected - although a lot of us including yours truly, did not receive a flu shot due to the earlier shortage of the flu vaccine.
However things may be about to change! One of the national television networks recently reported that Kentucky has a greatly increased reported number of flu cases. We are experiencing increased absenteeism in local schools and some school systems in Tennessee have reportedly closed for differing lengths of time due to flu and other viruses. Let's all pray that we don't yet experience the widespread flu outbreak that was originally predicted last fall.
(Although the vaccine seems to be in ample supply at the present time, is it in time to help us at this late stage? A lot us are dealing with that question right now!)
My recent intended humorous comment quoted in the Christian Journal-Leader concerning naming of a "Miss Jellico" was actually taken seriously by some and there have been questions concerning when the once very popular Miss Jellico Pageant" had been restarted. Actually it has not been resurrected and our current "Miss Jellico" received that title strictly by appointment. (And there are no plans to have a "Miss Jellico" unit in our next Christmas parade that could detract from our three Santa's.)
However mention of the Pageant brought back memories to a lot of Jellico High alumni who can still remember that activity initiated by the late Elva Morton and for several years sponsored and conducted by Jellico High School that had such local popularity and was looked to with great anticipation each spring. The "Miss Jellico Pageant" produced some participants who went on to higher honors including Carol Ketchersid who was named as a runner-up in the "Miss Tennessee Pageant" in Jackson, Tennessee; Buleah Smith who was later crowned "Miss Knoxville" in the "Miss Knoxville Pageant" and as a runner-up "Miss Tennessee" in the "Miss Tennessee Pageant"; Cheryl Ballinger selected as "Miss Congeniality" in the nationally televised "Junior Miss Pageant" in Montgomery, Alabama; and Kim Maiden who was proclaimed as "Miss Tennessee National Teenager" in Nashville and later competed in the "Miss National Teenager Pageant" in Lehigh Acres, Florida that featured Pat Boone as Master of Ceremonies.
That's pretty high cotton for girls from our small town and the high school or some community group might want to consider restarting the Pageant to once again give our girls such an opportunity. It sounds like there would be an awful lot of interest.
The crowd for the first music in the Community Conference Room was larger than anyone expected. As I wrote prior to that event, we need something around here to help pass the winter nights and folks certainly took advantage of that first activity.
Larry Meadors, Bill Rigney, et al, will be back again on Saturday, February 19th starting at 7:00 PM.. Admission is free, refreshments are also free, door prizes are presented throughout the program, and the music is very good..
Final note: I often receive e-mail in response to this column on Internet Website www.jellico.com/mayor with comments concerning the subjects about which I write, requests for information, remembering past folks and experiences in Jellico and numerous related topics. And I love to receive and read them all although I usually do not have time to respond to anything like all of them.
I also receive an awful lot of correspondence that I do not open due to the fact that there is no name and/or subject cited on the mail. I would request that everyone who e-mails me at the Mayor's office to include name, e-mail address, and subject. There is just too much spam, viruses, worms, etc. to take a chance and open something of which I am not sure. Opening such spam just serves to create more spam.
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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Visit the City of Jellico's Web Site at: www.jellico.tn.us