I mentioned in earlier articles that Rarity Mountain developer Mike Ross has indicated his appreciation for the timely assistance that he has received from Jellico and all of Campbell County. And we have had great help and cooperation from the office of Congressman Lincoln Davis in our quest for funds to provide utilities to that development.\
In an e-mail to McGill Engineers and to my office pertaining to our grant request required to obtain funding for installation of water lines to Rarity Mountain, Brandi McBride, Legislative Director for Congressman Davis, states: "I wanted to share a quick status update on your appropriations request. We have submitted the proposal on your behalf and will now wait for the appropriators to review our request. As I have mentioned previously, the appropriations process is a bit extensive and will take a couple of months for any progress or movement. As developments occur I will keep you informed. We are pleased to be able to work on your behalf and thank you for the opportunity to help make a difference."
We certainly appreciate the assistance of Congressman Davis and Legislative Director McBride and the fact that they continuously keep us informed of developments. In the meantime as I have also previously noted in these articles, our Jellico Utilities Department and the Lafollette Utilities Department have been cooperating and working together with Mr. Ross to insure that water will immediately be available on a temporary basis for construction purposes while we search for funds for the permanent installation of all required water lines that will run from Jellico to the development site -and then later to the particular areas of construction.
(In a somewhat humorous yet entirely understandable misunderstanding, a gentleman from up north who apparently plans to soon retire and move to Tennessee, confused our Jellico development with a development at Tellico that he had heard about. Puzzled, he stopped by the city recorder's office recently and talked to Linda Meadors trying to understand among other things, where a big lake could be located on top of that mountain. And there will probably be more such confusion in the future since the names are so very similar.
Remember that we will have the Extreme East Rock Crawling competitors here this weekend. April 21, 22, 23.. And I want to thank city employees Jerome Smith and Red Lynch who have offered to voluntarily donate their after-hours time to work with that group to see that they have everything that they will need readily available to them in Veterans Park..
As a Tennessee State Tourism slogan of several years ago stated something to the affect, "Be good to our visitors. They are very good to us!" (By providing tourism dollars to our local economy with no overhead cost.) But we want them here for much more than just the commercial aspect since most of them are very nice folks to meet and extremely interesting to talk with. And they sure bring some extremely interesting vehicles.
The first "old timers baseball" game for this season will also be played this Saturday, April 23rd. 1:00 PM.. Carroll-Wilson Field. Come and participate. I am thankful that the ability to play well is not a requirement - only a love for the game is needed!
Another reminder that the big "Wooldridge Homecoming" is scheduled for Saturday, April 30th at Indian Mountain State Park. (An e-mail from an out-of-state fellow who read my last article on the Internet said that Colonel James Woolridge may have been a descendent of the George Washington family although he was not sure. I had never heard that but it's interesting.)
A ministerial group including Reverend Steve Meeks, is planning a "time of prayer" for our town and our country to be held in front of the Municipal Building. Thursday, May 5th at 12:00 Noon. Everyone is asked to make a note on their personal calendars of the date and time for that activity and all who can are invited to stop by and join in.
We are now only a little over two weeks from the start of our annual "Jellico Clean-up, Fix-up, Paint-up Week" that starts Saturday, May 7th and I hope that we have maximum participation for that activity. Remember too that Indian Mountain State Park will be simultaneously involved in that special week for sprucing up and will begin their activities with a "May Day" that same Saturday. (Contact sponsor Alla Faye Rutherford for more details concerning a schedule of activities for "May Day" on Saturday, May 7th.. Call her at 784-3420 10:00 AM -10:00 PM)
It's getting close to graduation time once again and on behalf of our City Council and our citizens, I want to congratulate all of our soon to be graduates of the Jellico High School Class of 2005.. JHS "Graduation Day" is Friday, May 20th..
According to Assistant Principal Raymond Surber, the Valedictorian this year is AMY HARP, daughter of Gary and Elizabeth Harp. The class Salutatorian is ASHELY GULLEY, daughter of Oscar and Melinda Gulley. Others in the top five academically are SEAN ANDERSON, son of Donna and Terry Singley and Jeff Anderson; ASHLEY HUGHES, daughter of Danny and Carolyn Hughes; and APRIL CARR, daughter of Richard and Mildred Carr. (Photos of our top five JHS seniors were carried in the April 15th edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.)
We have several UT football season ticket holders in Jellico and I wonder if they have closely studied the multi-million dollar renovations scheduled to take place at Neyland Stadium. Although far from definite and only from studying the preliminary plans, it seems to me that at least some of us might possibly be uprooted to make room for part of the new Club Seating with its large padded outdoor seats under cover, a private indoor hospitality area featuring complimentary food and beverages, "dedicated" rest room facilities, an elevator to club level, priority parking, etc..
Two East Club seats (opening 2006) will cost a $ 50,000.00 "Campaign Gift" but payable over a five years period along with an "Annual Donation & Fee" of $ 8,000.00.. But if that's too rich for your blood, South Club seats (opening 2009) and where it appears that several of us locals are now located, two seats will be available for $ 30,000.00 "Campaign Gift" payable over five years and an "Annual Donation & Fee" of only $ 5,000.00.
I realize that there is a place for those types of facilities and it is good that we have folks who can afford such prices and are willing to pay them.. And it is also good that the program can raise that kind of money. But they don't need to totally forget the alumni and the rank and file Big Orange fans who have remained faithful for year after year. I well remember my days in high school and long before I went to work for the Athletic Department as a graduate administrative assistant, when Jellico High Football Coach Curt Weaver would take us to the games, meet the legendary and all-time great, George "Bad News" Cafego, who years later became my good friend, and who would turn us into the stadium through a wire gate at the north end of the stadium. They wanted a crowd so badly for some games in those days that I am not sure that they even charged us to get in. Now it seems that the average working fan could eventually be priced totally out of the picture and parents will no longer be able take their kids to see a game. How things have changed in the past few years.
Whitley County Superintendent of Schools Lonnie Anderson sometimes sends me information concerning local history that includes Jellico. A recent article he forwarded to me includes the fact that the first Catholics who settled in this area were workers for the railroad companies. In 1882, Sunday mass was offered on a regular basis when priests from Knoxville traveled to Jellico and began services for the railroad people. The first Catholic Church in this area was built on the Kentucky side of Jellico and St. Boniface Church is known as the mother parish of eastern Kentucky because it was one of the earliest Catholic churches in the Appalachian area.
(I will never forget the sadness that many of us felt, Catholic and Protestant alike, when the beautiful and original St. Boniface burned a few years ago. That was a terrible loss for our town.)
The article states that a post office was located on the Kentucky side of what is now Jellico in 1832 with James Gilreath postmaster - 23 years before that first post office was apparently moved right across the state line to the village of Smithburg (now Jellico), Tennessee in 1855..
The Woolridge reunion coming up on Saturday has intrigued me concerning another community bordering Woolridge. I was born on Indian Mountain and spent my first years of very early childhood there. Upon first learning to talk, I heard folks talking about Oswego but I had no idea where it was located - even though it was less than a mile from where we lived. (Little kids just didn't get around much in those days.) I eventually did learn its location but I have never stopped wondering where the name came from! I have thought it was possibly derived from the name of a mining company - but where did the company get the name? Was it a family name (I have never heard that family name although I am sure that it exists)? Did it come from an American Indian tribe not native to this area? Or could it have come from the name of a town or city such as Oswego, New York that was brought here by a coal mining investor?
Recently I was talking to a man who said that he had been told by an ole-timer now long deceased, that the name actually came about due to a situation that developed upon the arrival of railroads in the Smithburg (later Jellico) area in 1883.. According to that story, spurs were run from the main track into virtually every "holler" around here including what was to become the location of the Oswego (Falls Branch???) Coal Company. Coal operators privately owned the small steam engines known as "dingys" and by other names, that pulled the gondolas filled with coal to the main line where they were then moved by larger trains to the industrialized cities and areas. Following their shifts of work, tired miners often rode the trains out of the hollows until they reached the main line. Then they had to jump off.
Again according to the story that was related to me, a fireman with a speech impediment who stoked the coal boilers that provided the steam for the engine working the Falls Branch area would yell for everyone to get off the train when it began the slowing down as it approached the main line track.. Meaning to loudly yell, "off we go", it would come out of his mouth as "os we go". And the name stuck!
Gosh only knows if that story is true but until someone convinces the two of us differently, it will just have to do!.
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