Three things that I write about on a regular basis are: (1) the improvements that are being made to our downtown because I believe that we need to constantly keep our downtown renovation and revitalization goals on the front burner, (2) the amazing number of folks located in so many different areas of the country who now indicate that they take these articles from the Internet and the fact that the number continues to increase, and (3) the volume of e-mail that I receive from those folks.

The past few days I have received two e-mails from individuals who have read past issues on the Internet, wrote down their comments concerning what is taking place in our downtown, and then e-mailed me those comments - taking in all three of the above with one big swoop. A former Jellico resident e-mailed to say:
"I am interested in rejuvenating one of the buildings in old downtown Jellico. As of now I am currently living in Texas. I was raised in Jellico and I am moving back home within a few months with hopes and serious plans to open a new business…………………………………

'I would love to have any information on the buildings downtown, such as ownership, price, contacts, etc. Any info would be helpful and appreciated."

(I replied to the above request and supplied the names and phone numbers of a couple of owners of buildings in the downtown for the writer to contact if he chooses to do so. And I will be glad to supply his name and e-mail address to any other downtown building owners who may want to contact him concerning any downtown structures they possess and might want to sell.)

And another e-mail from a gentleman in Florida was very complimentary of what has been taking place in Jellico. (I will also make the writers name and address available to anyone who might want to contact him.)

"I just read a couple of your columns and thought I would e-mail you. I was born in Jellico, lived in Newcomb until I was about 8 years old. My father then moved us to Indianapolis where I went to school, joined the Air Force, came back and got married and ended up in Florida.

Have been married to the same woman for 32 years and have a 14 years old son.

'One of my aunts who lived in Norris, passed away back in early February, so I came up with some time on my hands and I decided to drive up to Jellico by the way of Elk Valley and Newcomb………………………………………………………………………………………..

'To the point of my e-mail, I wanted to say to you that I have not seen Jellico looking so good in so many years. You and the City should be very proud of the fine job that you have done. Keep it up and thank you for making it look a lot like it was when I left as a boy."

The above e-mails are proof positive that what we are doing is drawing attention. And they (especially the latter) emphasize a point! The improvements being made are of such a gradual nature that we who live here don't notice them nearly as much as those who are here on a much more irregular basis.. And it is sometimes hard for us to remember what our downtown had become just a few short years ago. If someone saw our downtown back then and has not been back here in recent years, it can really make an impression upon the viewer upon returning.

But the attitude of our locals is becoming much more positive as well! Keith Blair has informed me that the Jellico Rescue Squad that is always doing things to help our area citizens, also wants to contribute to the drive to improve the appearance of our downtown. He says that squad members are hopeful of receiving and utilizing grant funds for the bricking of the Squad Hall, adding nice awnings and blacktopping the surrounding area. That sounds great!

We are getting more folks involved and few will deny that things are looking up In Jellico.. But the job is far from finished and as I constantly point out, we just have to all stay at the task - all of us! We sure don't need to let up now since the end is at last in sight!

While still on the subject of the downtown, who three or four years ago would have ever believed that the Zecchini Heat and Air building would ever look the way it does now? That building is a great example of what can be done to the appearance of some of our deteriorated buildings and as I understand it, an awning is planned for that structure as well which will further add to its already very appealing front.

And as I wrote earlier, the windows display in that building is a wonderful tribute to our area Veterans and is very appropriately located directly across from the Veterans Memorial Monument. In fact I saw several of the Veterans who participated in the Memorial Day weekend ceremony and others in attendance, later crossing the street and gathering around the windows to look at the exhibits and photos. And more items of interest have been added since that time!

The wrestling shows held downtown are entertaining, enjoyed by folks and with no true violence! The entire thing is done in a good spirit of participation and everyone leaves happy!

But I remember one time when I was principal at Jellico High and the Rescue Squad or some other public service agency was sponsoring wrestling in our gymnasium and we narrowly averted violence - but not from the competition in the ring. One wrestler had the other ready to pin to the mat when a spectator reached through the ropes of the ring and really walloped him right on the head with some kind of heavy club to save his "hero" from defeat. The injured and bleeding wrestler forgot his opponent and came out of the ring with mayhem on his mind and ready to take on the offending fan... Only on-duty police officers prevented major violence -the real kind!

Our annual "Classic Car Show" is scheduled for this Saturday, June 18th starting at 9:00 AM in Veterans Park. Trophies will be awarded at 3:00 PM..

There is no way of predicting the number of vintage vehicles that will be entered. But if publicity draws a large participation, then we should have an increased number of entries this Saturday over previous years.. Tourism Director Jake Bennett, Jerome Smith and Deborah Smith have visited other shows and exhibitors throughout our area and have distributed a large number of publicity flyers pertaining to our Jellico show. (The long range weather forecast is good but we all know about that!) But hopefully the forecast will hold and we have a record turnout!

As announced last week, the Fourth of July observance this year will be cut short since the Fourth falls on Monday. Gospel music will be featured and the Cupp Family will arrange for a combination of local and national gospel groups for Saturday, July 2nd starting at 12:00 Noon and running until 10:00 PM.. (A reminder that prospective vendors can claim spots in the Veterans Park starting at 6:00 PM on Friday, July 1st on a first come/first claim basis.)

There will be no city sponsored activities on Sunday.

I haven't talked with any area Veterans but hopefully they will do some type of patriotic observance on Monday, July Fourth to remind us all of why we celebrate on that particular day each year. (It would be great if a ceremony that day could coincide with the placement of the name of Sgt. Barton Siler on the Monument although that might not be possible.)

The "Monday Night Jammers" gospel group that gets together every week in the Community Conference room to play and sing, will perform Monday evening.. . 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM.. The Jammers include some of those in the locally popular bluegrass group "Clearfork" and hopefully that group will perform as well. They can really do some great "pickin' and a singin".. The fire works display will begin as close to 10:00 PM as possible - although there can be delays due to weather conditions and other factors. (The starting time on Monday for the singing was originally announced as 6:00 PM but has been rescheduled to 7:00 PM.)

We getting requests for Bill Rigney to again perform on our stage. Maybe after all of the current activity is completed, we can get him back by popular demand.

Have you watched the television commercial that includes the late Johnny Cash's singing, "I've Been Everywhere"? As I have written before, to the best of my knowledge Cash was never in Jellico (although June Carter Cash was here more than once).. But that song was first made popular by country music legend Hank Snow who sometime around 1950 when I was a kid, drew the largest crowd to the Jellico baseball park that I still have personally ever seen. Snow was one of the most popular entertainers in the entire country at that time and completely filled our baseball park to capacity including the stands, sidelines, outfield, etc.. Folks came from everywhere and not all of them may have been able to get in for Snow's performance. When he sang his all-time super hit, "I'm Moving On" and another of his greatest hits, "Golden Rocket", a roar went up from the crowd for each of those songs that was close to deafening.

Later when Snow recorded the song "I've Been Everywhere" that too became very popular, he made sure that he named Jellico in the long list of places that included world wide travel and even "crossing the burning sands". (If I hear Cash correctly in the commercial, he places Jellico either right before or right after Idaho - and of course either way, they rhyme perfectly.)

I was a day or two late with these notes last week due to a problem with our duplicating machine and I heard from my readers. Mrs. Josephine Siler told me that she was looking forward to hers and that she was disappointed when it didn't come out. A man and his wife stopped me while I was walking in Indian Mountain State Park over the weekend requesting a current copy and I had to tell them that I wouldn't be able to distribute them for two or three more days.. The same thing happened to me as I was walking to my truck on Broad Street.

Mrs. Jane Church says that she can't help but wonder what will happen to these notes after I leave the mayor's office because she greatly enjoys them and looks forward to them.. Former Jellico librarian, Mrs. Dorothy Potter, made a point to tell me how much she liked my last article.

And a senior citizen lady thanked me for writing and distributing these notes. According to her, in past years she didn't know very much about what was happening in Jellico and when folks called or wrote her from out of town asking her what was taking place here, her standard answer was usually something to the effect, "not much that I know of"! Now according to her, she fills them in on what I write in these notes and even mails some of them out to relatives.

As I stated above, we had duplicating machine trouble last week and Linda Meadors was not able to run them off after hours as she often does. But Utilities Director John Leach and the staff at the utilities department - stating that they did not want me to miss getting out an issue - came to my rescue and Gail Sharp ran them off late Friday and very early on Monday morning. John says that he takes one home to his wife Corky every week and didn't want to go home without her copy, Corky too is a faithful reader and enjoys these columns. (We sure have a lot of highly intelligent ladies in Jellico don't you know!)

E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us

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