My sincere apology to the Jellico Rescue Squad. I sure did not mean to leave those folks off my list of participants in the Emergency Personnel Appreciation Day. They were there and they did a great job with their demonstration of life saving skills.
Prior to this year’s 99th Assembly of the Church of God Mountain Assembly, I talked with church officials concerning next year’s 100th anniversary of the founding of that church. I mentioned it during my welcoming address to the delegates and visitors, and church officials including Reverend Fred Cornelius, General Overseer, did the same. The cover of the church’s official publication, The Gospel Herald, in its September issue features an artist’s concept of what the Tabernacle will look like once a massive renovation has been completed along with the theme “Getting Ready to Celebrate 100 Years”.
Preliminary plans call for an “extra special” assembly next year to commemorate those first 100 years - and rightfully so. All church congregations in the now international Assembly are being asked to make a special effort to come to Jellico to attend and to get involved in the commemoration. And although the city of Jellico cannot sponsor a parade or special activities of any kind for any one church or denomination, we certainly can cooperate with the church in carrying out any of its planned activities as we do for all churches and other non-profit organizations (including the possibility of a parade to kickoff the event). And they can rest assured that as a town, we will do just that!
As I told those in attendance this past August, it is hard for me to imagine Jellico without the Mountain Assembly since much of the history of the church and the history of Jellico run simultaneously. It’s equally hard for me to imagine the Mountain Assembly without Jellico. On one occasion in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, the annual Assembly was held in Cincinnati. But it only took that one occasion to convince church leaders at that time that Jellico and the Jellico area will always be the birthplace of the Assembly and that it belongs right here!
Although most if not all of those church leaders are now gone, nothing to my knowledge has changed down through the past fifty or sixty years to change their long ago conclusion!
It’s just about Fall Fest time (Friday, September 30th and Saturday, October 1st) and the City Council at last Thursday night’s meeting discussed the fact that the Fest grows bigger with each passing year. And this year’s turnout is expected to be much larger due to the outstanding entertainment that is scheduled. Traffic movement through town is becoming a real problem during the two days of that activity - but it’s a very welcome problem!
Vice-Mayor and Chairman of the Tourism Commission Alvin Evans proposed a study to be carried out by himself, Tourism Director Jake Bennett and Police Chief Tony Day to determine the feasibility of closing North Main Street from the central traffic light to the traffic light at the Post Office and sending traffic through the three blocks on Broad Street and/or Kentucky Street on Friday and Saturday.
If the decision is made to put that traffic plan into place, an announcement will be made as soon as possible so that locals at least will be aware of the change,. (South Main/Fifth Street will not be affected.) It will probably inconvenience some for a couple of days but the positive affect the Fest has upon our town makes it well worth any inconvenience might create.
I mentioned Jellico High School Homecoming 2005 in my last notes and I received some out-of-town e-mail complimenting me on those notes and also wondering why I did not cite the exact date for the activity. I guess “father time” made me omit that most important information.
Homecoming this year will be the weekend of October 14th and 15th and some local churches usually have homecoming services to coincide. (I am not sure of all the churches that may plan on having such special services this year but the First Baptist Church will have a homecoming revival to coincide with HC ’05..)
This year’s homecoming is being publicized as the 100th year of alma mater although there have always been questions as to whether the first class graduated in 1905 or 1906.. But who’s going to quibble over one year either way and it is good that special emphasis is being placed upon this year’s annual gathering of the alumni.
Plans are being finalized for the Veterans’ Day (November 11th) ceremony to be held at our Veterans Monument. The ceremony will be conducted at 4:00 PM that day to honor all veterans –both surviving and deceased.
But this year’s observance will have increased significance since the name of SSgt Barton Siler who lost his life in Iraq will be added to the Memorial Plaque honoring veterans killed during armed conflict.. And the Veterans Memorial Committee expects several out of town visitors for the event along with extensive media coverage.
We can never thank anyone too much who gave their life for our country and I hope that our community will come together for the posthumous honoring of SSgt Siler. And our troops in the field certainly need our support at the present time and every patriotic observance is evidence of our support. (A national “Support the Troops” rally is planned for Washington D.C. this weekend. Here’s hoping that have a huge crowd in attendance.)
When I originally ran for mayor I outlined four goals for my administration including
One of our business owners told me last week that he really believes that we are being successful with building a positive attitude in Jellico. And if he is correct in his belief, then we are well on the way toward getting the job done. Some of us remember when as kids we were told by our teachers that “can’t” won’t let us accomplish anything. That’s as true today as it was then! And if we truly want to restore the community pride that we once had in Jellico, we have got to remain positive in both our thinking and actions.
Jellico librarian Mark Tidwell submitted a report to the City Council detailing the fact that since July 1, 2005 there have been 12,513 patron visits or an average of 11 visits per operational hour. Circulation totaled 18,373 items or an average of 16 items per operational hour. Additionally there was an average of 50 patrons per week who utilized the computers for access to the Internet which came to a total of 2600 visits. And the library is now open an additional 2 hours per week, up from 23 to 25 hours.
It’s good to know that our folks are utilizing our public library so much. As I have written numerous times in the past, a well stocked and well run library such as our Jellico Public Library is a valuable asset for any community. It’s great having material available for reading pleasure, research and ready reference.
And speaking of reference books: Have you picked up a copy of the new “World Almanac”? I haven’t seen one yet but I understand it is out. I doubt if it will have any information on the “signs” for us to plant our gardens by next spring; tell folks when to wean calves; or what to do about warts, head lice, shingles and numerous other bodily aggravations.. But as I understand it, those subjects and countless others have been covered at one point or another since the Almanac was first published in 1868 with only a short break - and at one time was so full of such “vital” information that it was considered virtually a requirement for every American home.
Instead the Internet publicity for this year’s edition cites the fact that it will include information on such contemporary subjects as steroids, mortgage rates, baseball, science, Islam, nations of the world, etc..
Is no facet of American culture sacred anymore? Has everything gotten so modern? How are we even going to know when to plant beans next spring? (On second thought, that won’t be any problem. We all know that they are to be planted on Good Friday every year anyway.)
Do churches still “turn folks out” like they once did? I haven’t heard of it in several years but turning members out of church was a serious matter in its day. However looking back on that practice can also be humorous by today’s standards.
One of my staff members at Boston Elementary School is a member of a church that for many years was very strict in its requirements for continued membership as most were. And I can remember when some of our local churches were likewise very, very strict as well. In fact I can barely recall an old song that we sang in church when I was a very small boy that cited many sins that members could commit that were not to be tolerated. And upon finding out about those sins according to the words of that song, the offenders were to be “turned out and let the church roll on”. And that’s literally what happened more than just a little bit.
I had a cousin “turned out” for donning men’s pants to help her father kill a hog in the very cold temperatures back in those days when folks still raised swine for their winter’s meat supply. He could not hire anyone to assist him with the task so she agreed to help him and wore the pants for warmth while out in the weather. One of the sisters of the church happened to pass her house and saw her and immediately reported her to the church elders. A business meeting was called and she was summarily “turned out” and removed from the church roll. And I can remember senior citizen members discussing several others who were similarly dismissed from church membership for “backsliding” into smoking, imbibing alcohol, cursing, singing and/or whistling “bad” songs (any songs and tunes of a non-religious nature) and other transgressions forbidden by strict church covenant and policy.
The above mentioned BES staff member informed us recently that her work in the church gave her an opportunity to look back through their historical records for many years. And she found numerous instances where members were “turned out” of the congregation for a variety of reasons. And one poor fellow who had been unceremoniously booted from the congregation had been caught in obviously worldly pursuits.. Apparently he had attended some type of traveling show and stopped at the primate cage which led to his undoing. According to the records, he was caught red handed while gazing in the cage by another member and his membership revoked for “looking at a monkey”..
So help me! She swears it’s true!
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