Three years ago when I began doing my weekly colimm in the Jellico Advance-Sentinel, I never expected it to become anything like as popular as it turned out to be during the two years that I was writing about our town. And I certainly did not expect the volume of contacts and telephone calls that I have received in the last year asking me to resume my writing.
I can no longer continue to ignore all of those requests and I am going to resume my column and to publish it as often as possible. (I would like to again do it weekly as I did before but that will not be possible at the present time due to several considerations. But I will write as often as I have the available time and eventually I may be able lo get back to a weekly article.) Lisa Casey at Interstate 2000, Inc. who has always been extremely supportive of anything to benefit our town, has welcomed the chance to again place it on Jellico's Home Page on the Internet (www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm) due to the numerous requests she too has had from people from around the country who are hungry for news from Jellico and who have missed my column.
I greatly appreciate the coverage of meetings that we have had by the Jellico Advance-Sentinel and the Lafollette Press. But we badly need a Jellico newspaper that is written, published and distributed in Jellico. There have been some discussions as to what would be required to bring that about and the possibility exists for at least some funding for the purpose of starting a Jellico paper. And computer desktop publishing has certainly made that much more of a realistic possibility.
But in the meantime, I and others are going to publish this news sheet. In addition to my column, we hope to have future articles written by Jellico residents. And who knows? Creation of this sheet could eventually lead to the establishment of a regular newspaper. The first three news sheets will be free of charge and then we will begin charging 25 cents per copy only to help cover costs of paper, printing, and distribution. We are only interested in providing a community service and breaking even while doing it.
The appearance of this sheet is not important! The only thing that matters is that we get out Jellico news!
A lot of people have commented on the beauty of our Dogwoods that are already well past the blooming season. The blooms were not as big this year because no one had placed the "bloom explosion" around the roots as I had done during their first two years. Last summer's drought apparently killed the roots of several young trees that need replanting. But what trees we have remaining are growing and should become more beautiful with each passing year. I can still envision South Main Street, North Main Street and Fifth Street lined with Dogwoods in full bloom as I had planned to do. It had been my intention to complete that project by this time and to schedule our first "Spring Festival" for next April. But I seem to recall that it was Robert Burns who wrote those famous lines, "The best laid plans of mice and men .......!
There is a national movement to get trees planted in cities and towns all over America and more and more municipalities are participating in that drive. We were one step ahead in that respect but the council's refusal to accept the "Tree Grant" of $5.000.00 was a big setback for the project. (I was criticized by a few for planting them and especially for planting them in the sidewalks. But I walked down the Henley Street sidewalks in Knoxville this spring and Bradford Pears had been planted in the middle of the sidewalk. They too presented a beautiful appearance.
The nearby Boston community has just completed its PRIDE (cleanup) activities that included work release volunteers, students and a very large number of community residents. And the volume of rubbish, old tires, rusted metal, etc. that was collected staggers the imagination.
I am working with Glennis Monday to get Jellico involved in the "Great American Clean-up" in conjunction with "Tennessee Looks Good to Me" and the Campbell County Environmental Office. (Monday, Roger Byrge and others have been doing a great job in cleaning up our county and they are willing to help us with the activity.) Dates for the "Jellico Great American Clean-up" if finalized will be May 21-26. I hope that everyone will get involved including both individuals and organizations.
That of course is the week preceding tie Memorial Day holidays and the "Jeep Jamboree" to be held this year in Jellico. Mr. W. H. Bowlin talked with me a few days ago and gave me preliminary plans for the event. Approximately 200 jeeps are expected to be here for three nights. (It is my understanding that sponsors in addition to W H. include Billy Bowlin, Robert Cox, Charles Cox, Johnny Buckner and possibly others.
That is the very type of activity that W.H, and I discussed when we were planning and constructing the stage in Veterans Park.
Mr. Steve Jarboe appeared before the Jellico Planning Commission during its last meeting and discussed preliminary plans for a fitness center to be placed on the vacant lot on North Main Street near the post office. He expects to develop a site plan to be presented to the commission at our next meeting. If the fitness center is constructed, it should help to attract people back downtown and also provide a valuable health service.
Mr. James Ed Douglas and someone else that I cannot recall, suggested to me that the city explore the idea of purchasing the building that formerly housed Bill's Dollar Store and utilizing it for a community center. Some of the things that could be included would be a large screen TV area, shuffle board area, ping pomg tables, vending machines, tables for ceramics and other crafts areas for simply sitting, reading and talking, exercising etc.
I presented Mr. Douglas' idea to the council during the April Meeting for possible consideration. I personally think that it is a great idea if that building is suitable for providing an area where our citizens can stop in at their leisure. And that too should help bring people back to our downtown which has always been one of my main objectives. It is certainly an ideal location for that purpose.
Dick Creekmore has given me some of the ideas that he has for improving the area between Veterans Park Annex and the Family Drug Center. He is currently clearing that property and it is greatly improving the appearance of our downtown. And he has plans to renovate the old Jellico Home Builders building, "Mike's Graphics" has already occupied that building.
I understand that the former city administrator had been working on closing the open ditch on South Main Street between the Family Drug Center property and Jellico Drug/Llewellyns. But I do not know the status of the plans for that project at this time.
During my first year in office, I worked with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to accomplish the closing of that ditch since one-half of the ditch is state property. The D.O.T. at that time was concerned about the volume of water flow during periods of flooding and also the loss of parking along that side of the street. I do not know if those questions have been resolved as yet.
I have recently had three or four telephone conversations with Mr. Mike Ross, developer of "Rarity Mountain". Mr. Ross earlier purchased the city of Jellico building located on South Main Street and he more recently bought two of the badly deteriorated structures on Kentucky Street. And he is interested in purchasing a third building in that area. He hopes to restore some of the buildings if possible but admits that some may be beyond saving.
He indicated to me that he does not know what the full impact of the mountain development will be on our area but he has told me during each of our conversations that he and his associates will work in full cooperation with Jellico and surrounding communities. He is especially interested in working closely with Jellico High School to fully acquaint our students with the project and its potential for the future. Mr. Ross also stated that he is aware of our desire for some type of community activities/recreation center and that he would be glad to work with us toward achieving that objective should we continue to pursue such a facility.
(Although at least one local businessman has long been desirous of establishing a Jellico paper, I failed to mention the idea to Mr. Ross when talking with him. He too might be interested in helping us to establish a nearby newspaper that could serve Rarity Mountain and report progress on its development, activities and events, etc. etc. I will present him with the idea.)
There was a good contingent of Jellico folks present for this year's annual Orange and White game and of course most were there to see Brad Sharp in action. Brad was in on four or five offensive series and made one outstanding run of something like twelve or thirteen yards. And it took a pretty good tackle to stop his forward progress. But more importantly for a Tennessee fullback, he seemed to lead interference well and was in on one double team block at the boundary that took a defender out of bounds.
Both the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Court TV" have recently been in Campbell County interviewing Jellico's Eddie Barton, officer on the Campbell County Sheriff's staff. Those national TV shows have been doing stories on crimes which Barton has investigated. It is not known if or when they will be shown on national TV.
Our town was recently informed that Enstar Cable's negotiations with Gans Multi-Media regarding the latter's purchase of our local system have ceased. During the time that those negotiations were taking place, Enstar representatives appeared before the city council and committed to work toward improvements including the addition of "Sports South Network" to our current line-up of channels and at no extra cost for our users. I talked with Celeste Vossmeyer, Enstar Vice-President for Government Relations, and reminded her of that commitment and the fact that there was to be no charge for the extra channel. She promised to follow through on the original agreement. (A survey taken several years ago indicated that Sports South was the most desired channel at that time.)
I plan to again soon start writing articles concerning Jellico's past history that so many of our senior and other citizens have told me that they miss so much.
I worked with the Tennessee Historical Commission to obtain two new historical markers for the location where Grace Moore spent her childhood (Fifth Street) and another on North Main Street in front of the Post Office which is just a few feet from Kentucky Street. Kentucky Street was a dirt road during the Civil War when General Kirby Smith marched his Confederate army northward on that dirt road and eventually ended up in Frankfort, Kentucky where he captured the Kentucky State Capitol. (I understand that an ancestor of the Tidwell family was in that Army when it passed through what is now Jellico.) Residents of the Morley area complained to the Historical Commission that we had the Kirby Smith marker. They once had a similar marker there that had long ago disappeared. But they convinced the Historical Commission to place our marker back in Morley. But in a comedy of errors, the Tennessee Department of Transportation erroneously moved the Grace Moore marker to Morley. And apparently only a hand full of people either in Jellico or Morley even noticed the difference.
The last time I checked, Morley was being proudly proclaimed as the place where Grace Moore grew up. (The embarrassed Historical Commission has told me that they will correct the error and may have already done so.)
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John Clifton
P.O. Box 533
Jellico, TN 37762
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