An e-mail from Lt. Col. Jim Smith in Virginia who writes:

Mayor Clifton, If you ever wonder if anyone outside Jellico reads your articles, the answer is yes! Occasionally I check the Jellico website to see what is happening in my hometown. Your articles are very informative and I can just picture the concerts, parades, city clean-ups, etc. just as if were there in person.

I'm a 1980 graduate of JHS and after graduating from Cumberland College in 1984, I joined the Air Force in Chantilly, Va. (approximately 20 minutes West of downtown Washington, D.C..)

I work at the (assignment withheld) where I've been now for almost two years. It has been a wonderful military career but I've decided to retire this coming year (2006) My family and I (wife Laura, daughters Jenna-16, Emily-14, and Lindsey-9) plan to stay in the Washington, DC area after retirement...

We occasionally get back to Jellico, TN to visit my parents (EJ & Bessie Smith) and we were there this past July. I'll stop by and say hello next time we are in town.

Great to hear from you Colonel Smith and it is a source of personal pride to me to learn of your success in our military forces. We are certainly appreciative of the contributions that you and all of our servicemen and women make in protecting our freedom. But your e-mail sure makes me feel old. It seems only yesterday that you were attending Jellico High.

I do receive an awful lot of out-of-town and out-of-state e-mail and US postage type mail concerning these articles and it is great to get them and to read them all although I do not always have time to respond. (And do be sure to stop by and say hello when in Jellico.)

Johnny Wayne Loudin, also in the United States Air Force but who did not cite his present duty station, e-mailed me to give his comments concerning our town. Among those comments were the following statements:

Mr. John Clifton, Mayor of Jellico, I am writing this letter in regards to my home Jellico. I love Jellico with all my heart. I have said many times that I would never move back to Jellico, though, mostly because of the lack of pride I oft times see..

Jellico has improved so much in the last several years. The town is coming along so well..

………………………I tell everyone everywhere I go about Jellico… Jellico is a city that everyone should be proud of. …………………………………….

You are totally correct Johnny Wayne in your statement concerning the fact that for several years some of our citizens had seemed to have lost their pride in Jellico. But as you mention, I see a big reversal in the overall attitude of our people and we are starting to greatly improve the appearance of our town. We are aware of many of the problems that you mentioned in your e-mail that you observed while growing up here and we are attempting to solve many of them.

Thank you too for your service to our country and we hope that you will seriously consider returning here in the future. We need young folks in Jellico with your dedication and concern to help us in our drive to restore our town and our community pride.

And Robert Brown e-mailed to say:

I left Jellico in summer of 1962 between my sophomore and junior year in high school. My name is Robert Brown, my mom and dad were Nannie and Sparky Brown. We lived on Kentucky Street next to Sam Windor's house. Nellie Smiddy purchased the house from my dad and lived there for several years. From time to time I read your column and want you to know how much I appreciate your work to make continuous improvement to my hometown.

I wanted to give you some information about a great small town Christmas Parade that I have enjoyed several times The City of Fort Payne, Alabama puts on a first class act---always on a Saturday night -I think the first Saturday in December.. It is always cold and the people just come expecting that. I always enjoyed the parades in Jellico…………Always had a great time.

Thanks to people like you and others that work so hard to make the events happen -you are the Memory Makers-thank you!

Thank you Robert from bringing back some memories to us. The folks you mention above are all gone from us now but they are most definitely still with us in our memories. And that is also certainly true of your brother Clarence (Sparky) Jr. that attended JHS homecoming every year until his passing. We greatly miss him at that activity.

I had an opportunity to talk with your sister a few summers ago when her husband was running for Congress and they came to Jellico.. (Her father-in-law was Dr. Bill Coffield, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Tenn and a member of my graduate committee.)

Your comments concerning the Christmas Parade in Fort Payne were interesting and that is almost exactly what we have discussed trying in Jellico -although ours would most likely be held on the second Saturday in December.. Your remark concerning the cold and the fact that everyone in that town just expects and accepts it sure caught my attention. That is one of our biggest concerns in having our parade at night in Jellico. But as I wrote in an earlier article, Christmas time is supposed to be cold around here anyway.

And I would say that some enterprising individual who happened to set up some big pots and sell hot chocolate in Veterans Park (or under the sidewalk hangover at Bills Dollar Store/Buck's Hardware Store) would do a thriving business.. I would probably be the first customer in line!

By far and away we are not the only town experiencing problems with birds - whether pigeons or those of another feather. I have been contacted by folks in other towns in reference to our problem here in Jellico and last Friday I received an e-mail from Robin Durbin, Marathon Oil Service Representative, that contained a copy of an article in the Maryville, Tennessee newspaper The Daily Times.. That article detailed the trouble Maryville is having with Starlings:

………………….As in previous years, the city (Maryville) has fallen on the migratory path of the birds and thousands are now nesting at various sites…………………………..

"The birds fly around all day feeding but they always come back to the same spot to roost in the evening", Animal Control Officer Eddie King said. "This may not seem like a problem on the surface, but it's not unusual to have up to 1,000 Starlings roosting in one tree. Herein lies the noise and the mess. The "mess" of bird droppings is not only unpleasant, but can cause disease…………….

According to that same article, the City of Maryville is going to attack the problem by firing off propane cannons with their very loud noise in attempt to drive them from the town. The cannons will be shot at 30-second intervals beginning around 5:15 PM and continuing for about 20 minutes two or three times a week..

(We are going to try several options to help us with our problems with pigeons and we may want to try Maryville's approach if ours are not successful. Thanks for the info Mr. Durbin).)

The trains are running! That is good news too for those of us who have never known Jellico without railroads and trains. I was greatly concerned for an extended period of time due to the fact that there didn't seem to be any usage of the tracks leading out of Jellico through the south end of town and through Newcomb, Elk Valley, etc. as they made their way toward Knoxville. I was afraid that we might soon end up losing the railroad (which will inevitably happen some day.) However the badly deteriorating rails and wooden cross ties have been replaced and extensive other work completed insuring that our railway will be open for at least the foreseeable future - and in recent days I have seen at least two trains preparing to pull out of what is left of our once huge and busy railroad yard.. And boy can today's diesel engines pull some awfully long trains - with almost any number of gondolas loaded with 90 tons or so of coal.

Many of us can remember when the large area deep mines were operating (Morley, Eagen, Pruden, etc.) when as many as two or three steam engine trains with smoke pouring out left Jellico every day. And of course similar trains were coming back into town with the empty gondolas. Some of us can even still well remember the Jellico passenger depot and the passenger trains that always came in from the north and backed into the depot. You always saw the rear of the trains both coming and going.

Those days are gone forever but we still need to hold on to what rail service that we still have here as long as we possibly can.. To some of us, Jellico will never be the same without at least occasionally seeing a train coming or going.

You can really meet some nice folks if you stop and talk with those who visit and camp at Indian Mountain State Park. When I am walking there I try to introduce myself to as many visitors as possible and tell them how glad we are to have them in Jellico.

A few days ago I met a recently retired couple from Michigan who have been making regular stops here in the past few years while on vacation and in preparation for eventually moving to Florida upon retirement. But according to those folks, they have just fallen in love with our Park and with Jellico. I told them that we would love to have them join us permanently.

Tourists and visitors spend money for food, gasoline, camping supplies, etc. (not to mention lottery tickets).. And as an old slogan utilized by the state of Tennessee for several years stated, "Be good to our visitors. They are very good to us!"

I got a chuckle from a fellow who told me that he read what I wrote in my last article concerning a cantankerous goose that blocked the walking trail in Indian Mountain State Park and forced me to have to go around him. I kinda' wondered in that article if there was anyway that he could have heard about the things I had written earlier concerning the Canadian geese in the park.

That fellow said that he believed that he might have encountered that same goose once in the past but he laughingly stated that he hadn't said or written anything that should have made him raw toward him.. (Must just be a carryover from the disputes between our country and Canada.)

I believe that I have a pretty smart granddaughter, Georgia Ann (just as everyone else feels about their grandchildren). Expecting the birth of a new baby sister for her, my daughter Kasee explained to her how doctors could "see" the baby well before birth by utilizing today's medical technology - and at four years of age she seemed to understand at least part of what she was told

But what really puzzled her and kept her wondering was the fact that they could tell that it's going to be a girl. Finally one day a light came on in her head and she ran excitedly to tell her mother that she believed she had finally solved the mystery..

According to her, the baby probably has a ribbon in its hair! (Pretty smart if you ask papaw!)

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

Go back to the Mayor's Page .

Visit the Archives of the Mayor's Column .

Visit the City of Jellico's Web Site at: www.jellico.tn.us