We have recently had questions from our citizens as to what exactly happens when an application for a permit to sell beer is presented to the city.
The application becomes the responsibility of a legally established "beer board" consisting of the Mayor (ex officio) and four appointed members. The board members may also be members of the City Council but the majority traditionally are not.
The board is guided by a "beer ordinance", with amendments, and applications are reviewed for compliance with that ordinance. Past City Councils have fixed the number of available permits at six (6) and we presently have those six assigned.
One of the chief provisions of the ordinance states that, "No permit shall be issued for the sale, storage, or manufacture of beer at places within two thousand (2,000) feet of any school, church, or other such place of public gathering to the nearest corner of the structure where the beer is sold, stored, or manufactured."
There have also been numerous questions raised as to any future annexation plans on the part of the city of Jellico.
I reported in this column on January 27th and also during my radio program on WJJT (AM 1540) that week, that the state of Tennessee is now requiring that all property within a county and outside city boundaries be designated as falling into one of three categories: (1) Urban growth area, (2) planned growth area, and (3) rural areas. Those three areas must be clearly identified no later than July 1, 2000. All counties must also establish county-wide committees to deal with the issue and the Jellico City Council has appointed Planning Commission Chariman Roy Price as our representative on the Campbell County Committee.
Mr.Colin McLeod of the Tennessee State Planning Commission has been working with maps of our surrounding areas and is establishing the required designated areas to help us meet the state requirements in time for the mandated deadline. Other municipalities are doing the same.
Should proposals be prepared to incorporate any of the designated, eligible areas,there is a procedure outlined by the state for that purpose. One of the requirements is to hold public hearings on the issue and those hearings would be scheduled and conducted - if a decision is made by Council to pursue actual annexation of any area.
We have been informed on several occasions that we need our file of city ordinances, etc. brought up to date or "codified". We have received proposals to accomplish that task.
But our City Attorney, Mr. Jeff Hall, is presently considering all possibilities that might be open to us before we definitely decide how best to go about getting our city "code" to where it should be for ready and easy access.
The Jellico City Council awarded the bid to Mr. Billy Douglas to do renovation work on the Presbyterian Church that was donated to us by the Presbytery of Lexington, Kentucky. The restoration funds were also donated to the city but we were required to account for them just as if they were regularly acquired city funds.
The interior of that church badly needs work, but everyone who has seen the inside agrees that the sanctuary can be restored to beautiful condition. Much of the woodwork is original and dates back almost one-hundred years.
A lot of folks are happy that the old "Mary's Kitchen"/pool room has been acquired by Mr. Russell Edwards. According to one comment, "Mr. Edwards will renovate it like it should be done." And I am inclined to agree!! I have seen his work in several places and he always does a great job with what he attempts to accomplish.
Mr. Edwards says that he will probably restore and renovate that building into a restaurant although he is not sure that he and his wife Merle will operate it themselves. But he wants to establish a restaurant that is clean with appeal and good food that will attract the growing number of workers in the downtown area.
He also asked me to announce that in spite of rumors, the building will definitly not be utilized as a pool room.
Two other businesses that we badly need downtown are a dry cleaning establishment and a moderately-priced clothing store.
The Advance-Sentinel had an earlier deadline for this week's article so I could not report on the awnings for our new city building but they were scheduled to be installed in time for our "Open house" on Monday, Memorial Day.
The "community bulletin board" purchased by Mr. John Mays and Barton-Carey is also scheduled to be placed this week.
The descendents of Mr. Hiram K. Trammell have ordered a historical plaque to be placed on the building and it should be erected in time for our annual Fourth of July celebration. I hope that owners of other historic buildings will follow suit. We do not need to lose so much of our history to time and neglect.
Mr. Arnold Musick now has the supports in place for the permanent stage in Veterans' Park annex donated by Mr. W.H. Bowlin. He will soon start the actual construction of that facility (and may have already done so). He says that he expects no problem in having it ready for our Fourth of July activities.
John Paul and Marvin Morgan, Morgan Brothers Construction Company (MBCC), says that company will do the fill and grade work at the annex as soom as they complete a job that they presently have contracted. (They also may be already started on that project). They too say that they expect to have that work completed by the Fourth of July.
We still must take donations toward the cost of the metal lettering to place on the new building ("City of Jellico, Public Library/Office of Tourism/Community Conference Room") and we will again soon start working toward raising the money, material and labor that will be required to construct some public restrooms for Veterans' Park.
Someone commented last week that such a nice new city building without any identification lettering looks a little ridiculous and that is what I have insisted all along. We badly need to identify the building and what it houses and we will not be satisfied until that task is accomplished. Visitors to our town will have no idea what the purpose of the building is without some type of identification.
(And Mrs. Dorothy Potter, Librarian, told me last Tuesday that she now has enrolled forty-two students in her reading program that utilizes the new childrens' reading room. That number should continue to increase once parents and children know what is available.)
To date, we have had offers from Mr. Arnold Musick to draw up the design for the rest rooms and Mr. Ralph Davis has volunteered to install the plumbing (labor) and pour the concrete slab (labor) free-of-charge.
The total cost of our planned downtown improvements will run into several thousand dollars - but like most of the work accomplished so far - has not cost the city of Jellico one penny.
Community spirit can often be judged by the time and involvement spent by adults in working with scout troops - girls and boys. There is nothing better for young people in helping to develop character, leadership and self-reliance and many of our nation's leaders are former scouts.
We have recently seen a rebirth of interest in scouting in Jellico and I want to be sure to thank all involved adults and the scouts themselves for some of the accomplishments that they have already made toward improving the appearance of our town.
Girl scout troop 933 has been involved in several activites including developing a "serenity garden" on the front lawn of the Mountain Womens' Exchange. Boyscout troop 465 planted flowers and flower bearing shrubs in Veterans'Park, picked up litter along the streets and sidewalks and visited the elderly in Jellico Towers "A" and "B" to run errands and do other chores.
I certanly hope that our citizens will encourage and support scouting in Jellico to the maximum extent possible! What better way to develop the right values amoung our young people?
And the work of the scouts and a lot of other volunteers led long-time Jellico resident Charles Allen, to tell me that he has never seen downtown Jellico as clean as it was at the conclusion of our "Clean-up, Paint-Up, Fix-up Week".
But it can look a lot better yet - and hopefully it will by the end of this administration's term in 2002.
I have been thanking Lisa Casey and Interstate 2000 for placing information about our town (and this column) on the internet and it is a great service to Jellico.
But Mrs. Casey has informed me that Jellico High School Band Director, Mr. Terrence Rowe, is responsible for maintaining Jellico High School's pages and keeping that information updated so I want to be sure to thank him also. I have several times mentioned the great job he is doing with our band but I was unaware of a lot of the other things he does for Jellico. He is certainly a welcome addition to our community!
I want to continue thanking and naming the members of our City Departments. This week I have chosen the Jellico Police Department for the service the department provides for our town.
Police officers in Jellico are like police officers in any other area in that most of their assignments are of a very routine nature. But they never know when a serious situation can arise that threatens the safety of themselves and our citizens. It is that degree of uncertainty that means they can never consider any call to be routine. And it is during those periods of crisis that they more than earn their pay.
And although we live in a very small town, very dangerous situations do develop at times as we all observed last week with the kidnapping and hostage situation at a Jellico motel. During that situation, the department also received a burglar alarm call; worked a vehicle accident with injuries and helped locate the parents of a lost child.
Ned Smiddy is the senior member of the force (started in 1979) and serves as Chief of Police. Ronnie Lewis began his service in 1981 and has been designated as Assistant Chief of Police by Smiddy; followed by Wayne Conrad in 1994; Joe Perkins, 1996; Raymond Day, 1996; and Jeff Partin (transferred to the department in March of this year.) Experienced Officer Tony Huddleston recently left the force to begin work with the LaFollette Police Department.
Jellico is expected to receive a federal grant for three additional officers which will enable Councilman Jim Dobson to expand and upgrade the department.
Chris Baird stopped by the office recently to inform me that Cable News Network (CNN) was reporting that Falcon Cable TV (our local cable service) has now been purchased by Charter Cable TV, one of our country's largest cable services.
We do not yet know what affect, if any, that the transfer will have upon our cable service.
Our county has just undergone a property reappraisal as required by the state of Tennessee. Assessments in many cases have been raised.
However the city of Jellico has been given a much lower certified tax rate (CTR) than for the previous year. Our CTR was previously $1.03 but this year has been dropped to .88. We expect no increased revenue from that source and our proposed new budget will reflect virtually the same figures for projected revenue from that source as we received last year.
I want to be sure to congratulate this year's graduating class at Jellico High School. I did not have the opportunity to serve as their principal and only had a very few as lower classmen when I filled in for an ill teacher at the school for a number of months.
But I am personally acquainted with several of them and I have observed many of them in a variety of situations. They truly are an outstanding class - having members that have stood out academically, athletically and in performing services for our community.
I am sure that the leadership that many of them have displayed will be missed next year by administrators, teachers, coaches and sponsors.
Final Note:
I often mention people who contact me concerning this column. And this week Mr. Ed Leach informed me that his sister-in-law, Melba Cusick of Bardstown, Kentucky, has subscribed to the Advance-Sentinel in order to get my column.
According to Mr. Leach, Mrs. Cusick has heard it discussed so much during her visits to Jellico that she wants to read it for herself. That's quite a compliment!
And I want to remind everyone that all previous articles can be accessed on the internet (www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm). Just access that site and click on "archives". The past columns are filed chronologically.
View the Archives of this column.