The position of Director of Utilities will now immediately be posted and a search conducted to identify and hire the individual who will assume that job. Requests for information relating to qualifications and/or resumes' should be addressed to Mary Jarboe, Office Manager, Jellico Utilities Department, 410 South Main Street, Jellico, Tennessee 37762. She can be also be contacted at 423/784-8431..

We also currently have a vacancy on the Utilities Board and I hope to be able to have a recommendation to fill that vacancy when the City Council meets in regular monthly session. It would be good to have a full Board by the time the screening of resumes' and interviewing of applicants begins.. However I may not be ready at that meeting but will call a special call meeting if need be as soon as I do have the person in mind.

A question was raised during the meeting of the Board as to whether or not a personnel policy exists for the Utilities Department. The close to consensus opinion was that one does not exist or if it does, it has not been seen for some time. However one board member says that not only is there one in existence but that he has a copy.

One of the first tasks for the new director should be to evaluate any policies now in effect and to make recommendations to the Board as to any needed updating of those policies, development of any desirable new policies, etc..

The Board also voted to take action to correct the problem that developed last July when flood waters broke through an earthen wall that was designed to keep the waters from Elk Creek from mingling with our public water supply.

I recently contacted by a state official that commended our Utilities for taking immediate and appropriate action when that event occurred - as well as the recent approval of corrective action to prevent the overflow from reoccurring during future flooding.

Several folks who read my last issue of these notes have stopped me to tell me that they greatly enjoyed what I wrote about the restoration of the old Coca-Cola Bottling Works. Some say they have been driving by it on a regular basis just to follow the progress of the work. Robert McGhee said that the building now brings back some awfully fond memories of days when a person could purchase a cold Coke right off the line for a nickel. (They were bottled cold).

The Bucks are still finding relics of the past as they clean out and renovate their buildings. The latest find is a poster announcing the grand opening of the Hill Top Tavern, Friday, May 7, 1954 which was to be "the big event of the year". Billed as one of the "newest and finest night clubs in the south", owners and operators of the establishment "located one mile south of Jellico on the Newcomb Pike" were Joe E. Dobson and Sewell W. Stair.

The announcement proudly pointed out that Don Gibson and his band were to be the featured entertainment.. No one at that time could have possibly imagined that Gibson's appearances at the Hill Top would launch him on a meteoric rise to the very top of country and popular music in this country. After possibly introducing his "Oh Lonesome Me" at the Hill Top, he eventually ended up joining the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and continued writing hit song after hit song. Although now deceased, he will always be remembered since he is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and several of his songs have been voted among the all-time best in both country and popular - including in addition to "Oh Lonesome Me", the huge hit "Sweet Dreams of You" sung by the legendary Patsy Kline and the one that will probably never lose popularity - "I Can't Stop Loving You" by none other than Ray Charles. It's hard to even hear Charles' piano introduction to that song without getting cold chills. And there were many, many others struck off the pen of Gibson who often referred to his almost complete lack of formal education. But the God given talent he had took him a long, long way from that May night in 1954 at the Hill Top Tavern on Jellico's Branam Hill..

The folks at the Jellico Housing Authority office have scored a coup with their Dogwood tree which I believe someone told me is a Japanese Dogwood. It remains completely dormant until all of the others have bloomed and faded. Then suddenly it bursts into beautiful full bloom! As one lady told me the other day, it looks kind of lonely while all of the others are so loaded with blooms. But according to her, once it does begin blooming it really puts on a flower show. And standing alone it certainly grabs the attention of passers-by..

Rev. Ray Landes, Associate Pastor of the Jellico Church of God, Mountain Assembly, recently informed me that as a result of some of the articles that I have written concerning the complete renovation and tremendous expansion of the Tabernacle, some seats have been donated by local business places and possibly individuals who had read those articles.. That's great news and I am glad to know that I might have somehow been instrumental in helping out at least in some small way. If everybody contributes something to the project no matter how small, it will be completed more quickly and successfully and give all that participate a feeling of somehow being a part. As I have written previously, that building is going to be something to see for those who have not been inside since the start of its makeover.. And it will be a mark of pride for our entire community and area.

The Tabernacle is foremost a place of worship. But the CGMA has always made it available to our community for a variety of functions and at the time of this writing, was working feverishly to have enough completed to at least be able to host graduation exercises for the Jellico High School. Class of ' 06.. The overall objective is to have everything completed and in place for the very special 100th Annual Assembly that will start August 7th..

(I was informed that there has been a long list of volunteers who have saved the Assembly a great amount of money with their services to the project ranging from performing construction labor, to cooking for the workers, to performing any number of tasks. Some of the names I was given include Bill Payne, J.B. Silcox, Scotty Davis, Robert Lay, David Tuimmette, Jim Lambdin, Larry Lambdin, Sheila Lambdin, Troy Morgan, Ray Landes, Eddie Lambdin, Jim Head, Johnny Beavers, Michael Lay, Clifford Moses, Phillip Moses, Harold Lynch, Kelvin Walden, Bob Johnson, Durand Dixon, Joe Lambdin, Jim Lambdin, Jr., Rick Carr, Lonnie Vann, Bill Partin, Paul Dobson, Stuart McNealy, Jo Ann Silcox, Mary Ann Silcox, Dessie Johnson, Cathy Vann, Carla Davis, Vickie Payne, Glen Heatwole, Frannie Heatwole, Crystal McNealy, Mary Ellen Beavers, Elmer Lawson and Mary Beavers. (I hope that I did not leave out any name that I was furnished but if I did, I extend my apologies and will be happy to cite the name or names in my next issue.)

A recently discharged veteran of the United States Marine Corps was at Boston Elementary School the other day on business. Upon learning or remembering that I am the mayor of Jellico, he told me that one day in Iraq (and on one of the rare occasions that he could wear only his soft cap) he happened to look inside the cap and saw the label, "Made in Jellico, Tennessee". He said that he was greatly surprised and that it immediately made him very home sick.

He was even more surprised when I informed him that unless things have changed, ALL Marine Corps soft caps are made in Jellico. And I have a photo in my office of President George Bush and a group of Marines - with all of the pictured Marines wearing caps made at the Southeastern Kentucky Rehabilitation Industries plant located in our industrial park.

I wrote last week that I had been assured that we were in "Blackberry Winter" at that time. One wag read that and informed me a few days later that it looks like we are going to be picking blackberries before it ever warms up and dries up. You know he may be right!

While I was JHS principal for so many years, I always held my breath about this time of the year because I never knew what final prank the graduating seniors would pull. Most were merely funny and some often very creative - but on an occasion or two, a very few in a class would get out of hand. But I even now still enjoy hearing accounts of what harmless pranks the various graduating classes around here can come up with each year.

I understand that the seniors at Williamsburg High recently hung a big banner outside their building that read something to the effect "Stick a fork in it. It's done!" and then stuck hundreds of plastic forks in the ground that almost literally covered the entire front area. And they even spelled out a huge "2006" with the forks as well! Although it did little to beautify the grounds,, the community reportedly got a big kick out of it! (Wonder what our JHS seniors have planned?)

Fishermen are generally forgiven for possibly making fish just a little bit bigger when describing past catches. But Paul Webb has caught some Carp in the Indian Mountain State Park lake while fishing for other species that no exaggeration has been required on his part. I had heard on previous occasions that there are some awfully big Carp in that body of water and one day last week he landed some that were truly lunkers. And what seemed to be a countless number of some huge Carp were rolling all over the top of the water at that time... The thrashing they were doing and the ripples that they were creating drew a crowd of viewers.

Those Carp reminded me of the time that Kenneth Johnson told me that he had a pet Grass Carp in his private pond that kept the algae and other vegetation cleaned out. And he said that he could call it up and pet it anytime that he wanted. That I had to see that for myself! We went to the pond where he knelt down and patted the water several times. Sure enough, the next thing I knew a five or six pound Carp was right at his hand and he was rubbing it on its head and back.

And to think that I can't even get my dog to mind a word I say!

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