June 2, 2006
JELLICO NEWS / MAYOR'S COLUMN
The Jellico Utilities is clearly an entity of the City of Jellico. But it just as clearly is under the administration of the Utilities Board..
I heard comment after comment concerning the statement Councilman Bob Daniel made following our last meeting of the City Council and reported in local media.. In his remarks, Daniel strongly emphasized that the constant stream of allegations and counter-allegations concerning the Utilities Department brought before the Council should be reported to the proper authorities, have them investigated, prosecuted in court if justified, and then put them behind us and allow the Utility System to move on.. As Daniel and others have pointed out, allegations are just that until they are proven to be true. And when hard evidence is available to support any allegations, those having such evidence should present it to the proper agencies - and I understand that some have been reported and are under investigation. That is the proper way to handle them!
But before and during the meeting, Carolyn Leach passed out a long list of allegations against John Leach, Larry Meadors, the Mayor, Council and Utility Board. Then she presented those allegations vocally during the meeting. And she added, "…the least you guys could do is call for his (Larry Meadors) resignation.
My nomination of Meadors to the Council for service on the Utility Board was made with malice toward no one. He has had years of experience working for the Utility Department and I felt that with his experience he could make a valuable contribution to the system. Once confirmed by the Council, he accepted the temporary Chairmanship of the Board at his first meeting in order to conduct business and only after every other member had refused the position.
Following Leach's call for his resignation, Meadors at first declared his intent to remain on the Utility Board. But he has now submitted his letter of resignation to me stating, "I had hoped to help the utility department and most importantly the customers of Jellico Utilities,……. But I had promised you that if at any time, I felt I was a hindrance to the city or the utility board I would resign. Because of the .vindictive actions of a few………………which I feel is keeping the utility and the city from moving forward, it is best that I resign……. I thank you for your faith and your appointment of me to the Jellico Utility Board. Sincerely s/Larry Meadors.
As Councilman Evans later pointed out, under applicable privacy acts, the Council has seen no Utility Department medical records, insurance claims, etc... And if it did, we could not and would not discuss them in an open meeting in what we understand would be a clear violation of the law.
But to me, the most hateful insinuation made by Leach was that city officials somehow do not care about the welfare of the utility department employees and are treating them in an "inhumane" manner... Every member of the Utilities Board to the best of my knowledge has now expressed their opposition to the "out-contracting" of any jobs that can be performed by our present employees. And certainly the Mayor and all members of Council have made that fact known to many of the employees that have expressed their personal concerns - both privately and publicly - both prior to the last Council meeting and during that meeting.
Many times in the past in this column I have written of my admiration and appreciation for the job done by the utility crews when I observed them out in extremely cold nights digging up frozen and/or burst water lines so that we could have water when we awoke the next morning. And one only has to call up the Archives of this column on website www.jellico.com/mayor to read my accounts of those incidents - as well as witnessing them out in terrible electric storms that greatly threatened their safety in an effort to insure that we had power for heating and cooling... Although a list of salaries of Utility Department employees was distributed that brought on a public furor, in one earlier article I had emphasized that in my opinion, we could not compensate them enough for laying their safety on the line during such dangerous conditions.
And I often thanked them for the many additional services they willingly have performed for our town.. The insinuation that we do not care about them is untrue and extremely hurtful.
The Board has posted the position of Director of Utilities; is taking applications in an effort to fill that position with the best applicant possible; plans to develop a comprehensive personnel policy; and as I understand it, will review some personnel actions taken under the previous Director. The only way to solve problems is to attack those problems - and the Board is attempting to do just that. Keeping a public turmoil going does not help them with the task!
I am regularly having to go to Williamsburg for a variety of reasons ranging from meetings at the office of the superintendent of schools, to attending activities on the Whitley County main campus to making trips to the dry cleaners since we don't have one in Jellico.. During any early morning trips I make it a point to stop in McDonald's Restaurant where a lot of my old friends in Williamsburg along with several new ones, meet there for coffee and to discuss and solve the problems of the world just as they do each morning at our Hardees Restaurant..
A hot topic of conversation prior to the recent election in Whitley County and the city of Williamsburg was of course, the referendum on the sale of alcohol in restaurants. I heard reason after reason given for voting for the measure and I heard countless arguments against its legalization. From those conversations and talking with other folks around Williamsburg, I got a strong impression that it would receive a very close but favorable vote..
However that did not happen and the proposal failed by something in the neighborhood of two hundred or so votes - which was closer than its opponents say that they would have preferred.
Whether we are interested in something that took place not only in a different town, county and even another state, the vote does affect us here. And whether or not we agree with the sale of alcohol in restaurants, the legalization of the sale of alcohol in restaurants in some other surrounding towns has had an adverse affect upon our local restaurants as well as our town since collected alcohol tax is placed in our city's budget. And had Williamsburg restaurants begun serving alcohol with meals, there would almost certainly have been a big reduction in the number of residents in that town that regularly like to come to Jellico to dine out.
We saw that happen when such alcohol sales were approved in both Corbin and London. But unquestionably the loss of the Williamsburg patronage that prefers to come to Jellico rather than go to those towns to have alcohol with their meals, would have been much greater had the referendum been approved there. But since it was a relatively close decision by Williamsburg residents, some proponents predict another referendum in the future.
Congratulations to Dayspring Family Health Center that is now celebrating its 30th year of service to our town and our area. And one great contribution made by that agency in addition to what they contribute toward our health care, is the renovation they initially did on the building where the offices are now located. How many remember the front of that building with the windows and door nailed up with huge wooden panels? It was a terrible sight that greeted visitors as they pulled up to the central traffic signal.
We sometimes have to be reminded of how far we have come in the past few years in restoring our town and Dayspring was one of the first to get involved. I now genuinely feel with the present spirit of cooperation and involvement that we have developing among a good number of our citizens, the best is yet to come.
And congratulations once again to Jellico area native Paul Hawkins who is retiring from his extremely important position as Fire Chief of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida - one of our nations key military installations. This is his second retirement having formerly retired from the Air Force after twenty-four years of military service.. (Paul is the brother of Trula Housley.)
I prepared and forwarded a plaque from our town for presentation during Paul's retirement ceremony honoring him for his many contributions to our nation's defense and expressing our appreciation for those contributions.
I recently had an interesting discussion with a truck driver for the H.T. Hackney Wholesale Distributors located in Knoxville during a delivery to one of our local stores. He had been told that that large company had started here in Jellico where it remained for many years prior to its movement to Knoxville.
A big brick building that housed H.T. Hackney once occupied a large section of North Commerce Street that was recently renamed John Queener Lane by the City Council (area next to old city hall and running down to rail sidings off the Southern Railway tracks.) It did a booming business when all of our area deep mines were operating. But as they began to close, business declined and the owners eventually made the decision to move the company to Knoxville.
The closing of that business in Jellico has always stuck vividly in my mind because my dad purchased one of their used trucks at that time, removed the covered bed utilized for hauling groceries which became our chicken house. He then made an open bed for it suitable for hauling coal. (Most folks in those days had chickens; many raised hogs for killing in the late fall and winter; and a good number kept a cow - even within a good part of the city limits. How times have changed!)
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
Visit the Archives of the Mayor's Column .
Visit the City of Jellico's Web Site at: www.jellico.tn.us