. As everyone knows by now, Jellico High grad Gary Perkins is our new Campbell County Sheriff - believed to be the first Jellicoan elected to that position since R.D. Davis circa 1932.. And our Jellico City Attorney Jeff Hall will be the new Campbell County Mayor (Executive)..

Campbell County Commissioners from our district will be Forster Baird, Clarence "Bass" Bolton, and Stan Marlow. Delbert "Bo" Buckner was unopposed for the Campbell County Board of Education and Paul "Preach" Webb was reelected as our district constable. Don Moses was without opposition for the position of our City Judge.. (The City Council will of course now have to locate and hire a new city attorney to replace Jeff Hall.)

The very, very surprising thing to come out of this election is the fact that it did not have anything like the turnout in Jellico that most elections involving a sheriff's race usually create. I have been informed that early voting for the entire fifth district at the Municipal Building (Jellico, Newcomb, Elk Valley, Habersham, White Oak, etc.) totaled roughly 537.. Under 400 voted here on election day which means that this election drew well under the 913 Jellico eligible voters who participated in our last city election when no county, state or national offices were even involved.

It isn't often that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) cuts our electric rates - and in fact the last time that happened was in 1988 according to a July 29th story in the Knoxville News-Sentinel But that same article reported that our rates will decrease by 4.5 percent effective October 1st.. And that's certainly welcome news to everybody since it will be just in time for the late fall and winter months when our bills begin to soar due to increased heating requirements.

TVA most recently increased rates by 7.5 percent in July, 2005 and by 9.5 percent in April - and it goes without saying that it's great to see at least some reversal of that trend.. Let's just hope the current heat wave doesn't lead them to reconsider the rate reduction..

But not all news is good news and unfortunately we have been having a major problem for some time with a strong odor on Fifth Street that apparently comes from our sewer system. However the Jellico Utilities Department is well aware of that problem and is working hard to find the source of the odor and to correct the situation as quickly as possible.

In response to numerous complaints and inquiries from our citizens, I met last week with utilities employee Woody Swafford who along with other employees in that department have been working diligently to solve the problem. Woody says that manholes and manhole covers are all being checked out; that video cameras are -or will be - used inside the sewer piping to locate possible areas of leakage; and that the remainder of the project to rehabilitate more of our sewer lines is tentatively scheduled to start within the next few days

And Woody indicated that new sewage pump stations will be installed on Bowlin Strait, at the edge of Crouches Creek Hollow and near the electric sub-station. The new stations will operate much more reliably and contain newly developed charcoal filters that are said to be very effective in removing much of the odor that otherwise could escape the stations.

All of that sounds very promising and hopefully it will completely solve our problem.

However if none of the above corrective measures are successful in finding and correcting the source of the odor, we may be facing an extremely expensive project in the future - especially if great distance is involved.

Note: Woody was recently nominated for the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts "Everett Severs Award" for outstanding water operations.. We like to see Jellico folks recognized and here's hoping that Woody receives that award.. Both Woody and Wally Carroll in the electric department have always been extremely cooperative in dealing with reported problems and requests from our citizens for authorized services..

The work has now started on our new sidewalk/walking trail on South Main Street that will serve both as a convenience and a recreational asset.. My thanks to Councilman Alvin Evans for all of the efforts he has made to obtain the necessary grant and contract the required work. Problem after problem arose during the process including getting the open portion of the ditch on that street closed before plans for the sidewalk/trail could be finalized.. But we stayed with it, the open ditch that was both unsightly and unhealthy was closed and we will now see the completion of that long anticipated project..

Other similar projects are planned or are in the discussion stage.. Grants have been applied for and slowly but steadily the face of our town if changing for the better.

It seems that our local businesses are buying into the plans that we have for Saturday, August 26th and our Downtown Day/Night.. Several have expressed their interest and two owners/operators have already told me that they will remain open until 10:00 PM that evening. Here's hoping that all will follow suite and join them.

As I have stated several times previously, we hope to have the tractor/engine show and bluegrass music during the day.. Bill Rigney will perform that evening and is there anyone who doesn't enjoy his singing?

Concessions will also be available during the entire affair provided by Debbie Smith and her crew.. And is there anybody who doesn't enjoy their great Polish sausage dogs? (Especially smothered with kraut with just a little mustard..) There may be other concessionaires as well..

As I have emphasized several times before, businesses staying open that evening until 10:00 PM will not insure that they will have customers. But the potential is there for shoppers and in the very least, it will serve as a little reminder of how things used to be in Jellico..

(Now if somebody would just pop some heavily buttered popcorn like we used to get at Estil Roundtree's popcorn stand with that great aroma spreading up and down the street..)

The idea of our Downtown Day/Night is to celebrate the progress we have made in renovating and revitalizing our downtown and to add emphasis to our future plans for improvements. And Ronnie Buck has informed me that there is a possibility that one of their two buildings awaiting work on their exteriors could be completed by that time. That would be great if the exterior of either is done by August 26th - but the main thing is that the exteriors to both buildings will eventually be completed and add to the appearance of our downtown..

Note: The Bucks occupy a building that originally was constructed as an automobile dealership and garage that opened in 1917... Later it housed a Western Auto Store and even later served as a hardware store which is its present purpose.. One day I just happened to mention to Ronnie that as a very young man my father drove a wrecker for the Jenkins Auto Dealership located there - said to have been the first wrecker ever placed in service in Jellico circa 1919.... (Jellico Telephone Company number 339 with both day and night service.)

A few weeks ago, Janna Branam while going through some of her late husband James Edward's photo collection, found pictures of my dad proudly standing beside that early wrecker he operated for the Jenkins auto dealership. I gave one copy to Ronnie and he plans to have it blown up for display..

Lisa Casey at Netlink 2000 plans to again establish an Internet public forum designed for folks to talk to each other, get acquainted and discuss every day life in Jellico.. Hopefully it will be viewed as a medium that will allow our citizens to communicate with each other, make comments and suggestions, offer constructive criticism, etc.. The site designation:

We had a tremendous turnout for our Boston Elementary School "open house" last Friday including numerous folks from Jellico. The Jellico Community Hospital joined in all of the activities and did free blood pressure readings, sugar checks and even cholesterol checks. We greatly appreciate everyone who attended and participated in any way.

It's almost time for football! Our Jellico High Blue Devils will kick off the season at Oakdale on Friday, August 18th.. They have looked good in pre-season practices and at least one scrimmage game. Unfortunately this year's schedule is very tough and calls for the first three games on the road (following the game at Oakdale, they will be at Williamsburg on August 25th and at Sunbright on September 1st). If I have a correct schedule, we will then have an open date on September 8th and have to wait until September 15th for our first game at home vs. Cosby.

Just the opposite is true of our Vols. We open at home on September 2nd against California followed by three straight home games with Air Force, Florida, and Marshal.. I have not been in the stadium since all of the renovation has been underway but the radio talk shows indicate that most of what has been done to date on the eventual one-hundred million dollars ($ 100,000,000.00) project has taken place in the north end and one side of the stadium. Most Jellico folks will not have their seats affected at least for this season and that's good news.

I can't help but wonder how many folks have not yet realized that the Jellico High School Homecoming game with McCreary Central is scheduled for October 20th and 21st - with the Alabama Crimson Tide coming to Knoxville on that traditional "third Saturday in October".

(I fully understand the difficulty in working out the Jellico High football schedule so that it does not have such conflicts. I dealt with that problem myself for many years when I was principal at alma mater. Consolidation of so many schools, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association classification system, the now great distances to be traveled when playing teams on the road, and many other factors make it extremely tough to schedule opponents and to play on preferred dates. Some conflicts just cannot be avoided and overall JHS officials and coaches do an excellent job in scheduling when taking all of those factors into consideration.)

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