We seemed to have had a rash of bad news lately with all of the resignations and the rejection of our final draft for the waste water treatment facility. But not all the news is bad. In fact some of it is pretty good!!! Very good!
City Recorder, Mrs. Betty Hurst, recently furnished me with figures concerning our city's funds and the status of our incoming revenue.
According to Mrs. Hurst, we had a total of $250,667.48 in liquid assets in 1991. That figure has now reached $ 630,872.28 for 1999 and we had collected 106 percent of projected yearly revenue by May 31, 1999.
It is great to know that the city is in such good financial condition and I certainly appreciate all of the good management that brought about our present financial situation - by preceeding Mayors and Council members as well as present City Officials including Mrs. Hurst. And unquestionably we need to keep enough funds in reserve that would carry us through any unforseen and/or emergency situations.
But as I have said many times in the past, we do not need to save money simply for the sake of having money. We need to use taxpayer money to provide services to our citizens!!!
We presently have streets and sidewalks badly in need of repair and there are other problems that need to be addressed soon before they grow even worse. Hopefully the grant for the trail that is to extend around our town will help with repairing at least some of the sidewalks. But there are others that will not be included. And we are all familiar with streets that can damage tires and front end alignments.
And it seems a little ridiculous that I am having to call upon our citizens for donations to make improvements in the downtown area (although most of our citizens that I have contacted have been very willing to contribute and participate since it gives them an opportunity to be involved in what is taking place.)
But that should not be the project's only source of revenue. Everything that has been done, is being done, and that is planned for the future, is designed to improve our town. Everyone can benefit in one way or another and the city should be participating to the fullest extent in renovating and revitalizing the downtown area.
During a special call meeting on Monday, June 28th, the Council voted 4-1 to transfer a total of $ 100,000.00 into the Capital Projects section of the 1999-2000 budget. (Councilman Alvin Evans was absent and Councilman Bill Barton voted against the proposal.)
The $ 100,000.00 includes funds to correct the Y2K problem on City of Jellico computers prior to December 31; provides a limited amount of money for furniture for the new building; and several other small projects. However $ 59,000.00 will be available for contracting some of the badly needed street repairs. That figure will be far from sufficient to correct anything like all of the problems. But we could not accomplish that if we allocated the entire budget for streets. But hopefully we can correct some of the most glaring problems. (I personally would have favored transferring even more money for use on our streets but the $ 59,000.00 will certainly help.)
A motion by Councilman Dobson to grant all City employees an increase in pay initially died for lack of second. However Councilman Allen McClary, Finance Director, was able to make some adjustments in the proposed budget and located projected funds totalling better than $ 30,000.00. Hopefully that figure will be sufficient for an across the board pay raise for City employees totalling somewhere between 35 and 40 cents. No vote was required since the revenue projections were included in the proposed buget for 1999-2000.
A vote was then taken on the overall budget and passed bt a 4-1 vote with Barton again voting no due to his previous opposition to the transfer of funds to the capital projects section.
One of the reasons given by some members of Council for rejecting my request for the awnings, bulletin board and lettering for the new building was that the acquisition of Veterans Park Annex and the geological study and correcting of the problem with poor soil had placed our budget seriously in the red for 1998-1999.
However when we faced the issue of amending that budget to make up for the deficit spending, we learned that our budget last year had actually resulted in an approximate $ 12,000.00 surplus - more than enough to have paid for everything donated for the exterior of the building plus several other expenditures for which I have had to raise money from our citizens!
And still in the good news department, I received a call from Jamie Dugger that she had definitely decided to move her factory, "Jamie's Curtains and Decor" to our city owned building next to the Municipal Building.
I earlier listed the terms of the lease agreement that we are to execute with Mrs. Dugger. We are to require very low rent that will depend upon the number of employees since that is our main concern. (The first year will be rent free and very low for the second and third years. It will increase after that period only if she does not reach a specified number of employees). She in turn will renovate the building to include restrooms and painting and other work on the exterior.
And there is potentially even more good news. I will attend a meeting of the Community Health and Development Team at Gregory's Restaurant on Tuesday, July 6th. Guests for that meeting will be Mr. Michael Ross and Mr. Darrell Akins, developers of the proposed "Reserve on Jellico Mountain". They will give us a briefing on the plans and progress that has been made to date on that project.
Jim Dobson has informed me that he, in cooperation with the City Administrator, has hired the three new police officers under the "cops" grant. The three are: Jeff Smith, David Brown and Bryan Sergent.
Officer Joe Perkins has been working with the new officers on the pistol range.
The Utilities Board met in special call on Wednesday, June 30th and hired John Leach as Director on an interim basis. The present period of employment of Leach is for six (6) months.
The position will be advertised and applications taken during the six months period.
After his hiring, Leach committed to work in cooperation with all employees. He in turn asked for their cooperation and support.
I want to thank the Jellico Stone Company for selling me the gravel for Veterans Park Annex at a greatly reduced price. Officials of that company cut the usual price from $ 4.50 per ton down to $ 2.50 per ton as a donation to the downtown project. That was a great help!
Now I will need to raise the necessary funds to pay for the gravels although they were placed on city property and improved the value of the city property. I will also have to raise the money for the lettering for the new building.
I recently reported that Charles Bruce, Jr. had submitted his resignation from the Recycle Program effective July 17th and that some decisions will have to be made concerning the future of recycling in Jellico (now mandated by environmental legislation).
Since that time I have been contacted by Mr. Mitch Loomis of the East Tennessee Development District to inform me that the Campbell County Recycle Center will soon be available at Oswego. Mr. Loomis also indicated that we can again submit a recycle grant application for up to $ 25,000.00 (deadline is August 3rd). He suggested that we include a request for a trailer that "tips", which would allow us to unload with no handling required.
The trailer would run approximately $ 6,000.00 to $ 7,000.00 requiring us to match with $1,200.00 to $ 1,400.00 for that item. I hope that the Council will approve the application request -- to include the trailer and any other items that will be required to continue and expand our Recycle Program.
Some discussion occurred during the Special Call Meeting concerning the filling of the City Administrator's position. Councilman McClary pointed out that at least four months will be needed to advertise the position, screen the applications, conduct interviews, etc. before anyone can be hired.
The Council again seems to be split on the future of that position and there was some sentiment expressed toward returning to the old Mayor-Council form of city government. (That action - if pursued - would require passage of a private act during the next session of the Tennessee State Legislature).
Councilman Jim Dobson, Chairman of the committee that includes the Police Department, has had several complaints concerning trucks exceeding the allowable load limits. Citizens have appeared before the Council to voice complaints about damage to streets - especially in residential areas. And their complaints are valid.
But the city of Jellico has no scales and it would be very expensive to purchase scales large enough for that purpose. However Dobson has contacted the Tennessee Department of Transportation concerning the problem but representatives from that agency pointed out that enforcement of the rule would be difficult by utilizing their portable scales. No citations without weighing would be legal and enforcemnt of the weight limits (if uniformly enforced) could prohibit loaded school buses, delivery trucks, utilities trucks and equipment, and possibly even some emergency type vehicles from many of our streets.
And the problem is complicated even further by regulations which prevent establishing separate speed limits for different type vehicles. Many see a correlation between the two types of restrictions and consider weight limits to be discriminatory unless applied to all vehicles regardless of their purpose.
Dobson states that he plans to continue to try to find a solution to the problem although that is going to be a very difficult task. Requiring a performance bond is a possibility and police officers will be instructed to enforce a regulation pertaining to safety, proper licenses, etc.
I have had several people to contact me concerned about what has happened to the "Hometown of Grace Moore" sign that was placed on the four-lane leading into town. They were afraid that it had been vandalized or stolen.
I certainly appreciate their concern but the sign was taken down for the period of construction work on the new Rocky Top/Wendys to prevent damage. It will be placed back at, or near, the same location when the work is completed.
Governor Don Sundquist last week asked every town and city in Tennessee to "beautify" by having special times for cleaning up litter, planting flowering trees and plants, etc.
We are way ahead of the game in that respect!!! But the Council's recent failure to approve the application for the $ 5,000.00 "tree grant" certainly did not help us to comply with the Governor's request.
I have mentioned several times in the past that Jellico is definitely not the only town that sometimes faces fee increases for services that are not provided through tax dollars. In fact we have been very stable when such raises are averaged out over a period of years.
The Whitley Republican Journal last week announced that Williamsburg residents will now face an $ 8.00 monthly increase in sewer fees. Some water users will also experience an increase in their monthly water bills.
We have not yet received approval on our final draft of plans for the waste water treatment facility. If that approval is not granted, we may possibly have to make more costly additions to the plant to meet the state requirements. But so far, we have been able to keep our rates at a very reasonable level when faced with such an immense problem. We hope that we can receive the final approval and maintain the rates at the projected level now required to construct the facility.
But as I informed the Council during the Special Call Meeting, we have had to deal with what is unquestionably the largest single issue ever faced by the city of Jellico. We originally heard figures of something like $30.00 to $50.00 that would be required in increases in sewer fees in order to finance the project. That did not happen due to a lot of hard work to obtain grants and low interest rate loans. But we must now wait to see what decisions are handed down from the regulatory agencies in Nashville. And Levelling of fines by the state is still a distinct possibility!
I have been contacteed by Sandra Lowery of The Tennessee Department of Transportation to inform me that my earlier request for a "Regulatory and Warning Sign" grant has been approved. We are eligible for up to $ 10,000.00 for that purpose. An inventory of our needs in that area will be conducted by the University of Tennessee and a cost estimate submitted to the Tennessee D.O.T. We will then be authorized to purchase the signs from our city funds which will be fully reimbursed after submission of all bills and cancelled checks.
The new Community Bulletin Board purchased by Mr. John Mays, CEO of Barton-Carey Medical Products is now in place. It adds even more to the appearance of that building - especially at night.
I again want to thank Mr. Mays for that donation and the entire Tramell family for the historic plaque that we will soon place on the building in honor of one of Jellico's first citizens - Mr. H.K. Tramell. Placing of the lettering will then complete the exterior of that structure.
I often mention how much I appreciate all of the compliments that I receive on what is presently taking place toward improving the appearance of our town. I do sincerely appreciate every single one.
But some of them really are special to me such as the one I recently received from Mrs. Emilee Perkins. I attended a party at Gregory's Restaurant celebrationg Mrs. Perkin's 90th birthday and had an opportunity to talk with her. She was very complimentary and told me not to be deterred and not to become discouraged but to continue with my efforts.
Many school teachers and administrators are ridiculously underpaid but there are other types of rewards. And I was the recipient of such a reward when I attended the installation of Reverend Robert Day as pastor of the Newcomb Baptist Church. I was honored to be invited!
I served as Robert's High School Principal for three years and he was one of the most mature individuals I have ever met for his age. He often seemed almost like a member of the faculty and I often consulted with him concerning the feeling of the student body pertaining to any number of issues that happened to arise.
I am extremely proud of Robert's accomplishments including his years as a minister in the state of Alaska. It is good to know that he will now be in this area working with his congregation and especially the young people. He is a great role model.
A lady recently visited my office from Dallas, Texas who had found my columns on the internet. After reading several of them, she decided to come to Jellico to locate her long lost relatives. We gave her the names of several individuals that we felt could help her to locate some of the people that she could still remember while living here as a very young child.
I have also received a call from California from a former Jellico resident who is writing a book. She was serching for old maps of Oswego and other local areas.
Placing this column on the internet has opened it up to more readers than I would have ever dreamed possible.
This column was written prior to July 2nd and the start of the Independence Day celebration, so no report of the weekend is included. However I do plan to cover those activities in next week's article.
View the Archives of this column.