July 24, 2002
Our new city council is attempting to spend most of the meeting time in dealing with issues that can have a real impact upon the future of our town. And that was certainly true of last Thursday night's meeting. We had Rev. Lonnie Lyke, General Overseer of the Church of God, Mountain Assembly, in attendance since we have been negotiating with church officials to hopefully attract an industry to the Imperial Cantrell Building now owned by the CGMA. (Lisa Casey of Netlink was there and the council voted to establish a city of Jellico website at www.jellico.tn.us to advertise the availability of the building and all other city of Jellico news and information. Cost of the site will only be $ 25.00 monthly.
Mike Ross, developer of "Rarity Mountain", and his consultant, Darrell Akins, also attended the meeting and explained the progress being made on that project. He expressed the belief that the development will be economically beneficial to our town. He also answered numerous questions from both the council and the audience. Our citizens gave him a nice round of applause for his taking time out from his very busy schedule to attend the meeting and to inform us on the current situation with the project.
Mr. David Butler, Administrator of the Jellico Community Hospital, was there and he agreed to work with the city of Jellico where possible concerning the problems with Hospital Road (intersection of that road with Sunset Trail and also the poor drainage that turns water on to the road during heavy rains.)
In other business, the council voted to employ Linda Meadows as city recorder under the emergency hiring procedure since both city recorder Stephanie Smith and assistant recorder April Richardson have accepted other employment and turned in letters of resignation. (Linda has very extensive business training and experience and we appreciate her agreeing to accept the job.) The new "old" city charter was given its final vote of approval and the Tennessee Secretary of State will be informed of that action. We are still operating on a continuing budget resolution and a workshop was scheduled to hopefully finalize our budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year.
The council voted unanimously (as the planning commission had done earlier) to contact owners of downtown buildings needing renovation asking them to take corrective action. The lawsuit brought against the Jellico Utilities Department, city of Jellico and two contractors by Dante Renner and wife Michelle Renner and County Commissioner Allen Douglas and wife Tammy Renner was not discussed since city attorney Jeff Hall was unable to attend the meeting due to a funeral. However attorneys for at least part of the defendants have already been named and will begin compiling the defense in that legal action.)
Word spreads fast on the Internet. I no more than got my column out concerning plans to open the Wedding Chapel than someone in Kentucky requested more information.
Jake Bennett and the Tourism Commission have some elaborate plans for the Chapel (former Presbyterian Church donated to our town by church officials) and we expect that it will eventually become a very busy place. (There will be an "open house" sometime in the future that will give our citizens an opportunity to see the beautiful interior of the building.)
Availability of parking in the immediate area seems to present a possible problem. But there is parking space in the close general area and I am sure that some can be utilized (with permission) for such special occasions as weddings since they will bring visitors and prospective shoppers to our town.
We got part of the preparations for the proposed farmers' market/open air market completed very late in the season for several types of fresh garden vegetables, etc.. However Jim Lemons is still working on getting that event open this year. But if not, he will put everything into operation very early next year.
The Church of God, Mountain Assembly, will conduct its annual assembly beginning Monday, August 12th and continuing through August 18th. We want to welcome those folks back to Jellico and hope that they have a very successful and enjoyable gathering again this year. The history of the CGMA is virtually intertwined with the history of our town and the annual assembly is a tradition that we are proud to host. And the boost to our local economy that each assembly creates is a very welcome one!
The national headquarters of the American Legion has requested that every school, community, church, etc. in America have some type of special observance on the first anniversary of 9/11.. We certainly do need to remember the 3,000 innocent people who died that day as well as our service people who have given their lives and those that are still in "harm's way".
I have discussed the Legion's request with Jake and one idea is to possibly have another "candle light" service in Veterans Park such as the one sponsored by Radio Station WJJT immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It would be good if the staff at WJJT, the Jellico Ministerial Association and all area ministers and churches would again conduct such an event in cooperation with our local veterans. The first anniversary falls on a Wednesday night that is traditionally "prayer meeting" night. A community wide service in Veterans Park (or in a church building such as the Tabernacle in case of rain) with all area churches participating might be a possibility.
But it is extremely important that we do something in Jellico - and to involve our young people.
It's going to be a busy October in Jellico! Bennet plans to have tourism sponsored events on Friday, October 4th and Saturday, October 5th. The activity(s) will be called something like "Old Fashioned Fall Fest" and will hopefully include some outstanding blue grass gospel music on Friday; gospel singing on Saturday by area churches and individuals; asking our citizens to dress in "old-timey" clothing; a beard growing contest for our men, etc.. He requests that our town and entire area get involved!
It sounds like great fun and everybody needs to put the event down on the personal calendars and to make plans to participate. More details to be announced and posted!
The Church of God, Cleveland Assembly, will sponsor a special activity this fall lasting for one week. Six hundred (600) families will be invited to our town for the event (October 13th - October 19th). There will be meetings, classes, trips to local areas of interest, etc.
It's getting awfully close to football time which reminds us that the annual Jellico High School Homecoming is scheduled for Friday, October 25th and Saturday, October 26th.
The proposed annexation of areas identified in the "Jellico Urban Growth Plan" still occupies center stage. When the Tennessee State Legislature enacted Public Law 1101 early in 1998, it required every town, city and county to prepare growth plans. Once those plans were completed within a three-years time frame, they were to then be consolidated by the appropriate state agency and a state-wide report prepared and presented to the Tennessee State Legislature.
The "Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations" has just completed work on that consolidated state report and presented it to Senator John Wilder, Speaker of the Senate, and Representative Jimmy Naifeh, Speaker of the House, on June 1, 2002. And we have just received our copy of that same report. The consolidated report includes the reports of all counties and cites the fact that the Campbell County plan - including our Jellico plan - was given state approval on January 24, 2001.
The Jellico Planning Commission with the concurrence of the city council, has asked that a Tennessee state planner conduct the recommended study concerning the availability of services. The study is to include the cost to the city of providing the services to all areas eligible for annexation.
Having the study conducted by a state agency will provide a totally impartial evaluation and will certainly comply with any and all state regulations pertaining to Public Law 1101.. And equally important, the data will be collected and analyzed by the state planner at no cost to the city of Jellico.
A least one area sign has been posted calling upon folks to contact me and the members of council in opposition to annexation. But since the sign was erected I have only had a few to contact me and all of those but one were strongly in favor of incorporation. (And that one said that he can live with whatever action is taken.) In fact, one individual has contacted some of members of council encouraging them to speed up the process as much as possible.
Another whose residence lies just outside the state approved growth plan reportedly has inquired if the plan can be reworked to include his property. (Unfortunately the plan cannot be altered any way during the entire twenty-years period.)
Two issues ago, I mentioned that I had been told by some folks in nearby Kentucky communities that they wished that we could annex them into the city of Jellico. After reading that article, Mrs. Mary Jarboe- who also lives in Kentucky and emphasized that she did not in any way mind my using her name since I do not use names without permission - said that she certainly can be counted among those folks desiring incorporation although she knows that it is not possible. But she knows others who do live in areas eligible for annexation who are hoping that we will be sure to incorporate them when the final decision is made.
The benefit given as the main reason by most folks desiring to be annexed, is the fact that police cars regularly circulate within the city limits. Some say that they seldom see a police car of any kind in their neighborhoods and that is completely understandable when we remember that we are dealing with a large county the size of Campbell County. The county sheriff's staff does an excellent job but it can not possibly have patrol cars in all rural areas on a very frequent basis. There is just far too much territory and there are many other duties to be performed including accidents to be covered and written up, investigations to be performed, prisoners to be transported and countless other tasks far too numerous to list.
But if income from areas to be annexed will justify the expenditures, I expect the city council to station patrol cars in Newcomb and surrounding areas and in Highcliff and surrounding areas. And it is not out of the question that fire engines will be assigned to those areas as well - depending again upon the revenue produced by those areas.
(While still on the subject of services - the utilities department reports that grant money is expected to be available for extending water and sewer lines to all annexed areas and to have them in place well within the time specified by law. And we now have two large new and modern plants on line for both water purification and treatment of sewage. Both have the capacity to more than adequately handle greatly increased loads and to do so for many years to come.)
It is such questions that the state study of possible income and cost of services is designed to answer! And that is why the state planner was asked to make the study a priority and to get the results back to the council as quickly as possible. An awful lot of folks - outside of the city as well as inside the city - want to soon complete the annexation process. And it will be the results of the study that will be presented during an open meeting of certified property owners prior to completion of the process.
I wonder! Would it be adding insult to injury? Or would it be adding injury to insult? Or both?
During our June meeting of the city council, we heard from several individuals opposed to annexation.
Our town was - at one time or another - classified as "completely broke"; "badly in debt"; "unable to pay our bills"; "with streets full of pot holes" and otherwise in "terrible shape"; "with smelly sewers"; and the comment that, "We want nothing Jellico has got! Nothing that you have got!" One individual even stated something to the effect that he didn't care if Jellico "dries up and blows away"!
Now there is a strong suspicion that one or more individuals at that June meeting were either directly or indirectly involved in a personal money making activity in Veterans Park during our Fourth of July celebration. If that suspicion should prove to be true, it will certainly not sit too well with a lot of Jellico citizens. Everyone has the perfect right to be opposed to annexation if they choose to do so. And we totally respect their right. But to be actively and vocally opposed to becoming a part of our town - and then to use our facilities provided free of charge by our taxpayers to personally make money - would be both insult and injury.
School will soon be starting and I will be very, very busy for the first few days of the new school year. So I will possibly have to miss one or more issues of these articles. (I will continue on the regular schedule if I somehow can find time to do so without taking absolutely any time away from my job responsibilities.)
But I hope to soon return to my regular schedule of articles - if I do indeed have to miss publishing for a few weeks. Our citizens need to be kept informed about our city's business!
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