During our regular July meeting, the City Council was informed that "Jamie's Curtains and Decor" is in the process of moving to our city owned building and has already begun "cutting" operations in that facility. Installation of machines is scheduled to begin within the next few days.
The Council was updated on the potentially very serious problem that we are experiencing with the final design for the waste water treatment facility and what steps are being taken by our Utilities Department and Barge, Wagner, Sumner and Canon to correct the problems. I madethe Council fully aware that we are facing the possibility of an additional state requirement to simultaneously conduct corrective work on our aging sewer collection system which could add a greatly increased expense upon our users. (Barge Wagner has replied to the state office with a letter dated July 13, 1999 answering questions raised as to the suitability of the design for the plant and asking for approval based upon the information included in the letter. Hopefully we will still receive approval without having to make expensive modifications).
The Council was also briefed on the status of negotiations with Norfolk Southern Railway to obtain the 1.3 acres of property as basically a donation to the city.
City Attorney Jeff Hall and Councilmen Bill Barton and Jim Dobson announced that they have surveyed city owned property for a proposed excess property sale (approximately 30 locations). Hall recommended selling the property by both sealed bids and by public auction (depencing upon the size, condition and location of each lot). The Council designated one lot to be donated to "Habitat for Humanity" before beginningthe process of classifying the others prior to making them available for purchase by the public.
Other items discussed by the Council included:
Street Department personnel had earlier been working with Mike Jones, former City Administrator, to identify the priorities for street repairs directed by the Council.
The list compiled by the deparment and given to me and Councilman Lonnie Vann, Chairman of the Street Department, included eleven streets/areas but funds will not allow contracting of all eleven at this time. The worst five listed by priorities are: (1) North Queener Street/York Street; (2) Holiday Lane; (3) Dale Lane; (4) 4th Street off Branam Hill Road to 3rd Street; (5) Tennessee Avenue.
Bids will be obtained for those five and if any funds still remain bids will be let for additional streets on the list. One or two other streets will be repaired by the Jellico Water Department.
The Council decided to take no action on Douglas Lane until the problem with damage from trucks and equipment can be solved. Concilmen noted that any work performed at this time on that street would probably incur similar damage. (The Council again discussed that problem at length during the July meeting including requiring a performance bond from companies using the street. But City Attorney Jeff Hall pointed out that it would be difficult to identify all users and even more difficult to establish definite responsibility for any damage inflicted by the numerous users.)
Now that we have an employer located in our city owned building, I am working closely with Mr. Bill Daugherty of Knoxville (owner of the vacant building in the industrial park) to obtain possible occupants for that facility.
Both Mr. Daugherty and I have had some inquiries about the building but none have made any committment.
But we plan to continue to explore every possibility and eventually we hope to locate the right company that is interested in relocating to another area.
We were completely surprised by the number of people who attended the first "Saturday Night in the Park". By 9:00 PM, every parking place in Veterans' Park was occupied and, as was pointed out by Councilman Jim Dobson, when one vehicle left, another was waiting to claim the spot. The entertainment was very good and included performers from all around our area including LaFollette and Jackson County, Kentucky.
I want to thank Ronnie Dabney, all of the performers and all those who voluntarily helped with the event.
We want to continue with the Saturday night activity and to keep it suitable for families to attend. And there will need to be a variety of performers so that we can hopefully have something for everyone.
There is no charge and all entertainers perform voluntarily. However the hat is passed for any donations to help those who drive some distances for the purchase of gasoline. The activity is presently scheduled for the next several Saturday nights except August 7th but all nights are subject to cancellation for bad weather.
Everyone is reminded to bring a lawn chair or some other type of seating since no seating is available in the Park Annex.
Billy Douglas has completed the contracted work on the old Presbyterian Church although more work actually needs to be done.
The building badly needs a thorough cleaning and we hope to eventually schedule voluntary work day(s) to accomplish that task. We hope that our citizens and community organizations will get involved to help restore and preserve a very imnportant part of our town's history. The old church has been around almost one-hundred years and we certainly need to restore and maintain it regardless of what purpose we eventually decide for it. There is something sad about tearing down old historic buildings and that is especially true of beautiful church buildings that have served communities for so long.
Director of Tourism Joann Watts and the Tourism Commission will schedule the day(s) sometime in the near future and ask for volunteers to help with the cleaning.
Our Police Department recently was authorized three new police officers under the federal "Cops" grant. And one of the justifications for the grant was to provide additional police protection for public buildings and public housing. The program is designed to not only provide more security but to also improve police and community relations.
Councilman Jim Dobson, Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, will instruct the new officers to regularly check public buildings to especially include public housing and to meet as many of the residents of those facilities as possible.
Our "Community Conference Room" in the new building was put to good use on July 20th when that facility was used for a "United Appalachian Vision" meeting. That meeting involved representatives from both Tennessee and Kentucky including the Directors of the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development State offices, Representatives from United States Senator Fred Thompson's office, the Chief Executives of Campbell, Whitley and Bell counties, and several other area citizens and representatives from various organizations.
The city of Jellico was represented by UAV Boardmembers Joann Watts, Tourism Director; Roy Price, Chairman of the Planning Commission; Jim Dobson, Member of Council; Johnny Ivey, Captain of the Rescue Squad; and myself. Watts and Price have been very involved with the Three Counties Committee in drawing up proposals for federal funds for our area.
We were fortunate to have the conference room that allowed us to host that meeting (although Mrs. Watts did have to borrow tables and chairs for the meeting. We do not yet have furniture available for that section of the building).
Mrs. Ann Turner from the office of Mr. David Seivers, Tennessee State Director, Rural Development, Nashville was very complimentary on the progress that is taking place in Jellico.
Mrs. Turner says that the changes and improvements that are currently being made in Jellico are drawing very favorable attention from several different quarters.
I want to congratulate our Police Department Tee-Ball Team for winning the Jellico Tee-Ball League Championship this year. As I said in my article two weeks ago, an individual has to work with a team of youngsters before it is possible to realize all the time and effort that goes into practices, transportation, games, etc.
Final Note:
I originally committed to doing a "Christmas in the Park" at Indian Mountain State Park for three years. And last Christmas completed that three years commmitment.
The first year I was helped by Mollie Creekmore and Betty Sowders who were very instrumental in getting the activity started. Cathy Vann has been basically responsible for much of the organizational and set-up work for the past two years. And no one could have been more cooperative in helping with the project than the park administration and personnel, our Utilities Department, the Jellico Ministerial Association, Mountain Women's Exchange, and numerous other volunteers and organizations too numerous to list. And we have had literally thousands of visitors during those three years.
But I am not at all sure that I am going to have the available time this year to carry on with "Christmas in the Park". I am now involved in so much that I am simply running out of hours in a day. And the event has required my presence in the park every night during those three years and I have missed out on a lot of other Christmas activities that I would normally have attended.
I know that there are others who are more capable than me and can carry on very well with "Christmas in the Park". And I hope that someone will agree to be in charge of producing "Christmas in the Park 1999". But if no one wants to assume that responsibility, we may want to do some things in the downtown park that will not require anything like as much time and effort. The large trees and the new stage could be decorated and utilized for live Nativity scenes, caroling by local churches, etc. (The Mountain Womens' Exchange has already decided to conduct their "Toyland" at that facility this year which would be very near to the downtown park). And if the Jellico Rescue Squad has the caboose ready by that time, hot drinks, etc. could be available.
But we will need to consider all options before making a final decision.
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