The Sunday, September 26th celebration of the Jellico Community Hospital's twenty-five years of service to our community and surrounding communities, was truly an outstanding event.
I have attended many such observances during my years as a Principal and Mayor. But I have never attended one that was better organized and conducted than was that event. It truly presented the Jellico Community Hospital story and it focused positive attention upon our town and our entire area.
The roughly two-hours program held everyone's attention for the entire ceremony. And I was honored to represent the city of Jellico and to present a proclamation of appreciation from our town.
Christy Elliott, along with Administrator Jim Bunch and Assistant Administrator Warren Santander, did a wonderful job as did everyone involved.
And on behalf of the city of Jellico, I want to thank everyone for their efforts and participation. It was a great day and one in which we can all take great pride.
Last week I listed some of the things that I do, and have done, as Mayor. But it was pointed out to me by a citizen who follows events in Jellico very closely, that I left off one of my most important endeavors - that of locating and working for grants and other forms of funding including very low interest rate loans.
I have worked very hard in that area and our town has been very successful in obtaining such funds. But that success has come only with the help of a lot of individuals who have also worked hard and I sincerely appreciate their help.
Our Beer Board recently had to make a decision concerning a requested beer permit for an establishment. The Board refected the application due to the proximity of the business to a church and a school facility. And that was in keeping with the requirements of our local ordinance regulating the issuance of permits to sell beer.
Members of the Board have emphasized that we appreciate all businesses that invest in Jellico and that they are open to considering almost any issue including the number of permits to be granted and their locations. The Board has no authority to amend any regulations but it does make recommendations to the Council that does have that authority. And unquestionably our current ordinance needs updating.
However the Board members in attendance at the meeting also pointed out their full agreement with the 2000 feet limitations when dealing with churches and schools. It is an established communtiy standard.
A somewhat similiar request for a beer permit in the city of Knoxville was approved by that city's Beer Board and it has created a furor. A permit was granted to a pizza restaurant across the street from a church and some Knoxville residents have demanded that the permit be revoked. In fact the Knoxville News-Sentinel in an editorial, called upon the Board to seriously reconsider the 7-2 decision to approve the request. The Board later met in special session but I do not know the result of that meeting.
Our Police Chief and Clerk are now moving into their new office along with the County Probation Officer. (The Building/Fire Inspector's office will occupy one of the offices formerly used by those individuals).
Mrs. Betty Hurst and Lora Marples have done a great job in getting the old library renovated and ready for use. It presents a much more professional appearance for the Police Department. But even more importantly, it makes the Department more accesssible to the public and the office can now be entered directly from South Main Street.
Councilman Jim Dobson is in the process of having signs prepared to clearly identify it's new location (the signs may already be in place).
I recently met with the owners of the "Stooksbury Property" located just below the old City Hall. Hopefully some action will soon be taken as to the disposition of that structure.
George Hackler, Jr. has informed me that the historical plaque to be placed upon our new City Building is now being prepared.
The plaque will be purchased and placed by the descendants of Hiram K. Trammell to mark the original site of the "Trammell Building" that occupied that spot for eighty years.
I appreciate the donation and placement of the plaque and I hope that other owners of historic buildings will follow suit.
As I have stated numerous times, attracting visitors to our town helps our local economy. And when we do attract them, we need to have as many items of interest available for them as possible. And we badly need to preserve more of our heritage.
Last week I mentioned the response that I had from readers concerning the Estil Roundtree popcorn stand and the old raincoat factory. And I am still receiving comments.
Three different ladies have now reminded me that a gentleman named Dupree? (I am not sure of the spelling) once made his living on the streets with a push cart loaded with hot food. According to those ladies, trains and buses were running in Jellico as well as numerous taxis. He apparently did not lack for potential customers since there were also people working and shopping in the downtown.
I also mentioned the apparent popularity of this column on the internet. But even I did not realize the full extent of that popularity until Mrs. Lisa Casey, Interstate 2000, furnished me with a breakdown of hits (accesses) for the week of September 12th.
A list of states in addition to Tennessee, were Virginia (thirty-eight hits), Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, California, Indiana, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Washington. There were no out-of-country hits during the period although there have beeen in the past. And the more than 8,600 hits includes a large percentage (if not all) of the fifty states.
And although this column is distributed locally in the Advance-Sentinel, there still seems to be good usage of the site in this area. Some students at Whitley Couny High tell me that they have accessed the site at school or at home, and a teacher at Jellico High says that some of her students have called it up. (I don't know if Jellico Elementary School students have been made aware of the location).
I sure hope that this column proves to be educational to students and give them an idea of what takes place in the governing of our small town. After all, they are the voters and the officials of the future.
The total amount of information now available on the internet concerning Jellico totally amazes me. All of the links from www.jellico.com (base page) and www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm (site for this column) bring up an array of topics about Jellico and our area. For example, I just called up the article (including a family photo) concerning the Official in Alaska who was born in Jellico. The unofficial Jellico page has extensive information also!
If you have a computer on line and have not visited those sites, I strongly recommend that you do so.
I earlier contacted the Tennessee State Highway Department and asked for some work on Holiday Lane since that is the access road to the Tennessee State Welcome Station. I also requested a guard rail to be placed along Highway 297 (the gaurd rail has already been placed).
Last week I wrote that I intended to request the state to plant flowers in our 4-lane median as is now being done all over the state. I will also request that the Department study the median in the 4-lane sitting between the two Rocky Top Markets. The short strip of median may need to be eliminated due to the traffic now having to cross the road there in order to turn in the direction of the Interstate. And a state installed traffic light might not be a bad idea since we now have the new business traffic in addition to the already heavy traffic for the pre-existing businesses, those attending church, school and football field traffic, and area residents.
I have stated before that I think myself and the Council need to set the example in renovating and revitalizing our town. I have scheduled the period May 22-27 as our special weeek next Spring to "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up". And I am going to invite the entire Council to join me in kicking off that week Saturday, May 20th with a special "Mayor/City Council Work Day". (And the City Administrator will be welcome also).
I realize that some cannot physically participate but they can be there to lend moral support, provide us with cold drinks, etc.
There is nothing wrong with any of us who are physically able to roll up our sleeves and go to work. The dirt can be cleaned out from under our finger nails and paint does not stay on the skin permanently. We regularly see pictures of former President Jimmy Carter covered with sawdust and sweat after working a long day as a carpenter for "Habitat for Humanity". So surely we can all spend one day working for the town that elected us.
And I am also sure that Joann Watts and the group working to restore the old Presbyterian Church can use our help on that project too.
What's in a name? Several years ago when I was principal at Jellico High, I received a call inquiring as to whether Bob Hope was at school. Thinking it to be one of the prank calls that we often received, I answered, "No? And Bing Crosby hasn't arrived yet either!"
You should have heard me apologizing when Mrs. Barbara Baird, Secretary, informed me that we had actually enrolled a student by that name. And during the years that I was there, we had Bill Cosby, Patricia Hurst, Tina Turner, Steve Allen and several others that I have forgotten. And believe it or not, we eventually did enroll a Crosby for a short time. And of course I applied the "Bing" to his name. We even had several Jordans but I can't remember a Michael.
And believe this or not! Our high school baseball team now has Ty Cobb. And from all reports, he's a pretty good player too!
Final Note:
Mrs. Betty douglas recently gave me a compliment that I deeply appreciate. She told me that one of my strengths is that I will talk to anyone and have no "airs" about me. That meant a lot to me. I sure hope that I am a person without any "airs".
But those who know my upbringing know that I would certainly have no reason for refusing to talk to anyone or for displaying any "airs" of any kind.
My sisters, brother and I were raised in the Yellow Row (Yeller Row to us) and Frog Level areas. For those who don't remember those areas, they reached from the railroad crossing on Florence Avenue near the Tabernacle (Red Row) past the city baseball field all the way to the crossing near Creekmore IGA ("Uncle" Newt Witt who made up virtually the entire Jellico Police force at that time, lived on the frog level end).
No one could actually remember for sure where Yellow Row ended and Frog Level began. (Yellow Row, Red Row and Green Row were named for the old Tannery Company painted houses for employees). There were countless houses on both ends with many sitting so close together that there was barely room to walk between some of them. And they were clean and well maintained and were filled with hard working people who went to church as regularly as the bell rang. And they taught their children character and the work ethic.
Our family was so poor that we jokingly spelled "poor" as "por" because we always said that we could not afford two "o's". And we were no different from most of the folks living there.
Flooding was always a very real possibility and the streets were unpaved. Residents actually placed the ashes from their coal stoves and "grates" in the holes in the road to help maintain them. We were not like Tommy Smith and his family that lived on "Front Street" (the old Green Row that had become a part of South Main Street) where the street was actually paved with bricks all the way to Florence Avenue and to where Maynard Jones, Don Wilder, John Dobson and others had stores filled with cold "pop", candy bars, potato chips and all kinds of goodies that sold for a nickel. And that's exactly where we headed when we could get our hands on the reequired nickel.
And Florence Avenue was where Newcomb Pike (Highway 297) began the climb up Branam Hill past George Dobson's house on the way to Newcomb, Elk Valley and Pioneer. That road was composed largely of "red dog" (burned coal slate) and white limestone gravels and the mixture of red dust and white dust covered houses, vehicles and people alike.
Our family actually lived in upper Frog Level. And all of us as children thought that people like Ruth Hill Arnold and Alex "Skeez" Housley that lived in Yellow Row were "rich folks". We had even heard rumors that some of the people living there actually owned two pairs of shoes at the same time. But none of us ever believed stories that were that wild. After all , a person could only wear one pair at a time and getting the money for one pair was hard enough.
And lower Frog Level was believed to have several "rich folks" living there too like Lora Mae Campbell Gilburth and the Campbell family; the Gilreaths, and others. (I'll bet they didn't even know that we considered them among the "affluent").
Yellow Row lasted far longer than Red Row or Green Row. However both Yellow Row and Frog Level too are now long gone and no trace remains of either. The areas were completely cleared for Indian Mountain State Park and to eliminate housing within the flood plain.
But Yellow Row and Frog Level still live on in the memories of those of us who grew up there. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that we would not trade our upbringing there with anyone who grew up in the finest homes in Jellico.
As I said in the very beginning, we were all very poor in the realm of material things although we didn't realize it. But we were very rich in the things that really count.
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