Volume # 1, Ed. # 26
WE GIVE THANKS FOR ALL THE MANY BLESSINGS!!!
I have recently received a letter from Mr. Robert Morris, Manager, Valley Relations, Tennessee Valley Authority, concerning electric rates. A portion of that letter is quoted:
"We are proud to announce that as of October 1, TVA began its new fiscal year -- without a price increase. The TVA Board approved a 2002 budget that holds electric rates stable for the fourth straight year. At the same time, TVA's in-lieu-of tax payments are higher than ever. These payments, which equal to five percent of power revenues, are estimated to pay $ 315 million for fiscal year 2002 in tax-equivalent payments benefiting state and local governments across the seven-state TVA service area."
I have been served with legal papers questioning my appointment of Jim Dobson to the Utilities Board. That is the ridiculous suit filed by vote of some council members that will cost the city of Jellico several hundred tax payer dollars (and possibly more). I have no way of knowing what the judicial decision will be concerning my appointment but I do know that from all accounts, Councilman Dobson has been doing a good job on the board. And regardless, there will be an election in April when our people can decide the issue themselves without a waste of taxpayer money that is needed so badly for many other purposes.
I am also in receipt of a reply to a letter that I earlier reported sending to Charter Communications stating that we would not look kindly upon any attempts to close our local cable TV office located on Hospital Lane. Correspondence from Charter dated November 9, 2001 included assurance that, although the closure had been seriously considered, we will continue to have our local office for the foreseeable future.
I want to thank Charter for that decision and again emphasize that as long as we grant a franchise to any cable company, we will insist upon that company maintaining an office in Jellico.
Effort begets effort! Since the first day I took office, I have been attempting to renovate and revitalize our downtown. For two years I along with the help of several unpaid citizen volunteers, were able to make great progress toward achieving that goal. However some opposition developed on the council to my efforts for whatever reason and I was virtually stopped in my tracks by that opposition.
But others apparently appreciate the difference that has been made including our Campbell County Commissioners. The Commission voted a resolution at their last meeting in support of
renovating and revitalizing our downtown - apparently as a means to obtain grant funds for that purpose. (As I understand it the language referred to our "city government's efforts" which could be highly questioned.) But regardless of the language used or the motivation for the resolution, it is certainly a welcome one and it is great to now see others sharing my hopes for our downtown. I appreciate the action of the Commission.
We have another new business that appears to be near the point where it will soon be opening its doors. The building to house the fitness and movie rental outlet looks virtually complete and I was glad to hear that the owners plan to place appealing awnings on the structure to improve its overall appearance. (And the new Buckner's Trough Restaurant on the Interstate side of town also looks to be close to the point of reopening following the devastating fire that destroyed the original building.)
One night last week I came through downtown at sometime around 7:00 PM and six or seven businesses were still open and I saw people working in two different offices. How long has it been since we have had that much activity in our downtown that late in the evening? Let's stay with it and we will eventually get the area renovated and revitalized including that downtown restaurant that someone needs to open. And if we keep working, we will eventually get enough people downtown to support a restaurant that features a pleasant atmosphere and one that serves good food - as well as that hometown newspaper that we need so badly here in Jellico.
My earlier report that the state of Tennessee was flirting with the loss of federal funds by closing state parks proved to be correct. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported on November 14th that about three fourths of a million dollars has already been withheld. That was for the nine parks that were listed that had been founded through the use of federal funds. But as I emphasized then, Indian Mountain State Park was not listed as one of those nine that originally received federal funding although I still believe that it did receive such funding and possibly from more than one federal agency.
Last week I cited some of the contributions made by our local Boy Scout Troop. And they have now completed their project of erecting a historical plaque at the site of the World War II troop train wreck.
I understand that they have already been contacted by aging out of state veterans who survived that tragedy who wanted to express their appreciation to the scouts for that action.
My thanks - and the thanks of all of our citizens - to our scouts and their sponsors for yet another contribution to our community and our entire area.
The Jellico Ministerial Association does a great job with the community services held four times each year. The service last Sunday was especially outstanding and really expressed the feelings of thanks that we all feel during this particular Thanksgiving season. And the offerings taken during the services also help those in need throughout the entire year.
(And its "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" with all of the decorations going up. And in Lexington
last Saturday, we saw numerous decorations with a red, white and blue theme. They were beautiful!)
We had only four members present at our City Council meeting last Thursday night (Jim Dobson, Alvin Evans, Jerry Neal and Charles Violet with Bill Barton and Lonnie Vann absent) but we had a very good meeting and were able to accomplish most of the business on the agenda. One of the best things to come out of the meeting was the news that we will have an individual to manage an office dealing with emergency management and that the office will be provided for twenty hours per week free of charge to the city of Jellico. George Deuel who has had extensive experience with the fire department, police department and other emergency services will fill the position. And one of his first responsibilities will be to evaluate emergency management plans and to recommend one to the council for approval.
(We now have only four more council meetings until the April election and the "election talk" is starting to warm up. This will be a long awaited election that will not only select our next mayor and our members of council, but it will also decide the future of the position of city administrator. And to make things even more interesting, depositions are scheduled for December 12th in the Open Meetings /"Sunshine Law" suit filed and paid for by citizens against some members of council. The outcome of those legal proceedings could also have a great impact upon the upcoming election.)
When I first heard the news of the latest plane crash in New York, I was somewhat surprised to see the
area where that disaster took place. I was stationed at Fort Tilden, New York for a lengthy period of time while serving in the U.S. Army. That post was located just across the bridge from the end of Brooklyn's famous Flatbush Avenue at the edge of Queens and only a very short distance from the Rockaway crash site. In fact my buddies and I spent many of our evenings hanging out in the Rockaways including Far Rockaway located on down the bay.
My letters home were often postmarked "Far Rockaway" and everyone got a kick out of them. Apparently they thought of some of our very small communities such as "No Business" or "Varmit County" when they saw that postmark. (Come to think of it, Rockaway isn't too far removed from Rocky Top.) But the Rockaways sit on the edge of one of the world's most densely populated areas and a person can be in the middle of Manhattan from there in a matter of forty minutes or so by taking one of the subway lines.
When I visit New York City I always try to take a nostalgia trip to Breezy Point where we had a "private beach". But our military post has long been converted into a game preserve park for endangered species of birds and animals. One of the few recognizable buildings is now the park headquarters. It was in that building where I was standing guard for a high level staff meeting with orders that the meeting was not to be interrupted for any reason short of an attack upon our country. However a television was playing across the hallway and I saw the news flash that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. I decided to disobey my orders and to suffer the consequences if need be. I knocked, entered the room and made the announcement of that news cast. The entire room full of ranking officers literally ran over me to get to the television. There was an awful lot of highly classified material being utilized for the meeting and I was hastily instructed to obtain soldiers with the proper security clearances and to secure everything. Needless to say, the meeting was over!
It was also in that building that I and some other soldiers along with sailors, marines and coast guardsmen had earlier remained at our posts throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis, catching cat naps for sleep whenever we could and eating C-rations - having hot food only when someone could find the time to bring it to us. We all expected World War III to begin at any minute and we knew from the intelligence reports that we would be one of the very first targets for any possible Russian nuclear attack since we had a good percentage of the air defense nuclear armaments for the New York City area at that time. Anyone of us could have written a book on the meaning of the word fear. Those were historical moments that I will never forget and experiences that I have always vividly recalled on the occasions when I have returned to that old post and our unit headquarters building.
I want to thank Interstate 2000/Netlink 2000 for creating a special Internet web site for these articles. Current copies can now be found at www.jellico.com/mayor. (I would appreciate readers giving that site location to out of town net users with whom they have contact.) I am now placing everything on disc that can easily be downloaded onto the net and that saves a lot of time in scanning, etc..
(Believe it or not, a link has been created from that page where Lois Hall's great recipe for chili can be
found. It was always widely loved by Jellico people but now it may become famous all over the world.)
And speaking of the Internet, that was an amazing figure for Internet usage for the month of October that
was released by the news networks. According to those figures, over 115 million accesses were made during that month alone which means that this year's total of accesses may well top a billion. That's enough to blow a person's mind when we realize that the Internet is only a relatively new technological development - but one that's usage has already "exploded" until it now reaches all over the globe.
Somehow Tennessee escaped the Battle of Lexington last Saturday with a victory. But when we were down by an unbelievable 21-0 score, I ate a large portion of crow and topped it off with a dessert of humble pie. I have rarely ever seen a Tennessee team as thoroughly whipped on both sides of the ball as we were in the first half of that game. Undoubtedly the Vols took the game too lightly but just as surely, Kentucky has some great young talent that definitely will be heard from in the future. The seventeen years win streak by UT over the Cats is in real danger and it's a good thing that we play in Knoxville next year. (Even that is no guarantee and I am already dreading the trip to Lexington in two years God willing.)
JOHN CLIFTON, Mayor, City of Jellico
P.O. Box 533
E-mail: jclifton@whitley.kl2.ky.us
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