Our lighting of the city Christmas tree and the city Christmas lights in the park went very well. We had both good weather and a good crowd including more children than usual. I want to thank Councilman Alvin Evans, Tourism Director Jake Bennett, Carolyn and Charles Leach, Marion Ivey, Larry Meadows, Carlos "Carbide" Warman, Ronnie Dabney, Bo Buckner, our city crews, the utility crews, and everyone who helped in preparing for and presenting the program. In addition to Evans I also saw Councilmen Jim Dobson and Jeff Brown in the crowd and there may have been others. (Carolyn made several gallons of great hot chocolate and only a half-gallon or so was left. It was very good and by popular demand she had better be prepared to do it again next year.)

Jake is considering having Santa Claus at the lighting next year along with a local photographer so the kids can have photos made with old St. Nick. If the weather is good the photos can be made outside next to the tree. If not, a backdrop can be placed in the community conference room for that purpose. That can draw more people downtown and will save a lot of folks from having to take the kids out of town for photos with Santa. It may also give a local photographer a little business.

Note: Jake is also considering having some Friday and/or Saturday night singing sessions in the community conference room during the upcoming cold winter months. That too could help draw folks to the downtown and provide something for our folks to do on weekends. Having some entertainment available is always good.

We are still having a real problem in Veterans Park. Someone is again removing Rudolph's red nose (of all the nerve) and our little folks just don't appreciate it. Just like last Christmas, Kelsey Osborne is regularly checking Rudolph out and she and her little friends report to me every time that the most famous reindeer is missing his distinctive attribute. But Bo Buckner is standing by and he replaces Rudolph's nose with regularity.

The Elk Valley Parade was also blessed with a sunny (but cool) Sunday afternoon. And there was a good turnout for such a small community. In fact the representatives from one of the Knoxville TV stations that served as co-grand marshals were really impressed with the community involvement for that activity. They were very complimentary and appeared to have loved every minute of it.

Now its time for our Jellico Christmas Parade THIS SUNDAY and we expect a very large turnout. But true to the weather pattern that has been so prevalent over several past weekends, there was a thirty percent (30%) chance of rain in the forecast at the time this article was written. But as someone pointed out, that's a seventy percent (70%) chance that it won't rain. So we will just have to look at the bright side and pray for the best. But the Parade must go on and will go on - rain or shine.

Jake reports a large number of units already committed to participate with more coming in each day. And that's great news. Parades such as ours are - and should be - community affairs. And the more of our town and area citizens, churches, schools, groups, agencies, organizations, etc. that get involved - so much the better.

Co-grand marshals were also planned for our Parade but no confirmation had been received from either party the last time I checked with Jake. It's nice to have a grand marshal and everyone is certainly hopeful that we will have one. But I have been to great parades that did not have a marshal including the famous Sugar Bowl Parade in New Orleans - the Parade Capitol of the World. Nobody even seemed to notice that there was no marshal in that parade and in fact, someone called the absence of a marshal to the attention of those in our party or we would never have known the difference.

Everyone is reminded of the assembly areas: Column - High School Loop starting traffic light at Hardees and extending back into the high school parking lot. Shriners - Hardees restaurant. Mayberry - Hardin Street. Antique/Vintage Vehicles - Union Bank Parking Lot. Horses, Horse Drawn Wagons and Carriages and Other Animals - Grassy lot directly across the street from the Union Bank.

Jake is having organizational meetings to help curtail the inevitable problems with getting everyone where they need to be in the line. But regardless of how much organizing and planning is done, there will be problems and everyone just needs to be prepared for them. (There will be loads and loads of candy for this parade but all emergency vehicles are asked to not sound sirens along the route except briefly to start the parade. And all units are also asked not to have a Santa Claus because having more than one Santa really confuses the lit-luns.)

Jo Ann Watts, Chairperson of the Committee for Downtown Revitalization, called to say that the requests for proposal for plans to bring about the revitalization will be issued this week. She stated that there is a general feeling that once the plan is developed and approved, that other grant monies will possibly be made available to us for that purpose as well. That's good because we are going to need every penny that we can get our hands on to once again get our town looking the way that it needs to look.

I, and members of the city council, the police department, etc. have received contacts, calls and criticism concerning the fact that we have a bad problem with stray dogs and cats. It is a problem that continues to grow worse and I reminded the city council of that fact at our last meeting. But some in attendance at the meeting from the Lafollette/Jacksboro/Caryville area indicated that the problem in that area is probably every bit as bad as ours and maybe even worse. And they pointed out that every town and area is experiencing similar problems.

Some of the strays display aggressive tendencies while most are emaciated and afflicted with mange, fleas, ticks, etc. And of course there is also the threat of rabies from those that have not been vaccinated. Most folks thankfully do have kind hearts and feed them. But that only encourages them to remain within an area and to attract other animals that are in a similar condition.

We have strays that wander into all neighborhoods and we also know that folks from surrounding areas (and possibly within our town) have put animals out in Veterans Park, at the baseball park, at Indian Mountain State Park, near the Interstate interchange and at other locations. Any observers either did not recognize the individuals or were reluctant to sign a written report for the police. In the absence of eye witnesses willing to testify, the only way that the practice can be stopped is for the police to catch the offending parties in the act - which of course is very hard to do.

And we sometimes get calls complaining about neighbor's dogs and cats. But often the person making the call or complaint does not want to be identified to the neighbor as the one making the complaint. In those cases as well, no action can be taken by the police without a written complaint and statement that the dogs and/or cats definitely belong to the neighbor and requesting that they be removed from the complainer's property. (We have had problems with misidentification of pet ownership in the past. Some police officers have found themselves in controversy concerning that very issue.) But there have been instances of warnings being issued when definite ownership had been established after written and signed complaints were filed with the police department.

It is a problem to which there seems to be no definitive answer. It sounds like an easy solutiion to just say that we need to appoint a policeman or a full time animal control officer and pay him to round up stray animals and to make sure that folks keep their animals at home. But it is a far more complicated matter than that as the Campbell County Commission has recently learned. There are now very strict humane laws dealing with the manner in which the animals can be collected and even more strict regulations concerning their care once they are in captivity. A licensed animal shelter is required to meet all of the applicable rules and regulations. And needless to say, an animal center is expensive in its operation. The Campbell County Commission several months ago appropriated $ 385,000.00 to build a center for our county. But that amount proved to be insufficient by several thousand dollars. (The proposed center is going to be re-bid and County Commissioners with whom I have talked say that the new price will be very close to $500,000.00. And the costs of other centers around the region have exceeded $ 1,000,000.00.) Then a required full time veterinarian must be employed along with supplies, equipment, food, etc. following that expenditure. Add to that the cost of several possible satellite centers along with transportation to Lafollette from the outlying areas such as Jellico and you get an idea of the expense that is going to be necessary. There is no way that Jellico can even consider constructing such a center.

We have had a non-compensated "dog-catcher", Shirley Stover, and he has attempted on occasion, to house and care for dogs and cats that had been rounded up for the required length of time - in case some had owners that had not properly tagged them but who may have wanted to reclaim them or some who may have just wanted to claim a pet. But no veterinarian service is available in Jellico so that practice had to be discontinued. However according to Councilman Jim Dobson, city financial records and veterinarian bills indicate that the dog catcher has still rounded up and taken something like fifty strays to Williamsburg for euthanasia withing the past two and one half months alone. But in spite of that fact, the population has continued to increase.

We definitely need to work with the Campbell County Commission to see if we can work out something to help solve the problem here and all over the county. But directing a police officer to go "catch some stray dogs" as quoted in the movie "Oh Brother!" and advocated by some of our citizens, is certainly not the answer to the problem in this day and age. That will get us in a "whole heap of trouble" with the law, the Humane Society and other animal rights and protection groups.