Jasper alderman proposes citizen committee to help clean up town

The Jasper City Hall in downtown Jasper, Tenn.
The Jasper City Hall in downtown Jasper, Tenn.

JASPER, Tenn. - Since Josh Jennings' election to the Jasper Board of Mayor and Aldermen in November, one area of concern city residents have raised is the beautification and presentation of the town.

At the board's February meeting, Jennings proposed forming a committee that would organize volunteers to "go out and work on behalf of our town."

"The mayor has worked very tirelessly to try to promote getting new business into the town of Jasper," he said. "And I think one area that we lack is some code and enforcement that we can take action on."

Certain areas of the town just "aren't up to par," Jennings said.

He proposed a resolution, which stated that since Jasper already has a planning commission and park board, forming this committee wouldn't be any different.

According to the resolution, the purpose of the committee would be to propose guidelines for the board to debate, establish or enforce and to promote the beatification of Jasper.

This would include maintenance and upkeep of the downtown area, reviewing residential, commercials and government-owned areas to ensure those are "within code," among other tasks.

It also calls for the town to fund three $500 grants per year for which civic organizations could apply to aid in other projects.

"Many constituents do express dismay with the appearance of the town and its lack to enforce certain codes," Jennings said. "Everything is open for consideration and debate. We're the largest municipality in [Marion] County, and we're the only one that doesn't have this type of committee."

Mayor Paul Evans said he and other city leaders have been working on those types of improvement activities already.

"We're doing it in a way that, I know, seems slow to a lot of people, but it is taking shape," he said.

Evans said there are six spots in Jasper that are "the worst of the worst," but he's in the process of fixing those.

"We're working hard to do this," he said. "We've been encouraging people to come out and help us in this. I encourage as much volunteer help as we can do."

Jennings said he wants a committee that can give the town an action plan and take some of that off Evans's plate.

"We could sit here all day and say we need all of you volunteers, but they'll say, 'Well, what do we need to do?'" he said. "Nobody knows where to start. That's why I think we need the committee in place to just get the ball rolling on what needs to be done, and what [the mayor] needs them to do."

Jennings said his proposal is no reflection on the current mayor or board's work on improving the town, but that people are eager to help and need to be organized.

The board will have a work session this week to begin planning the next fiscal year's budget, and the proposed beautification committee will be discussed as well.

"I welcome this," Evans said. "We all are trying to achieve the same thing."

Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.

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