09/22/2026
This Wednesday!
The LaFollette Press is proud to announce that we will conduct a Jellico mayoral candidates' debate at Solid Grounds on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.
If the scheduled Jellico Board of Mayor and Aldermen special-called meeting, set for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., runs longer than expected, then the debate will start about five minutes after the meeting ends.
For those who can't attend in person, the LaFollette Press will record the debate in HD video and have it for people to watch on its website later in the week.
Candidates will receive three minutes to answer each question, excluding opening and closing statements, which will be five-minute periods.
Here are the questions that we are sending to the candidates tonight:
Opening statement
Why do you want to be mayor of Jellico?
What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you to be mayor of Jellico?
The Jellico hospital has been closed since March 2024 and has not been fully open for years prior to that. There have been several operators that the Jellico Board of Mayor and Aldermen has worked with over the years to get the hospital fully back open: Boa Vida, Community Hospital Management, Progressive Health, Phoenix Rural Healthcare, now BradenHealth. How do you feel about the years-long quest to get the Jellico hospital back open?
Jellico dipped into its fund balance for nearly $400,000 recently to balance this upcoming year's budget because projected appropriations were much more than projected revenues and other finances. Jellico has the money, but its remaining fund balance will be cut by around a third, as a result. This isn't the first time in the last four years that the town of Jellico has had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of its fund balance in order to balance a projected budget. How would you ensure this doesn't happen again?
What is one area where Jellico is focusing too much on and one area where Jellico is not focusing enough?
A Campbell County judge recently found that Jellico willfully withheld public records from a citizen. How do you feel about public records and the citizens' rights to inspect them and receive copies — and how would you ensure that public records are released to citizens in a timely manner in the future?
What do you think of cryptocurrency mining and data centers, and what do you think of CleanSpark, in particular? Would you support allowing a new cryptocurrency mining operation or data center to come to Jellico in the future? Why or why not?
There have been a number of staffing changes at the Jellico Police Department within the last four years. How do you feel the department has been managed? What would you do differently, or do you feel it is properly managed as of now?
Much is said about how Jellico is just off Interstate 75 and yet doesn't have the tourism revenue that other areas have. How would you go about helping to improve Jellico's tourism economy?
How would you characterize the homelessness situation in Jellico? How would you approach the matter, if it needs approaching at all?
Does Jellico need to hire a town administrator? Does Jellico need to hire a full-time building inspector? Why or why not?
What makes you the best candidate running to be Jellico mayor this year?
Closing statement
