Preparing to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary

I thought I would take this opportunity to wish my wonderful wife, Cecelia, an early anniversary.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Sunday will mark our 18^th wedding anniversary.

On Sept. 25, 2004, we tied the knot at my church, Gray’s Baptist Church, with her preacher, Bobby Joe Eaton, performing the ceremony.

As fate would have it, my last check with just “Mark White” printed on it went to pay Bobby Joe, who I’ve known since I was a kid, to officiate the wedding ceremony.

I was starting to run out of checks with “Mark White” printed on them a few months before we tied the knot, and went ahead and added Cecelia’s name to my checking accounting and ordered new checks with both of our names on them.

If you think that was confident, I bought her engagement ring at a jewelry store that was going out of business in London…LOL.

Fortunately, she said yes.

It’s been a great 18 years and I can’t wait to see what the next 18 years bring.

I love you with all my heart.

Now to switch gears and talk about a couple of other things before I conclude this column.

• I just wanted to wish my friend, Whitley County Treasurer Jeff Gray, well. Jeff is retiring this year after serving as county treasurer under not one but the last three judge-executives.

He started when Mike Patrick took office as judge-executive in 1999, and continued in that role under Burley Foley and Pat White Jr., who is our current judge-executive.

Jeff has been there for the county in the good times and the bad, including 2005 when the Whitley County Fiscal Court was begrudgingly forced to implement a 1 percent payroll tax to avoid a potential shutdown of county government.

Even after the payroll tax was implemented, Whitley County’s financial situation remained pretty grim for a year or two.

I only learned recently just how grim it was. Apparently, Jeff was the primary person, who came up with a spending plan that kept the state from taking over operation of county government at one point.

In 2008, Jeff and I both got elected to serve on the newly created Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

I was the News Journal’s representative at the inaugural meeting when the chamber was formed, and Jeff was there representing the fiscal court, if I remember correctly.

Williamsburg Chamber President Harvey Alder asked for nominations for treasurer. I nominated Jeff, who got the job naturally.

About two minutes later, Jeff got even when he nominated me to serve on the board of directors…LOL.

I think we both found it to be a positive experience, and both of us were still serving on the Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors the next year when it was approached by the Corbin Chamber of Commerce about a merger, which soon led to the creation of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

I think history has proven that members of both boards made a good decision voting yes on that merger.

• I was saddened to hear about the recent passing of Frank Atkins.

Frank served many years as the city attorney for Williamsburg.

Frank was someone, who I talked to numerous times over the years and he was always a joy to speak with.

Nothing about Frank was loud. He had this kind of quiet way about him, but you didn’t have to talk to him for a real long time to figure out he was a very intelligent person.

Frank had this great even keel temperament, which I think would have made him a great judge had he ever gotten that opportunity.

My condolences go out to his loved ones.