Baseball's Back in Play (Again... Maybe...)

Off-again-on-again efforts to build a new stadium for the Knoxville Smokies appear to be reviving—this time at the site of Bill Meyer Stadium. Officials of the "Superchamber," who've been spearheading the revival effort, believe they are close to getting agreements from both city and county governments under which each would put up 30 percent of an $18 million stadium's cost. The Smokies would also provide 30 percent, and the balance would come primarily from the sale of stadium naming rights.

One hitch is that the Smokies' share of the deal was predicated on locating the new stadium just off the downtown interstate interchange, a site the team believes would draw better than Bill Meyer. Superchamber chieftans appealed to Mayor Victor Ashe to have the city condemn the property but reportedly got just about as chilly a response as County Commission gave last spring to taking the property over the protests of its longtime owner and occupant, A. G. Heins Co. The Smokies may not be prepared to pony up as much for what they consider an inferior location. At the same time, City Council and County Commission may not be prepared to contribute any more—or anything at all for any site other than Bill Meyer. So the maneuvers could continue until the Smokies have gone south to Sevier County or points beyond.

Death to Bad Planners

Maybe you heard about City Council screwing the East Knox community of Thorn Grove by taking in a couple of voluntary annexations and overturning a unanimous MPC ruling against rezoning them from agricultural to commercial, thus allowing anonymous developers to put the squeeze play on the neighborhood. You may be reassured to know that on that very same night, the councilmaniacs also voted to uphold the death penalty. Now, perhaps those of you who are familiar with Municipal Court and know that the maximum penalty it can mete out is a $50 fine may be puzzled, and perhaps even a little worried, about a city death penalty. Will we ride Ol' Sparky for littering? It was a resolution from Gary Underwood, the global-minded member who also once carried a resolution demanding that Champion Paper clean up the Pigeon River. Underwood, who moved to approve the Thorn Grove rezoning, and was joined by Jack Sharp, Ed Shouse, Larry Cox and Ivan Harmon in that vote, also went for the death penalty thing, as did Nick Pavlis and Jean Teague, who were pro-death but anti-rezoning. Carlene Malone and Danny Mayfield voted no on both issues.

Welcome to Your New Job!

Twelve-year-old Kirsten Quist, who was a soldier during her mom's year-long campaign to unseat Lillian Bean as clerk of the General Sessions, Circuit, and Juvenile Courts, conked out during the swearing-in ceremony Tuesday. She rallied long enough to hold the Bible for Cathy Quist to take the oath of office, then went home for a nap.

Meanwhile, Clerk Quist walked into her office for the first time and found it a little bare. Come to find out that ordering the bookkeeper to cut her a farewell check for $39,000 wasn't the only thing Bean (who hasn't been coming in to work much since she lost the primary election to Quist in May) did during her last week.

The big screen television, VCR, and credenza are gone. So are the paper shredder, a conference table and chairs. The stuff was moved after hours last Thursday night to the office of General Sessions Court Judge Tony Stansberry and to the Juvenile Detention Center, where Bean's husband Richard is superintendent.

Quist terminated four of the office's 95 employees—Bean's chief deputy Laura Schaad and two supervisors in the child support collections unit, as well as one in General Sessions Court.

Quist had been particularly critical of those operations during her campaign.

Among her new hires is Jeffrey Gleeson, formerly the go-to guy in the Election Commission office. Gleeson will head up the Juvenile Court unit.