Kodak. Naturally!

When they talk Smokies in Sevier County, they generally mean the mountain range in the south end of the county that was attracting Yankee dollars long before Pigeon Forge ever sprouted its first outlet mall.

Of late, however, Smokies talk is that our neighbors are fixing to swat a high fat one over the fence while Knoxville is still trying to figure who's on first. The two-year losing streak over where to and who should build a new home for the Knoxville Smokies has apparently ended with the expectation that the team is going to be picking up and moving to a Sevier County location—probably in Kodak, near I-40.

Details are still murky—Smokies General Manager Dan Rajkowski talks about a joint effort between Sevier County and its three municipalities , and says numbers are still being crunched. "The Knoxville front is kind of quiet," he says.

Meanwhile, Sevier County sources point to a private initiative, led by entrepreneur Ken Wade, brother of Judge Gary. Looks like it's the bottom of the 9th with two strikes and nobody on base.

The Hill Has Ayes

Knox County Commission's search for an "Executive Director"—a.k.a. "The Ray Hill Full Employment Act of 1998"—rolls on, with commission heading for a probable appointment of Hill to the hitherto non-existent post later this month. Ray Hill, you'll recall, is the former legislator who has spent the last four years doing constituent service in the office of County Trustee Mike Lowe—and, on the side, writing poison-pen letters on behalf of various and sundry Republican officials. Those same officials now appear ready to repay Hill with a brand new job (which, even though it doesn't have an official description yet, has a designated salary range of $40,000-$63,000). Last year, some county commissioners tried to appoint Hill as their own "lobbyist" to Nashville, but the effort failed. With turnover on commission—much of it engineered by Hill while he was on leave from his Lowe job and serving as Republican campaign coordinator—there are now enough votes (13 out of 19, to be exact) to secure him a new nesting place.

It's true that commissioners have been complaining for a while about communications problems with their administrative office, which forwards constituent phone calls and provides information to commissioners and other county officials. But skeptics wonder what exactly Hill will bring to the job, since there's already an office manager there. Of course, the official word is that the position is wide open to applicants. Commissioner John Mills, a Hill loyalist who chairs the Human Services committee that will make a recommendation on the position, insists he wants the best person for the job. But, he allows, "I would think Ray was a good candidate." (Mills also says the salary probably won't go much above $46,000.) Commission Chairman Leo Cooper says he understands allegations that the post is being tailored to Hill, "but I could say the same thing about Mike Cohen in the school system, about Molly Pratt that Tommy [Schumpert] hired, about many other people that have been appointed." Hill—who is currently working in the commission office on a temporary basis—declined comment. (Actually, what he said was, "I have no intention of laying down on the cross for you.")

Well, "Ride of the Valkyries"

is Pretty Noisy...The TV cameras missed it, but one of the more entertaining sights at Monday's noise ordinance demonstration on Market Square was the blanching faces of the assembled local officials when the rock music that had been blaring at 80 decibels over the P.A. system gave way to singer Axl Rose telling a concert crowd, "Thanks a lot for supporting Guns 'N' f—-ing Roses! Thanks for sticking with us through all the f—-ing s—t!" So whose idea was it to demonstrate noise levels with a Guns 'N' Roses CD? The guys at Broadway Sound who brought the audio equipment said they had been given the disc by "the lady over there in the striped coat." Ah, that would be none other than noise ordinance hardliner Councilwoman Carlene Malone, who said she brought the CD (out of her own collection) to give a real demonstration of loud, obtrusive music. "Everybody else seemed to have only Wagner or Mozart," she explained with a chuckle. "And that ain't gonna do."