Metro Pulse/Citybeat

Comment
on this story

Seven Days

Wednesday, Sept. 20
The Department of Energy reports that water at Oak Ridge's K-25 plant site is "safe to drink." Hmm. Think of the possibilities for soft drink entrepreneurs—it could give a whole new meaning to Jolt Cola.
A jury finds former KPD officer John Szczepanowski guilty of "official misconduct" in the 1997 assault of a handcuffed suspect. Boy, we'd hate to know what unofficial misconduct looks like.
Thursday, Sept. 21
A lawyer for Knox County jail inmate Kevin O. Payne says his client was assaulted by jailers while waiting trial for the attempted murder of a sheriff's deputy. Payne is eventually moved to Nashville. The Sheriff's Department launches an investigation to find out if its own employees did unspeakable harm to a guy who purportedly tried to kill another one of its employees. Any bets on the outcome of that probe?
KUB officials warn of higher heating bills this winter thanks to the spike in fossil fuel prices. County Commission and City Council pledge to double their number of regular meetings in an effort to provide an alternative fuel—hot air.
Would-be downtown mogul Ron Watkins says he has commitments to fill 40 percent of the space in his proposed 31-story office tower. He declines to name the interested parties because they "can't afford to be exposed." Unlike city taxpayers, apparently, who are supposed to provide the land and $130 million in infrastructure for the Worsham Watkins plan.
Friday, Sept. 22
Under the new management of the University of Tennessee and Battelle, Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces 300 job cuts. First to go will be those who didn't wear orange to the lab on Fridays.
Monday, Sept. 25
In a bizarre twist, County Commission gives Superintendent Charles Lindsey everything he requested to hire 14 new staff members and also agrees to fund half of a school system audit. Makes you wonder what they're up to, doesn't it?
KPD unveils a remote-control robot for use in bomb searches. Chief Phil Keith says it "also can be armed with a weapon of our choice to neutralize any threat." Like, say, annoying reporters?
Tuesday, Sept. 26
Melton Hill Lake residents accuse TVA of "playing God" with new shoreline regulations. TVA chief Craven Crowell denies the allegations, saying, "If they persist in their falsehoods, I shall smite them all."

Knoxville Found

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Freezo! As many readers astutely observed, last week's photo showed the Freezo man above an old-fashioned ice cream stand on North Central. Judging from some of the reminiscences we got, he's been there a good many years. Long may he frost. Top eagle-eye honors go to our ol' best buddy Jay Nations (former Raven Records maven and one-time champeen Metro Pulse sales rep). For his efforts, Jay wins a copy of Haruki Murakami's coming-of-age novel Norwegian Wood, reviewed ecstatically in last week's New York Times.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION WORK SESSION
Monday, Oct. 2
5 p.m.
Andrew Johnson Building
912 S. Gay Street
Monthly workshop to discuss items on the agenda for the October school board meeting.

KNOXVILLE CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, Oct. 3
7 p.m.
City County Building
400 Main Street
City Council jealously guards its agenda until the very last minute—and now, with the mayor's annexation frenzy on hold, we've lost the one item that we could count on to make it to the council at every meeting. So you'll have to go to find out what they're up to.

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Wednesday, Oct. 4
5 p.m.
City County Building
400 Main Street
Regular monthly meeting.

Homeless' Sweet Home

The VMC decides to stay where it is

The Volunteer Ministry Center has decided to stay put.

For the past couple of years, the Volunteer Ministry Center (or VMC) has been searching for a new location, spurred on by several of its neighbors who view the center's current location at Jackson Avenue and Gay Street as a stumbling block to downtown development.

However, since the search has been fruitless for so long, the VMC has decided to renovate its current location rather than move, says Ginny Weatherstone, VMC's executive director.

"We have said from the start that in order to move we had to find a location that was acceptable to us. We just haven't been able to do that," Weatherstone says.

One location that would have been great was the old Regas restaurant building down the street, because the VMC could have used its kitchen to start a job training program. However, several people lobbied the city and the restaurant against such a move.

Also, prices for new buildings ranged from $500,000 to more than $2 million, after which the VMC would have to spend more on renovations. "We simply can't do that without some kind of public support. There's no reason to think that's going to be forthcoming," Weatherstone says.

She did not yet have an idea how much renovations would cost. "We're going to start from the roof and work our way down," Weatherstone says. The center also needs painting, plumbing work, floor repairs and improvements to the outside, she says.

The Volunteer Ministry Center is a day mission, providing several meals and a place for homeless to go during daylight hours. The center provides counseling services and social workers, a dental and medical clinic and other services.

The VMC's location and future has been a sensitive topic, with some downtown preservationists urging for it to be moved. Although the VMC might prevent businesses and tenants from moving into the block, its current location is nearly perfect for the people who need its services. Other locations might have put the center too far from the downtown area or further concentrated services for the poor in the blocks around Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

Weatherstone says that fears about safety (which most agree is a perception problem) can be dealt with in other ways, such as increased police patrols.

One neighbor, Robert Loest, has changed his mind about the VMC. Loest, who lives across the street, originally said the center needed to move if the 100 block of Gay Street would ever be redeveloped. He worried about the perception homeless people created, especially when three or four panhandlers surround people on the street.

This week, Loest said the problem is not having the VMC where it is, but having so little else around it.

"You walk out my front door and there may be three, four, five, six, seven homeless people and nobody else. But if the Sterchi building were redeveloped and maybe another building...then the problem starts to disappear." Loest says. "Homeless people stick out when there's nobody else on the street."

Most of the vandalism and petty crime that happens in his neighborhood, Loest believes, is caused by kids from the suburbs, not VMC clients.

—Joe Tarr

Rock This Town?

AC Entertainment launches a big new festival. But not here.

The biggest event on local music promoter Ashley Capps' fall calendar is coming up in just a couple of weeks: the Mountain Oasis Music Festival on Oct. 6-8, featuring a 17-band lineup that includes Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Southern Culture on the Skids, Iris DeMent, Leftover Salmon and Tim O'Brien.

Unfortunately for Knoxville—where Capps lives, and where he began his music promotion business, AC Entertainment, and where the company is still based—the festival isn't going to be held here. Instead, it's going to be three hours away, across the mountains, at a campground between Asheville and Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Why?

"That's the $100 million question," Capps says. "In a nutshell, the whole North Carolina area has proven to be more receptive...There's no denying that western North Carolina is very unique. It has a lot of different types of people and all sorts of different type of cultural activities."

Capps' efforts in Knoxville this year have had mixed results: he's brought some great rock shows to town—like Patti Smith and Sonic Youth—in addition to the classic rock staples of the Hot Summer Nights series and a number of smaller shows like Yo La Tengo, the Flaming Lips, and the just-announced Elliott Smith.

Patti Smith and Sonic Youth members told Capps and others that the Knoxville shows were among the best on their tours. But both played to smaller-than-expected crowds, and alternative soul/folk singer Meshell Ndegeocello was a dismal draw in the spring, even with a half-price ticket offer. In fact, several of the mid-size shows that Capps has booked in Asheville this fall—Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco and Emmylou Harris—won't be coming to Knoxville at all (while we get exclusive Knoxville-only tour stops by REO Speedwagon and Styx).

"I would certainly like to see something like [the Mountain Oasis festival] happen in Knoxville," Capps says. "We even tried it with a two-day event about three years ago, and nobody came. The lack of attendance was absolutely stunning."

Part of the reason that Asheville is a better draw, he adds, is that the local government is far more responsive to large, multi-day events—and to fun in general. Among other things, the city sponsors the popular annual Bele Chere festival. "Let's say they're more used to it," he says. "There's a stronger awareness of the value of this type of event, but also of culture in general. And it's made them a major tourist destination."

Maybe something for local officials to consider as they ponder their hundred-million-dollar redevelopment plans.

—Matthew T. Everett

Getting Up for a Stand Down

Special attention planned for homeless vets

Military veterans comprised an estimated one-third of the 1,400 or so homeless persons who were making their way as best they could in Knoxville in 1999, according to Harold Bush of the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Although both of those figures are educated guesses, they are based on a UT survey that would indicate Knoxville is home, so to speak, to more than 400 homeless vets. Among them are the disabled, the troubled and the simply luckless, some of whom are all three. Bush, a readjustment counselor, has been assigned to Knoxville as a homeless outreach worker by the VA Hospital at Johnson City. He helps vets whenever possible to get back on track.

"It's given me shelter and direction, showing me how to live as a normal human being," says Larry Rutledge, a 49-year-old army vet who has taken up temporary residence at the Steps House on Magnolia Avenue, a halfway house for the homeless that serves vets here under a VA contract administered by Bush.

Likewise, Ed Mills, 54, a navy and marine corps vet who is struggling to get by on a Social Security disability allowance after by-pass surgery, says the Steps House experience has given some "structure" to his existence. He's waiting for an applied-for increase in his SS benefit to allow him to maintain his own apartment. Before going into the halfway-house setting, Mills says, he got to drinking. "There was nothing else to do," he says. "There's a bunch of guys here really trying. It's a family kind of thing."

Both Rutledge and Mills are looking forward to an event next month that will expose other homeless vets to the possibility of gaining the kind of foothold they are acquiring. Bush and a group of Knoxvillians from many walks of life are arranging for what they call a "Millennium Stand Down" here Oct. 13 through 15 to give homeless veterans a chance to get a better grip on life, if they can.

Mills says he hopes to offer attendees his own advice, based on how much better he feels now that he's accepted the help the VA has given him.

The stand down, a term used in the military to describe the movement of a combat unit from a field of battle to a safe area, will give veterans who are homeless a chance to get relief from the streets in the form of showers, meals, clothing, a safe place to sleep and, most importantly, medical treatment and counseling on employment and on legal services and federal veterans' benefits for which they may be qualified.

Paul Bowman, development director for The Salvation Army in Knoxville, says his is one of more than 30 organizations, businesses and service providers who are working, along with hundreds of area volunteers, to assure that the stand down is as comprehensive and effective as possible.

"We're hoping to attract at least 150 homeless veterans this year from Knox and all the adjoining counties," Bowman says. He says the first stand down, coordinated by Bush in 1996, provided services and advice to about 50 vets in one day. The three-day event will be held this year at the National Guard Armory on Sutherland Avenue. Transportation from key points in the city and in surrounding county seats is being provided by McGhee Tyson Air Base.

The organizers are still trying to gain more volunteer help with the stand down. Professional volunteers from the dental and optical fields are particularly needed, Bowman says, but he encourages any volunteers who could counsel vets in medical, educational, employment or religious matters to contact The Salvation Army at 525-9401.

—Barry Henderson