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Seven Days

Wednesday, Jan. 24
Last week, we wondered if Mayor Victor Ashe's jaunty jaunt to India meant that his new deputy Frank Cagle was now in charge. Today, we find out—Cagle announces the city is yanking its condemnation suit to acquire property for a new building to house the News-Sentinel (Cagle's erstwhile employer) and going back into negotiations with Ray Hand, the property's owner. He also announces the "resignation" of development director Doug Berry, who apparently wasn't a "good fit" in the city administration. That comes as no surprise to the dozens of people who have dealt with Berry and found him candid, energetic, imaginative and aggressive—clearly unsuited for service under Ashe.
Speaking of the News-Sentinel, the paper's lead story in the Business section today heralds the "upscale" opening of (are you ready?) a new Wal-Mart "supercenter" in the environmentally hostile Turkey Creek development. Under a photo of smiling shoppers with Wal-Mart carts, the article informs us that the store "continues to usher in a new era in West Knoxville retail activity." Thank goodness. We were getting tired of the "old era"—which consisted of paving over farmland, erecting huge parking lots, generating gigantic volumes of traffic, and building big boxy stores selling the same crap you can get everywhere else.

Thursday, Jan. 25
At a public hearing in Oak Ridge, Dept. of Energy officials discuss plans for a $4 billion project to store and process bomb-grade uranium and other weapons materials at the Y-12 plant. Good to see Oak Ridge getting back in touch with its heritage.

Monday, Jan. 29
Construction crews start work on a new four-lane bridge between UT's main campus and ag campus—despite the fact that nobody who works or goes to school on either campus seems to want it. Fortunately, UT already has plans under way to make itself more pedestrian-friendly; for example, anyone crossing the bridge on foot will be issued a 228-page TDOT booklet explaining the proper uses of crosswalks. After they sign a liability waiver, of course.
Gov. Don Sundquist, having failed in previous years to solve the state's revenue problems, decides to concentrate on the expenditure side instead. His "State of the State" address contains reams of educational initiatives but no funding sources for any of them. He responds to questions about money with (seriously) a story about frogs in a pond. It's a sad thing what seven years in Nashville will do to you...

Tuesday, Jan. 23
A father of a Connecticut boy who burned himself last week blames the pernicious influence of MTV stunt celebrity Johnny Knoxville. Just goes to show that it takes a real redneck to do stupid things right (it helps if they're from South Knoxville, like our boy Johnny).

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

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:

Not surprisingly, it took an architect to place this symmetrical logo. Travelin' Joe Snyder of Grieve Associates (recently returned from trekking across Asia) correctly noted it adorns the William Moore Building at State Street and Summit Hill—"on the once magnificent opening that presently faces the scorched earth of local justice," he added, referring to the big hole across the street where some nice buildings used to be (before they were demolished for the now-shelved justice center project). Snyder knows a thing or two about historic buildings; he and his colleagues oversaw the recent restoration of the Miller's Building on Gay Street. For his sharp eye and sharper tongue, Joe gets a commemorative Maker's Mark cocktail glass. Cheers!

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

NORTHWEST KNOXVILLE EMPOWERMENT ZONE ADVISORY COUNCIL
THURSDAY, FEB. 1
6:30 P.M.
CHRISTENBERRY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
925 OGLEWOOD AVENUE
The second in the Center for Neighborhood Development's public meetings to establish Zone Advisory Councils for Knoxville's federal Empowerment Zone funding. The northwest zone includes the Lonsdale, Lonsdale Homes, Lincoln Park, Oakwood, and Christenberry Heights neighborhoods.

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
MONDAY, FEB. 5
5 P.M.
ANDREW JOHNSON BUILDING
912 S. GAY STREET
Work session of the newly combative school board. (Actually, they've always been combative; they're just getting more press these days.)

WEST KNOXVILLE EMPOWERMENT ZONE ADVISORY COUNCIL
TUESDAY, FEB. 6
6:30 P.M.
L.T. ROSS BUILDING
2247 WESTERN AVENUE
The third public meeting held by the Center for Neighborhood Development to establish Zone Advisory Councils for Knoxville's federal Empowerment Zone funding will focus on Mechanicsville, Western Heights, Beaumont, Ridgebrook, and Marble City. For more information call Bob Booker at 522-5935.

KNOXVILLE BEER BOARD
TUESDAY, FEB. 6
6:45 P.M.
CITY COUNTY BUILDING
400 MAIN STREET
Victor Ashe's annexation legacy continues: Th' Katch strip club, recently added to the city tax rolls, is up for beer board approval.

KNOXVILLE CITY COUNCIL
TUESDAY, FEB. 6
7 P.M.
CITY COUNTY BUILDING
400 MAIN STREET
Will the long-awaited proposal of a billboard ban finally make it onto the agenda?

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7
5 P.M.
CITY COUNTY BUILDING
400 MAIN STREET
Regular monthly meeting.

Opiate of the Masses

The addictive Oxycontin has become Knoxville's new high.

Dilaudid and morphine, long the favored drugs in Knoxville's subterranean world of opiate abusers, are being replaced by a relatively new drug that is perhaps even more addictive. A narcotic analgesic used for pain control, Oxycontin (generic name oxycodone) is now the most sought-after downer on the streets, serving as the new drug of choice for longtime opiate addicts and as a gateway drug for young abusers.

Mary Little, program director for DRD (Drug Research & Development), Knoxville's methadone clinic, says that around 90 percent of those entering the methadone maintenance program have been using Oxycontin. Though the addict population has primarily consisted of males, ages 30 to 50, Little says Oxycontin is ushering in new users of all ages and sexes.

"[Oxycontin] seems to be just scattered through high schools," says Little. "I get calls every day from parents saying that their child showed up with some drugs and they want to know what it was. I tell them to to take it to a pharmacist to find out for sure; and it usually turns out to be Oxycontin."

Oxycontin abuse has grown in the last five years as the drug has become commonly prescribed for pain management. The drug comes in pill form, ranging from 10- to 80-milligram strengths. Abusers wash the coating off before snorting or injecting it. Manufacturers of the drug are aware of the abuse problem and are considering reformulating it so that it cannot be snorted.

Though snorting may be an initiation to Oxycontin abuse, the preferred method of delivery is injection. And now that the spread of AIDS is old news, drug users seem to be slipping back into high risk behavior, heedless of the risk of HIV, hepatitis C and overdose.

There is no needle exchange program in Knoxville, but drug abusers always manage to find syringes. Addicts can occasionally buy them at drug stores that don't ask for identification. And dealers will sell syringes for around five dollars each.

"You're not gonna believe this, but a lot of people are using the animal syringes that they get at the farm stores," says "James" (a pseudonym), a veteran of Knoxville's street drug scene. "People like those 'cause they want a bigger barrel (the opening in the needle). The people that are really hard into it, they want that bang you get with the bigger barrel."

Fast profits for the dealers and the constant cravings of the addicts have fueled the local street drug market. The high markup of street sales of Oxycontin has lured many with legitimate prescriptions to sell their drugs.

"Right now, Oxycontin is going for a dollar a milligram," says DRD's Little. "So you can get $80 for an 80 milligram tablet. In a drug store, the cost is about 10 cents a milligram. So there's a high rate of profit there. I think that doctors are prescribing it and their patients may take part of it and sell the rest. Or they may not take any, sell all of it and spend that money for the drug of their choice."

With constant use, Oxycontin abusers can find themselves addicted in a matter of seven to 10 days. A prescription drug, Oxycontin comes in measured doses. So abusers know the exact amount of the drug they are getting and can push their tolerance higher without as much fear of overdose.

"I think the withdrawal from Oxycontin is really similar to what people experience with heroin and morphine," says Dr. Robert Martin, an emergency room physician who also works at DRD. "The half life of [the amount of time after a dose when an addict will begin to feel symptoms of withdrawal] is probably 12 hours, max. There's a lot of patients that are on this for cancer and they're being dosed like 80 or 120 milligrams twice a day. And the people on the streets are using a lot more."

Sergeant Gary Price of the Knoxville Police Department's Organized Crime Unit (narcotics) says that drug use often propels criminal activity, but that the emergence of Oxycontin hasn't exactly caused a crime wave. "Really, I don't see it as fueling crime as much as [being] a replacement for other drugs," says Price. "I know that we've had some abuse with it prescription-wise and fraud-wise. I just think that it has become the new drug of choice."

Oxycontin's arrival on the Knoxville scene is a dangerous addition to the pharmacopoeia available on the street. "The main thing on the streets in Knoxville is crack," says James. "But the people I know that are doing downers are doing morphine or Oxycontin. I think dilaudids are around if you wanted to look for them hard enough. I've heard people talk about it in the bar scenes, but I haven't seen any heroin in a long time. Oxycontin and morphine rules the streets here."

Knowing full well the dangers involved, James—who says on a good day he can score opiates within 15 minutes—is unrepentant about his drug habits. "There's been a lot of publicity about Oxycontin and I hope that doesn't make it harder to get," he says. "I mean, I'm coming from the other side, you know? And it's already tough enough as it is."

—John Sewell

TDOT at Work

321 widening runs wide of the law?

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is moving ahead with plans to expand Route 321 around the Smokies, even though numerous permits and environmental reviews are pending.

Several federal and state agencies need to sign off on portions of the project before it can proceed, including the Army Corps of Engineers (because streams and wetlands will be affected), TVA (streams feeding into their waters), the National Park Service (the project involves a little less than of an acre of park land), and the state Department of Environmental Conservation (which has to approve drainage and archeological aspects of the project).

None of these agencies have given their approval yet, but TDOT held a pre-construction hearing Tuesday with Blalock Construction, the lone bidder on the project.

The first phase is 2.6 miles long, stretching from Glades Road on the edge of Gatlinburg, where the four-lane section now ends, east to Buckhorn Road. The road will be widened to five lanes at a cost of $29 million. (The first phase was originally supposed to be 3.8 miles but was divided in two, when it was discovered part of it might uncover Native American artifacts.) The road is planned to run 22 miles eventually.

Randy Busler, TDOT's project supervisor, says construction won't start until at least March 1. All of the needed permits are expected to be in no later than May 31, he says. If they're not in by March 1, construction will begin, avoiding the areas where permits are required, he says.

Don Barger, Southeast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, a non-profit group that advocates protecting and improving national parks, says the proper procedures are not being followed.

Barger says there are numerous laws and procedures TDOT seems to be violating. For instance, the federal Transportation Act forbids using national park land to build highways if there is a viable alternative. "In this case, they are invading the park—they're rerouting streams."

The National Park Service has written a draft environmental assessment, approving the first leg of the project. However, this assessment is now open to public comment and is not final. Barger says the assessment is inadequate, because it only considers the direct impact on the land the park will consume, not the indirect or cumulative impacts the road will have. He argues a more extensive Environmental Impact Study is required. And, he says, it's illegal to consider the environmental impacts of each road section separately—the project must be looked at as a whole.

"That long-range impact is exactly what hasn't been looked at and what legally must be looked at," Barger says.

Because it includes a center turning lane along the length of the road, Barger says it's being done for commercial development, not to improve access. Traffic is projected to increase an average of 10,000 cars a day with the expanded road, and Barger wonders where the automobiles will go in the already crowded Gatlinburg.

"They have designed a road whose stated purpose is to dump a gallon of water into a half-gallon container," Barger says.

There are also concerns as to whether the proper archeological surveys have been done. A few years ago, a company from Georgia reviewed the land, says archeologist Charles Bentz, director of UT Center for Transportational Research. Bentz doesn't suspect much would be found in the first 2.6 mile phase, but he says required searches for old cave shelters were not noted in the reports, and more shovel testing should have been done. Also, Emert Cove along the Little Pigeon River in the adjacent 1.2 mile section might contain a significant number of artifacts, Bentz says. Digs on the south side of the river (in the park) have turned up a number of Native American artifacts, he says. Finding artifacts wouldn't stop the project but would require extensive digs to preserve what was found.

TDOT needs approval from the state's Division of Archeology before it can start construction.

Other government agencies were surprised at how fast the project is moving. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't have any permitting power over the project but was given an extension by the Army Corps of Engineers (which does have regulatory power) until Feb. 4 to comment on it.

In a letter to the Corps, Fish and Wildlife field supervisor Lee Barclay recommended the Corps deny TDOT a permit, in part because proper environmental reviews have not been done and alternatives haven't been looked at. "It appears that TDOT has inappropriately hastened the process, ignored the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, and is piece-mealing the project...This is completely inappropriate," Barclay wrote.

"A three-lane highway would have fewer adverse environmental impacts than the proposed five-lane highway," he adds.

The Gatlinburg situation is similar to what happened on state Route 840, the southern loop around Nashville. The state constructed two ends of the road, but construction on the middle section was ordered to a halt last week by a Williamson County judge until an extensive Environmental Impact Statement is completed. TDOT had argued the review wasn't needed, because no federal dollars were being used.

—Joe Tarr