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Fire Drill
After a recent two-alarm fire gutted three vacant Grand Avenue warehouses owned by Neely Produce, Knoxville Fire Department Chief Gene Hamlin groused about one of his fire trucks.
The truck, known as Ladder 1, is a 1998 Bronto Skylift 135' aerial platform manufactured by E-One, of Ocala, Florida (readers with good memories might recall a 1997 fire department story on these pages where another major manufacturer of firefighting trucks complained about the virtual monopoly E-One enjoys in Knoxville).
Hamlin told reporters he had ordered the Bronto out of service the day before because of safety concerns. He pronounced the truck—a demo model costing for nearly $650,000 in 1998—a lemon and said E-One should "...get it fixed or give us our money back."
He had just presided over the latter stages of the warehouse fire, which was virtually extinguished when he took command, but flared up and became a two-alarmer again a half-hour after he took over.
His complaints about the truck caused much eyeball-rolling, because he has been a fierce defender—on and off—of the behemoth, which was one of his first purchases after being appointed chief in 1997. Last year, he proposed requiring firefighters who drove the truck to sign statements releasing the city from liability in case of injury caused by its operation. The drivers were also asked to pledge not to drive the Bronto more than 30 miles per hour. The memo was poorly received and was rescinded.
In another 2000 memo to all stations, Hamlin attempted to put "rumors about Ladder One" to rest after its rear torsion bar broke while the truck was sitting in the station. "I feel this truck is a great asset to the city of Knoxville," Hamlin told his firefighters.
Joining Forces
Everybody who follows local political comings and goings is familiar with the law firm Sobieski, Messer & Associates? Right?
They're the counselors who represented the five firefighters who successfully sued Mayor Victor Ashe for civil rights violations. Well, as of July 1, the firm probably slid even lower on the list of those likely to be recommended for city business, because there's a new lawyer on board. Partners Wanda Sobieski and Diane Messer, and associate Nannette Landon, welcomed Margaret Held to the firm. Held is the attorney representing KnoxRecall.
This all-woman firm has a fringe benefit this summer, by the way. Sobieski's daughter Elise, 14, is running in-house child care in the back room-cum-nursery for Landon's 3-month-old son, Riley.
Whittled Down
The July 2 issue of Newsweek contains a scathing article on Chris Whittle's Edison Schools Inc., which is on the verge of being ousted from San Francisco after the board of education there found what appeared to be a pattern of "weeding out poor performers in order to boost test scores...The board found that 14 of 15 pupils suspended or 'counseled out' ... were African-American boys."
Edison officials denied that race played any part in the dismissals, but the school board also has concerns about high teacher turnover. Whittle called criticism of the San Francisco Edison Academy "nothing more than ideological interference" and branded his critics "leftists."
Attack in the Burwell
It was an early summer Knoxville afternoon like any other. At least it started out that way for Libby Kennedy, secretary at the Rotary Club office in the Burwell Building. The first inkling she had that she was under attack came when she was sitting at her desk and felt something smack her in the head.
"When you're working at your desk and something dabbles in your head, it startles you," said Kennedy, who looked up and saw what she thought was a bird swooping down at her. She fled the office screaming, the "bird" in hot pursuit. It chased her to the end of the hall and back, so she burst into Ron Fox's office next door looking for help.
"Ron said, 'Oh, my Lord, that's a bat! Did it bite you?'" Kennedy said no, and Fox started to walk her back to her office. Then the bat took out after the both of them, and they let out screams that could be heard all over the building.
Fox called the landlord, who sent for someone from Cook's Pest Control. Meanwhile the bat went back into the Rotary Club office. Fox and Kennedy lurked outside the door for 15 minutes before it exited, whereupon Kennedy crept inside, shut the door, called home to say she couldn't leave work (it was 5:30 p.m.) because a bat was chasing her every time she stepped out her office.
The bat worked its way up to the 10th floor before the pest control guy got there and captured it. Afterward, he came by Kennedy's office and showed it to her. "It was just chirping," she said. "It was scared." So was everybody else.
July 5, 2001 * Vol. 11, No. 27
© 2001 Metro Pulse
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