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Seven Days

Wednesday, Feb. 6
Word's out that President Bush wants a halt to the Empowerment Zone grants to 15 cities. The move could cost Knoxville about $80 million over the next several years. The wonder is that the program, meant to stimulate economic development to benefit the urban poor, survived the first year of the Bush Administration. Too bad New York City wasn't included—then "W" wouldn't have had the chitlins to close it down at this time.

Thursday, Feb. 7
A nationwide testing survey rates Knoxville's drinking water No. 2 in quality, right up there with the sparkling water from the Colorado Rockies. So that's why ours tastes so funny to people used to drinking tap water elsewhere.
Brad Renfro, Knoxville's bad-boy actor, is ordered by a Florida court to enter a substance abuse program. The mugshot accompanying the daily paper's report makes it clear the substance he's thought to have been abusing is not hair oil.

Friday, Feb. 8
It's reported that the Tennessee Child Fatality Prevention Team wants to bring advocates and opponents of gun control together to support gun control legislation. If this works, the United Nations wants to hire the team to mediate international disputes.

Saturday, Feb. 9
Barely a week after it's revealed that a West Knox Baptist Church was looking into buying a shopping center, an East Knoxville Baptist congregation comes out with plans to establish not only a school and child-care center, but a 100-unit apartment building. Is all this tax-exempt, pray tell?

Monday, Feb. 11
State Sen. Tim Burchett's bill to get convicted sex offenders to register with the TBI when they become students or employees of a state college or university goes to the governor. All well and good, but how about the Knoxville Republican's other recent initiatives to register and track foreign students and beer keg sales. Think Tim's always wanted to go around in little wire-rimmed spectacles and a trench coat, uttering "Papers, please" commands?
The Lady Vols lose at home to Texas! Three losses? This season's over. Let's start looking for a coach.

Tuesday, Feb. 12
Frank Leuthold, the County Commission's finance expert, announces he won't run for another term as commissioner, and it comes out that the Knoxville Speed hockey team has sought bankruptcy protection. Coincidence? Watch for the court to put Leuthold in charge of the fiscal face-off.

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:
"Therefore to this dog will I,/Tenderly not scornfully,/ Render praise and favor..."— so wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning in an ode to her canine companion. And such is the intent of this memorial on the campus of the UT Vet School, to render praise and favor to K-9 dogs that served in World War II. As many respondents pointed out, the statue is of a Doberman, a breed long associated with police and military work. It was donated many years ago by benefactors intent on recognizing the contributions of canines to the war effort. The first correct identification came from Donavon M. Haynes, whose wife is a student at the Vet School. We are happy to give the Hayneses a matching set of iPIX coozies to keep their beverages cold and their hands warm. They also make nice chew-toys...

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

METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION
Thursday Feb. 14
1:30 p.m.
City County Bldg., Large Assembly Room
400 Main Ave.
Regular monthly meeting.

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Tuesday Feb. 19
5 p.m.
Andrew Johnson Bldg., 1st Floor
912 S. Gay St.
Work session.

KNOXVILLE CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday Feb. 19
7 p.m.
City County Bldg., Large Assembly Room
400 Main Ave.
Regular meeting

Lost in Space

Latest Universe Knoxville twist shows legal confusion

Universe Knoxville promoters' ignorance of the law seemingly has no bounds.

When Worsham Watkins International first proposed the space-age planetarium and associated attractions a year ago, its original financing plan called for Knox County to guarantee a portion of the debt to build it. However, this approach was soon shot down as a clear violation of the state constitution's prohibition against a county's "lending its credit" to a private venture.

The promoters then came up with a new construct under which the Public Building Authority would nominally own the facility, thus making it into a public undertaking. The PBA would issue all of the bonds to finance it—$65 million in revenue bonds on which Knox County would have no obligation and $36.5 million in general obligation bonds on which county taxpayers would be on the hook.

When County Commission conditionally approved this financing plan in December, it further stipulated (at Worsham Watkins' insistence) that WW be named the developer. "The Authority [PBA] shall enter into a development agreement with Worsham Watkins International for the development of the Project upon such terms and conditions as are acceptable to the parties and in compliance with the Act," County Commission's resolution stated.

The "Act" in question is the state's Public Building Authorities statute, which governs the PBA. As amended last year, the statute requires a competitive selection process for all contracts involving "construction management services and design-build services." According to the PBA's administrator, Dale Smith, the role of developer could have been narrowly defined so as to exclude it from the requirement. But, in no small part at the insistence of Earl Worsham, a much broader role was agreed upon that encompassed the involvement of Denark Construction, a design-build firm with whom WW has been collaborating (for more on Denark and its president, Raja Jubran, see this week's cover story, page 10).

Smith explains that, "Earl wanted to keep his team intact...He needed somebody to handle construction estimates over the next few weeks before going to the bond market, and he had a strong preference for Denark. Given their preferences, it seemed clearly better to let them proceed as a team."

But this approach clearly required a competitive selection process. The upshot is a request for proposals (RFP) issued by the PBA on Monday that supersedes County Commission's directive to proceed with Universe Knoxville. Going far beyond that, the RFP invites proposals "for the financing, design, development, construction, operation and management of a new destination attraction to be located on a Knox County-owned site in eastern downtown Knoxville." The "new destination attraction" need not be similar to Universe Knoxville, and in fact the RFP notes that all Universe Knoxville materials are "propietary," so anyone else proposing a planetarium would have to come up with an entirely different concept. And the RFP gives respondents all of six weeks to come up with a comprehensive plan.

Universe Knoxville has been in the works for well over a year, and has already received funding from County Commission for both design work and a feasibility study. So how many alternative responses to the RFP can really be anticipated?

One of Knoxville's leading developers, Rodney Lawler of Lawler Wood ventures that, "Given everything that Earl Worsham has already put into this that already has the city and county committed to it, I would hate to try to come up with an alternative." But Dale Smith counters that, "We could be looking at projects that didn't go forward in other cities. If someone had a really compelling project and couldn't quite complete a response in six weeks, we could extend the deadline."

But why did PBA deviate so far from County Commission's resolution, theoretically opening the field to other proposals, without going back to Commission for approval?

"The resolution gave the county executive authority to approve all deals, and I viewed it as his prerogative whether to take it back to Commission," Smith says.

Schumpert, for his part, says, "My understanding was that the RFP was going to be for construction. I suppose PBA did what they felt they had to do." County Law Director Mike Moyers says, "I don't know anything about it."

If there's a silver lining amid all the smoke and mirrors, it's that the RFP may compel WW to be more responsive to questions on which it's been evasive up to now. The RFP states that responses must include, among other things, "proposed business/deal structure development/construction phase as well as ongoing operational management.)" Does this mean that UK's promoters will have to divulge the make-up of the board of directors of the not-for-profit entity that's due to be formed to govern it and select an operator, not to mention WW's proposed fees.

Smith is less than clear. "More will come out in the selection process, but a lot will be left to the negotiation stage between the PBA and the firm that is selected," he allows.

And how did WW and everyone else involved so muddy the legal waters in the first place? Predictably, no matter whom you ask, it's always someone else's fault. The president of the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership, Tom Ingram, who has been one of Universe Knoxville's biggest boosters, tries to brush it all off by saying, "When you get multiple lawyers together, you can get multiple answers to the same question."

—Joe Sullivan

Enrollment Figures

Why are so many more students applying to UT this year?

The University of Tennessee is seeing a significant jump in applications, but it's not exactly clear why.

Several factors probably have sparked a 17 percent hike in applications so far this year, including the economy, an easier application process and more scholarship funding.

As of Monday, 8,694 students had applied to UT's flagship campus, up from 7,408 last year, says Richard Bayer, dean of admissions. So far, 6,120 students have been admitted, he says. Others have been deferred until mid-March when a final determination will be made.

UT aims for freshman enrollment around 3,800. "You have to admit more than 3,800, because not everybody is going to come," Bayer says. "You admit students you think will succeed here."

(Total undergrad enrollment is just over 20,000—not 15,200, as would be calculated by multiplying 3,800 by four. The higher number is the result of many students taking longer than four years to graduate. Part-time and transfer students also push enrollment up.)

While it's impossible to know for certain why there's been such a big jump in interest in UT, Bayer says he suspects several factors.

Prior to 2000, any applicant from Tennessee who had a certain grade-point average and ACT score was automatically admitted, Bayer says. But starting in 2000, that guarantee no longer stood. In the first year those new standards were applied, UT saw a drop in applications. "Students were under the impression we were using a much higher standard, so students self-selected themselves out," Bayer says. "This fall, I think everybody understands it a little better."

In addition, the application process was made easier. It can now be done online, and essay questions previously required have now been made optional. "We give the students an opportunity to say why the University of Tennessee should accept them. We don't believe every student needs to point that out to us," he says.

This year there is also more scholarship money available, especially to African-American students. A new grant program—which grew out of a 1968 lawsuit's recent settlement—will provide $2,500 a year to about 100 black students.

Bayer suspects that the sluggish economy, and perhaps the attacks of September 11, are leading more Tennessee students to apply here as well. "I'm just guessing at those two," he says.

The application jump is not limited to UT. Mike Pitts, undergraduate admissions director at East Tennessee State University, says applications for next fall are up 18 percent from this point last year. As of Feb. 6, 2,116 students had applied. Pitts says college enrollment typically climbs during economic downturns. "Plus, in general the numbers are up in our state with regards to college-age students," he says.

About two-thirds of applicants to UT in Knoxville are in-state, as are 80 percent of enrollees, Bayer says. Whether this year's increase turns out to be an anomaly or a trend toward higher applications, for next year at least, it will likely mean a freshman class with slightly better grades. ACT scores are averaging about 25.3 among admitted students, up from last year's 25.0. Average GPAs are also up slightly, Bayer says.

"The better class you enroll, the more likely they're going to exceed," he says. "That translates to good students, good retention rate, and good graduation rates."

—Joe Tarr