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Seven Days

Wednesday, August 14
Gubernatorial candidates Phil Bredesen and Van Hilleary debate in Nashville, and fail to disagree on anything substantive. They cleverly opt out of any disagreement after Ed Sanders, the Independent candidate who disagrees with them, was excluded from the debate.
The E.W. Scripps Co. of Cincinnati, parent company of the News-Sentinel, buys a controlling interest in the Shop At Home television sales corporation of Nashville. That should mean the Sentinel no longer needs to court retailers to advertise in print...We at Metro Pulse firmly believe that.

Thursday, August 15
It's revealed that Lynn Duncan, the wife of Congressman Jimmy Duncan, has been named to the state's Board of Probation and Parole. That should be bad news for convicts. As a criminal court judge, Jimmy Duncan often said he hated to send anyone to prison, and he's also made it well known that he and Lynn seldom agreed on anything.

Friday, August 16
The state's first human case of West Nile virus is reported in West Tennessee. It differs from East Clinch virus in that the one we suffer from prevents East Tennesseans from agreeing on anything.

Monday, August 19
A TDOT official is quoted as saying he's sure that all of the confusing and road projects in Knoxville won't affect UT football fans as they try to get to Neyland Stadium this fall. He'd better be right, or the horn-honking incidents in Nashville protesting a state income tax will seem like child's play.

Tuesday, August 20
Word leaks out that Tom Ingram, the embattled, $200,000-per-year president of the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership is resigning the post this week. The News-Sentinel account of the resignation mentions controversy and dissatisfaction, but fails to say that Ingram's enemies in an out of the partnership finally succeeded in forcing a buyout of his contract.
Knoxville's police chief announces the formation of a plan, including a dozen area law enforcement agencies, to assist in the location and recovery of abducted children. The Knox County sheriff's department declined to be included, and Sheriff Hutchison says he wishes the participants well, but says he's creating his own similar system. It's reportedly based on constant helicopter surveillance of every child in his jurisdiction.

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:
We thought we might stump you with last week's photo, what with the angle and the cropping of the shot and all. Nope, not a bit of it. Perhaps it was divine intervention, or perhaps it was its somewhat unusual adornment, but the bell tower of the First Baptist Church downtown was recognizable to many, many readers. First among them was Pat Thomas (hey Pat, if you're reading this, we still need a mailing address to send the prize to). To honor this achievement, Pat will receive a copy of In Contact with the Gods? Directors Talk Theatre, because the book's title fits so aptly with our photo—even if the contents (featuring stellar theater-types like Ion Caramitru, Ariane Mnouchkine, and Jatinder Verma) do not. Let us know if you get any divine inspirations from it, Pat.

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

KNOXVILLE'S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Friday, Aug. 23
1:30 p.m.
1:30 pm
FIC Building
Corner of Harriet Tubman and MLK
Special KCDC Board Meeting to vote on the Kinsey Probasco & Associates Urban Design Plan for the Market Square Public Space.

COUNTY COMMISSION
Monday, Aug. 26
2-7 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular monthly meeting.

KNOX AREA TRANSIT PUBLIC INPUT MEETINGS
Tuesday, Aug. 27-Thursday, Aug. 29
Multiple locations and times
KAT is holding meetings all over Knoxville to gather input for its Action Plan 2010. For meeting times and locations visit the website or call 215-7820.

'A Happy Arrangement'
A new high-rise might be good for UT, but is it good for the Fort?

If all goes as planned, workers will begin building a 12-story apartment tower on Clinch Avenue in Fort Sanders next month. Although it is not technically a University of Tennessee project, the $60-million tower will be built with UT support for UT students using tax-exempt bonds.

Suggesting a fundamental shift in the way the university plans to house its students, the project raises concerns about how the school has developed in Fort Sanders. One question that remains unanswered is why the university is encouraging the construction of a student apartment complex in a neighborhood that already has a glut of student housing.

Most of the project centers on what is now a parking lot and will not involve any major demolition (a rundown house next to the Falafel Hut will be razed). The apartment complex is being built behind the Scottish Rite Temple in the block surrounded by 15th and 16th streets, and White and Clinch avenues. It will include four levels of parking (with 851 parking spaces) and eight levels of apartments (with 232 apartments and 748 bedrooms).

The project is a joint venture between the UT Foundation and Place Properties, an Atlanta-based developer of student housing. The UT Foundation was formed in 2000 as a non-profit group to support the university, although it is not technically a part of UT. The foundation was established to receive donations, manage property, and make contributions as it sees fit. The UT board of directors gave the foundation $400,000 in seed money last June, according to The Daily Beacon.

"All large public universities have a foundation," says Eli Fly, former executive vice president at UT and now the foundation's president. "Most of them have had one for a long time...There are other things the foundations can do that universities themselves have trouble doing because of laws and those types of things."

The foundation will own the building, Fly says, and proceeds from the complex will go toward other UT Foundation projects. "All the money the foundation has goes to benefit the university," he says.

But UT's student population isn't growing, and Fort Sanders doesn't have a shortage of student housing. Texas developer JPI built four large apartment complexes around the Fort in 2000, and they don't appear to be at capacity. Another apartment complex is being completed two blocks away from the site, and another is being renovated a few blocks from there. Despite the glut, Fly says a project of this type needed to be built.

"We've done a survey, and we feel there is a need for housing of that type," Fly says. "Absent the foundation, it would be done by someone else."

Place Properties had been working on the project for about three years before the foundation got involved, says Cecil Phillips, the company's owner. At first, the company was looking at it as a for-profit enterprise.

The foundation's involvement made the project cheaper to finance with tax exempt bonds and changed who would own it. Construction (estimated at $58 to $62 million) is scheduled to begin next month and finish in the summer of 2004. Rents will be about $410 a person.

Administrators at Place Properties admit that Fort Sanders already has quite a bit of student housing. But, they say, that doesn't make their project any less viable.

Tom Brinkley of Place Properties says it's not unusual to have an excess of housing in college neighborhoods. "With any university community, you constantly have a certain amount of attrition or reduction of housing stock," he says. "You're going to constantly see an evolution of housing stock within that Fort Sanders area."

Both Brinkley and Phillips say the project might help the Fort by freeing up older homes for other uses. "I think this project will relieve stress on the neighborhood's inventory of single-family homes, and perhaps allow some renovation of single family homes for single families," Phillips says.

C. Randall De Ford, an architect and president of the Historic Fort Sanders Neighborhood Association, says he's not thrilled to see a high-rise being constructed a block from his house. But he praised the developers for working with neighbors and incorporating a number of suggestions.

For instance, the parking levels along Clinch will be almost entirely hidden behind a series of two-story townhouses in front of the high rise. (The townhouses might be rented by students or visiting professors, Phillips says.) The developer also incorporated retail space along White Avenue—which will likely be student-oriented businesses such as a coffee shop, pizza place, or a deli. "If the building is going to be here, they've got it looking as good as it can," De Ford says.

At the same time that Place Properties will be building roughly 800 units, the university will be removing 800 units of on-campus housing by converting existing dormitories to other uses.

The university has long been criticized for degrading the neighborhood by annexing property, demolishing historic homes and building parking garages. In recent years, administrators have talked about being more sensitive to neighbors' concerns. However, it's unclear how much influence the university had on the project.

Fly says the school administration is supportive. "We work very closely with the university administration," he says. "We don't go out and do anything without conversing with them."

But Phil Scheurer, UT's vice president for operations, denies administrators had any influence on the project and referred all questions about it to Fly. He did add that he thought it would be good for the school. "It's close to campus," Scheurer says. "We think that students will like that. We just think it's going to be a happy arrangement."

—Joe Tarr

Showdown in the Stacks
Director cries foul as "search" leads to chairman

A raging controversy over the selection of a new director for the Knox County Public Library system appears headed for a showdown at next Monday's meeting of the library board.

On an individual basis, the controversy pits the library's longtime director, Patricia Watson, who is retiring Sept. 6, against the longtime president of the library board, Charles Davenport, who is seeking to succeed her—at least on an interim basis. The divide appears to be between the library staff, some of whom are adamantly opposed to Davenport, and the politically appointed library board, many of whose nine members are tight with Davenport.

A showdown might have been avoided if board members had acted promptly to launch a search for a successor after Watson informed them of her retirement plans in February. Instead, the board waited until June before setting a search in motion. Even then, the position was advertised only in the News-Sentinel,to the exclusion of the national publications that reach library administrators. Sixteen candidates, not including Davenport, applied for the position by a July 19 deadline. The board's fast-track timetable called for cutting the list to three by looking at resumes, interviewing the three for one hour each, and making a selection—all by Aug. 5.

Widespread expressions of concern about this process prompted several County Commissioners to urge that the search be reopened and extended nationally. (Library board members are appointed by commissioners, one from each commission district.) On July 23, a search committee of the board recommended doing so; yet no date for full board action could be arranged until the board's regular monthly meeting date on Aug. 26. (These intervening weeks, of course, were the very time frame within which intensive meetings to pick a new director had originally been planned.)

This stretch-out made it clearer that an interim director would be needed to serve until completion of an extended search. Two weeks ago, library director Watson voiced confidence that one of her top aides would be named to fill that role. "I have made my recommendation to the board president, and I feel comfortable we are leaving it in the hands of a good interim director," she reported.

Last week, to her dismay, Watson learned from the media that no less of an authority on library administration than Rep. Jimmy Duncan had written a letter to county commissioners endorsing Davenport for the interim director's post. "...I would greatly appreciate any support you are able to offer Mr. Charles Davenport for that temporary position," the Duncan letter stated.

Watson, whose normal style is anything but confrontational, followed up with a letter to board members stating, "I believe the worst thing the Library Board could do is fail to appoint as interim Director a knowledgeable, experienced current administrator who is respected by the staff.... I urge each of you to determine that the Library Board must treat the position of Library Director as a professional appointment, not as a political plum—and to avoid even the appearance of political gamesmanship with your power of appointment."

The 58-year-old Davenport, who has spent most of his career as an elementary and middle school librarian, naturally believes he's well qualified for the post. "I feel my experience on the board and working with County Commission put me in a unique position," he says. Indeed, to hear Davenport tell it, his initiatives and influence with Commission were instrumental in getting several of the library system's 17 branches built as well in getting an $18 million commitment from the county for an addition to the East Tennessee Historical Center that will house an expansion of the library's renowned McClung Collection.

So why are so many library administrators and boosters so opposed to him? "Maybe it's a case of the devil they don't know versus the devil they know," he conjectures, adding that he has also received a lot of expressions of support. As for Duncan's letter, he says, "Jimmy and I have been friends for years and years. The only person with whom I've ever gone to a UT football game is Jimmy Duncan."

Another issue overhanging Davenport's candidacy is whether he should resign from the Library Board while seeking the position. Davenport represents the 2nd County Commission district on the board and owes his appointment to its two commissioners, David Collins and Billy Tindell. Out of concern over the propriety of Davenport's seeking the interim directorship while serving on the board, Collins sought an opinion from the attorney in the Knox County Law Director's office who specializes in library matters, David Creekmore. According to Collins, Creekmore opined that Davenport should resign from the board, and Collins so advised Davenport. But Davenport insists he got a different opinion from the law director's office: that he only need resign from the board if he's named interim director.

"Regardless of the legalities, my personal opinion is that he should resign from the board," says Collins. Regardless of whether he resigns at this point, Davenport's ties with his fellow board members will continue to run deep. Many have served with him for going on two decades, and almost all hold him in high esteem.

"Davenport knows the system up one side and down the other. He'd be a good one," says fellow board member Charles Burchett, who was UT's dean of students prior to his retirement.

—Joe Sullivan