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Seven Days

Wednesday, May 21
The Arizona woman who was touted by library insiders as the under-the-table pick for Knox County Public Library director withdraws from consideration. If the "fix" were "in," is it "out" now, or who's the next "already selected" selection?

Thursday, May 22
Steve McNair, the Tennessee Titans' quarterback, is arrested for DUI in downtown Nashville. He is described by police as polite and cooperative, and he apologizes immediately to his team and fans. He handled the situation just like any high-profile, millionaire star athlete would have, didn't he?

Friday, May 23
Checks for $29 million in debt to health-care providers are sent out in behalf of a bankrupt Tenn-Care managed care organization. The payments are up to two years late and represent 44 cents on the dollar. Question: Does this mean Tenn-Care is now in better shape than you thought? Answer: Not on your life.... Oops. Bad choice of expression.

Saturday, May 24
The News Sentinel reports that Court of Criminal Appeals ruling awards a new trial to a convicted murderer on the grounds that the trial judge did not define the word "knowingly" for jurors. The ruling opens the door for appeals of all verdicts issued when the jury was not told what "jury" or "verdict" means.

Monday, May 26
It's boldly reported that John Rice Irwin is "giving away" the Museum of Appalachia at Norris this week to a non-profit organization chaired by a friend and headed by Irwin, who will be president and CEO, with his daughter as treasurer. Does anyone think there was some tax advantage in the gesture by the wily old hoss-trader?

Tuesday, May 27
The Associated Press roundup of state college and university athletic programs being cut back or curtailed in the state's fiscal crisis is published. The moves can be extrapolated to predict that tax reform will pass the Legislature in 2006, the year UT would have to cut back or curtail its football program or share the program's wealth with the state's general fund.

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:
Like the plaque in the picture says, it marks the site of "the clay borrow pit for the Alex A. Scott Brick Company (1904-1922)," so we all pretty much know what it is. The only real mystery is where it is. And apparently it was a decent conundrum, seeing as we had only three correct responses for last week's Knoxville Found Photo. Readers Matthew Garrett and Birgitta Barth both knew it was embedded in the pavement at a bus stop near the Bearden Bi-Lo, but first to correctly identify it was Knoxvillian Scott Turner. In recognition, Scott gets Starbuck O'Dwyer's Red Meat Cures Cancer, described by Kirkus Reviews as "deep-fried comic genius."

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

KNOXVILLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Thursday, May 29
11:30 a.m.
Family Investment Center
400 Harriet Tubman St.
Regular meeting.

NINE COUNTIES. ONE VISION.
Thursday, May 29,
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
Room 301
525 Henley St.
Fourth in series of Downtown Task Force public meetings led by urban design firm Crandall Arambula to discuss plans for downtown revitalization. Call (865)525-4949 for more information.

Garden Plot
$6 million to Lakeshore Park raises eyebrows

The theme of Mayor Victor Ashe's 2003 budget message was an acknowledgment of hard times with more to come. He spoke of a $10 million budget shortfall and said mayors are supposed to make tough decisions—like cutting department budgets, curtailing popular government services and slicing into expected pay raises. Ashe's budget address was not one of undiluted austerity, however, since he also proposed to fund a number of projects, such as a parking garage that is a component of ongoing downtown redevelopment, and improvements for sidewalks and for neighborhood recreational facilities, including Lakeshore Park.

Although the usual media suspects were present, no one raised questions about the money Ashe proposed to direct to Lakeshore Park, which occupies a chunk of prime real estate just a stone's throw down Lyons View Drive from Cherokee Country Club.

No mention was made of the $6 million pricetag, and weeks passed with no public discussion of the proposed appropriation for the crown jewel of the city's park system. Members of City Council were lobbied individually by lawyers Tom McAdams and Caesar Stair, who explained that the public funds were to be matched by $6 million-plus in private donations. Council members were given packets of information that included a slick brochure describing the plan's initial phase: a sumptuous vision of French, Italian, English and early American-style gardens replete with an elaborate Italianate meeting hall that bears a close resemblance to the endangered J. Allen Smith house adjacent to Cherokee Country Club. The plan also includes a tower, terraces, turrets, gazebos and exotic items like floral spines, walled gardens, an ellipse, a garden parterre, and grottos. There'll also be a cafe, a gift shop, and a garden pavilion with "adjacent terraces and cloistered gardens."

The garden supporters' literature devotes an entire page to the economic impact of the project, although the projections are based on the success enjoyed by long-established botanical gardens in Dallas, Nashville and in the Northwest. Less explanation is devoted to operating expenses, beyond asserting that they will be covered by "admissions, fees, memberships, sponsorships, facilities, rental fees, gift shop and cafe sales, public grants, and private donations."

Despite the lack of media attention, word has gotten out about the garden plan, and pockets of opposition have emerged—mostly in the past week. Some have hung the moniker "The Secret Garden" on the project.

McAdams, a member of the Lakeshore Gardens Committee, which oversees the project, takes exception to the "secret garden" notion. "If you would like to know more about the secret garden, may I recommend the book of the same name by Francis Hodgson Burnett? Her garden was secret. This one is not."

McAdams, who is the registered agent for Lyons View Gardens, says he has no intention of leading anyone down the garden path. "In 1994, the state deeded 17 acres to the city, north of the ball fields, and the city and park supporters began work on a master plan. The possibility of public gardens emerged from that process. A group was formed to work on the public gardens, and in 1997 Ross/Fowler prepared a concept plan for the gardens. Work also continued on a long term master plan for the entire Lakeshore site," McAdams says, citing ongoing discussions with various state agencies that led to a master plan being submitted to and approved by the state Building Commission in 1999, and passed on to city officials.

Steve Hall, who represents the 3rd District on City Council, says he likes the idea of Lyons View Gardens. "I think it's wonderful—as long as they raise the money to build it themselves."

Hall says he told McAdams that "....if it looks like we can afford it, we might talk about it. But as of now, I cannot see getting $6 million to put into what's already the nicest park in town, given the budget problems we are in. The mayor's budget calls for $27 million in capital expenditures. I think that's on the heavy side. The present administration tends to view capital projects as if it's money that's just coming out of the air—of course, you shouldn't fund day-to-day operations out of those—but if you're selling bonds to do it, you've got to repay that. We've got a $22 million fund balance right now. I wonder what it'll be in a year? This park was a total surprise. Two weeks ago, I'd never heard about it."

Mayoral candidate Madeline Rogero also weighed in against a $6 milliion city commitment to the gardens at this time. In an open letter to Council members, she said that such an "expenditure will reduce the city's available debt capacity, thus limiting the possibility of other economic development projects or infrastucture improvements and may threaten the completion of economic development initiatives already in progress."

Eddie Cureton, chief of the Knoxville Fire Department, has recommended closing the Burlington Fire Hall as a cost- cutting measure. Sixth District City Council member Mark Brown is fighting to keep the fire hall open, as are many of his East Knoxville constituents. Although city officials point out that fire halls are funded through operating funds, while capital projects like Lyons View Gardens are funded from bond proceeds, Brown doesn't buy the fine distinctions. "There ain't but so much money," Brown says. "Surely we can find $350,000 to keep a needed firehall open out of a $135 million budget."

Brown, who says Stair visited him last week to lobby for Lyon's View Gardens, dismisses rumors that he might be willing to "swap" a vote for the garden in exchange for keeping his fire hall open.

"The mayor hasn't asked me to vote for the garden to save my firehall. My whole thing is, I don't care about different pots of money. Whatever pot it comes out of, we need the firehall. It serves a neighborhood with a lot of old, wooden structures and an aging population in need of emergency services."

McAdams says Lyons View Gardens supporters are merely "...urging members of City Council to support the mayor's capital recommendation for Lakeshore Park. I am sure groups interested in other aspects of the proposed budget are also urging Council members to support the aspects of the proposed budget in which they have an interest.... As to why there has not been more publicity, perhaps the gardens at Lakeshore Park do have something in common with Ms. Burnett's garden. Her garden wasn't really secret, it was just ignored by the grownups."

Other members of the Lyons View Gardens Committee include Sandie Bishop, Natalie Haslam, Teenie Hayworth, Sherri Lee, Sandy McNabb, Sis Mitchell, Lyn Overholt, Nancy Siler, Mary Spengler, Dorothy Stair and Don Williams.

—Betty Bean

Stepping Up
Homeless vet program needs funds

While the United States was gearing up for a war with Iraq last year, one of the few local services for homeless veterans lost its federal funding in an arbitrary Veterans Administration cutback.

The program—Steps House—hopes to get that funding back this fall. In the meantime, it is scrambling to make ends meet and keep its doors open. A day-long music benefit, Festival Americana, will be held Saturday, May 31, at the City Streets Sports Complex to raise money for Steps. (See Spotlights for more details.)

Patrick White founded Steps House 11-1/2 years ago as a way of trying to help homeless men get off the streets. The program isn't a shelter, but a treatment program for homeless men with drug, alcohol, mental health, or other catastrophic problems. However, his approach is to target those who are able and ready to get off the streets.

"We've been taking homeless folks off the streets, alcoholics and drug addicts, and helping them stay sober and lead a normal lifestyle," White says. "You couldn't even know what we do unless you're here 24 hours a day—the phone calls in the middle of the night."

"We're not a shelter. This is a program dedicated to getting people off the streets," White adds. "When you come over here, you have to have the potential to be functional."

"The tone is already set for independent living," agrees John West, who until recently worked as veterans outreach coordinator. "You're living in a house with cable TV, a phone, food—you're like, 'Hey, man, I've got a roof over my head.'"

Steps has 15 houses and six apartments around South Knoxville, which include 93 beds. Most of the residents pay rent and are required to work. They get individual counseling and are required to attend 12-step meetings as well. Clients move through different phases, slowly gaining more independence until they're ready to live on their own again.

"Some guys come in here and in six months they're ready to go. They weren't that far down the scale. I've had guys stay with me for four years," White says.

Although Steps House has always served veterans, about five years ago it signed a formal contract with the Veterans Administration. "We didn't ask the V.A. for their business, they came to us," White says.

The funding allowed Steps to expand a good bit, however. In the past five years, it received 65 percent of its $600,000 budget from the V.A. The funding came in a couple of different programs. One paid veterans' rent there for six months, White says. Longer than six months, their care was subsidized by the V.A.

The funding cut wasn't deliberate, White says, but happened as the V.A. was trying to make its funding mechanism uniform, which in theory would have provided more beds nationwide. It took those programs that qualified for grants (which included Steps House) and put them in alphabetical order. The V.A. then went down the list awarding grants, White says. But, halfway down the list, the V.A. ran out of money, he says.

More money has been made available and should be awarded this fall. But, in the meantime, Steps is trying to hold on.

Despite losing the V.A. funding, Steps has kept its veterans program alive. The V.A. Hospital in Johnson City even made some funds available to help out.

White says he's not bitter about the funding snafu. But he says they need about $50,000 to keep running until the extra V.A. funds come through. Steps has cut back salaries and cut a couple of positions. White is now working for free and West has devoted himself to fund raising.

The benefit—organized by J.P. Stratson Productions, a company West started—includes more than 20 bands, including R.B. Morris, Hector Qirko, Todd Steed, Leslie Woods, Jodie Manross. All of them have donated their time.

"Knoxville ought to be proud of these guys," West says.

—Joe Tarr