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Seven Days

Wednesday, Dec. 31
New Year's Eve and the world is full of happy revllelers, er..revliers...oh, well, mever nind.

Thursday, Jan. 1
It's New Year's Day, and it's devoted entirely to drinking bloody marys, eating black-eyed peas and boiled cabbage, and preparing to see the Clemson Tigers dismembered by the UT Vols tomorrow at the Peach Bowl.

Friday, Jan. 2
Oops. Check signals. The football story of the day is that Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair and former UT quarterback Peyton Manning share the NFL most valuable player honors. Vols? What Vols?

Saturday, Jan. 3
McNair proves his worth as the Titans demolish the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the playoffs. The deciding factor is when Eddie George outjaws Ray Lewis in the second half.

Sunday, Jan. 4
Manning improves his worth with a stellar performance as the Indy Colts slap down the Denver Broncos. Ride 'em, Peyton! He was a Vol, remember.

Monday, Jan. 5
The big News Sentinel Page 1 headline is: Afghan Council Ratifies Charter. Had to look at the story. We at first expected it to say that former Mayor Victor Ashe, that inveterate globe-galloper, had gotten the City Charter amendment he wanted to change City Council election cycles ratified in Kabul. No such luck.
State lottery officials announce that lottery tickets will go on sale Jan. 20, three weeks ahead of schedule. Tennesseans all across the state check their calendars to move their retirement dates up 21 days.
A Southeastern Conference football team wins at least a share of the national championship. It's not the Vols. The wait 'til next year begins in earnest.

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:
Looming high above 506 Gay Street, but well below the time and temperature clock located atop the AmSouth building, the mortar and pestle most notably once housed a Walgreen's, and its hectic lunch counter was immortalized in Cormac McCarthy's Suttree.
Congratulations to Steven Reynolds for employing his photographic memory in recognizing the marker. For his prowess, Steven is the proud recipient of Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century, published by MonkeyBrain Books. As much as we hate to part with the book, it'll be one less piece of crap littering our office. Well done Steven!

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

CITY TREE BOARD
Thursday, Jan. 8
8:30 a.m.
Ijams Nature Center
2915 Island Home Ave.
Regular meeting.

POLICE ADVISORY AND REVIEW COMMITTEE
Thursday, Jan. 15
6 p.m.
New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church
1933 Texas Ave.
A review of citizen complaints against the Knoxville Police Department.

KNOX COUNTY SCHOOLS EDUCATION SUMMIT
Friday, Jan. 16
7:30 a.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
701 Henley St.
Open meeting designed to seek input on desired outcomes for Knox County Schools and ways those outcomes can be achieved.

Modern History
McClung Collection, County Archives reopen

The opening of the East Tennessee Historical Center won't come in one big ribbon-cutting with speeches and champagne in the lobby. Its opening will be a gradual yearlong process, not complete until sometime in 2005. The good news, for those who depend on the place, is that its opening has begun.

The $18-million project was an unusual one from the beginning, combining a thorough renovation of a Reconstruction-era post office and courthouse with a brand-new building. It's roughly a doubling of the size of the old Custom House, the marble federal building which has stood at the corner of Market and Clinch since 1874. The new building, or addition, stretches to Gay Street, which will form its new entrance.

Knox County is paying for most of it, and will own the building, which will essentially become part of the Knox County Library System. But the East Tennessee Historical Society chipped in $2 million, and the city another $1 million, plus the land.

The addition adds 56,000 square feet to the old building. Says Steve Cotham, Knox County Historian and director of the McClung Collection, "The good part of it is that much of the addition is underground—there are two basement levels—so it doesn't dwarf the historical building."

For the last couple of decades, the Custom House has been a sort of layer cake, with three related but distinct services. The first floor is the Museum of East Tennessee History and the offices of the East Tennessee Historical Society, which operates the museum and the adjacent lecture hall. From the beginning, the museum has always seemed cluttered for its space. The second floor is Knox County Archives, where old public documents like deeds and warrants are stored after they're superannuated from the City-County Building. The third floor is the McClung Collection, the Knox County Library System's department devoted to regional history and genealogy.

All three historical titans are hopscotching into their new digs. They're moving into the new wings first, stacked in the same order they were in the old one, then stretching out when renovations to the original Custom House are completed later this year.

The McClung Collection, which closed in its old location—what was once the federal courtroom—reopened on Monday in the brand-new Gay Street wing of the building. Inside, it looks like a conventional modern library. It's cramped but almost comfortable, a well-organized space with several windows. This addition is a smaller space than the old one, meaning that for most of 2004, much of the collection—especially novels, some biographies, and periodicals—will be in deep storage, accessible after a wait.

The situation is temporary. While they're crowded in the new part, the Victorian courtroom most folks know as the McClung Collection, picturesque but afflicted with crumbling plaster, is undergoing a major makeover. It will return at the end of the year as the collection's reading room. Longtime librarian Ted Behr promises it will be the same as it always has been: just better looking and less cluttered.

For the time being, both the McClung Collection and the Knox County Archives are accessible only from the old Clinch Avenue entrance. The archives, in fact, are accessible only via a vertical fishhook strategy, up to the third floor, east to the new wing, then down to the second floor via the new stairs or the elevator.

The new Gay Street corner entrance, which is only sensibly grand, won't be open for at least a couple more weeks. For the time being, the museum is closed. The transition comes at a time of turbulence in the East Tennessee Historical Society; its dynamic director, Kent Whitworth, left to take a statewide post in Kentucky last month; the society's interviewing candidates for a successor.

The society will begin reopening its museum in stages, with a 9-11 exhibit scheduled to open at the end of this month. Acting director Cherel Henderson says the new permanent exhibit, Voices Of the Land, won't be ready to open until spring, 2005, but the new lobby and auditorium should open with a trolley/streetscape exhibit early this year. When it's all done, the Museum of East Tennessee History will range over 10,000 square feet. In the meantime, you can see Davy Crockett's rifle, Ol' Betsy, on temporary display in the McClung Collection.

The exterior marble work is taking a little longer than expected; the target date for completion of the Gay Street facade is Jan. 29; the Clinch Avenue side should be done in February. Construction is underway seven days a week. The building should be substantially completed by the end of the year, at which time they'll have a ribbon-cutting.

"We've had some issues," admits Cotham. "Behind the scenes we're still moving stuff, and will be for a while."

—Jack Neely

No Home at Island Home
CAP is moving, but where?

After six years of being in the same location at Island Home Airport, the Civil Air Patrol will be moving. With its three aircraft, the CAP is facing an enormous rent increase that will make it impossible for the unit to stay.

Nationally, the military branch is responsible for disaster relief and 90 percent of the inland search-and-rescue operations in the United States. When there is an indication of a downed aircraft, the Air Force issues a mission for the local unit to go out and search. The branch is also responsible for taking reconnaissance photographs. After the 9/11 tragedy, its aircraft were the first permitted to fly in the New York City airspace after the disaster.

The CAP had been paying a modest rent in previous years, but new management took over at Island Home Airport the first of October. The unit was notified in December that the current arrangement would be terminated the first of the year, and if the military branch were interested in staying, there would be a rent increase of 1,600 percent.

Colonel Lansing expresses disappointment in the current situation. "We have no prospects at this point. We have some discussions going with the airport authority, and we're looking at airports in the surrounding areas. Sevierville, Madisonville and Morristown will probably be the three closest. In the interim, the two squadrons will meet at our headquarters as a temporary solution."

The new management, however, did offer to help raise money from businesses in the area. "That might work for the first year, or the second year. My concern is that I would be stuck with a $10,000-a-year bill that we could not afford," Lansing says. "Obviously we would like to work out an arrangement, because it's a lot more convenient to a lot of our volunteers."

Statewide, the CAP has 1,300 volunteer members. The program can be time-intensive and the branch is responsible for assembling and paying its own expenses. Lansing explains, "We do get some operating funds from the state each year for the cost of training for search and rescue, and rescue operations are reimbursed by the Air Force." Also, the aircraft used are owned by the Civil Air Patrol and paid for by the Air Force.

"We're disappointed that we have to move out, but hopefully we can stay in the airport. We think that we deserve a break," Lansing says.

—Clint Casey