Comment on this story Seven Days Wednesday, June 9 •TDOT officials say they will begin cracking down on drivers who do the “blow and go,” a shortcut to downtown accomplished by lurching across two lanes of I-40 westbound traffic between the Broadway and James White exits. From now on, the only “blow and go” on I-40 will be relegated to truck stop restrooms and roadside Asian massage parlors. Thursday, June 10 •In Dayton, site of the infamous Scopes trial and the recent Gay Day demonstrations, Rhea County commissioners say they will launch yet another resolution to condemn homosexual unions. The resolution will accomplish two important ends by: a.) discouraging same-sex marriage; and, b.) casting further doubt on the theory of evolution. Friday, June 11 •More than 100,000 concert-goers have paid $150 each to sit in a seven- to nine-hour traffic jam outside the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn. Kinda makes I-40 rush hour look like a bargain. Saturday, June 12 •The News Sentinel reports that local officials have only now hired an accountant to take charge of the ill-advised, struggling new Knoxville Convention Center. That’s a bit like calling the plumber after your toilet blows up; his services were best enlisted before the bowl ranneth over. Sunday, June 13 •The News Sentinel reports that, according to a study by UT professor Bruce Ralston, the “most remote” location in East Tennessee is a place near the North Carolina border called Tricorner Knob. Sounds like a great spot for a blow and go. Monday, June 14 •TDOT officials unveil the new “SmartFIX” signs that will be posted on I-40 to denote sections of the interstate that are completely shut down in order to speed up construction. Some motorists suggest that with a strategic vowel substitution, the logo would also express their feelings about TDOT officials. Tuesday, June 15 •The News Sentinel reports that a computer hacker working at a local call center pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for illegally accessing thousands of credit card numbers. Prosecutors say the man cut a deal for a reduced sentence, but don’t reveal the details; in the meantime, staff at the local U.S. Attorney’s office have been spending inordinate amounts of time on the phone with their doors closed, apparently talking to someone named “Feather.” Knoxville Found 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: The playground turret is situated atop a jungle gym at one of the finest places to take children in Knoxville. Congratulations to Jim Brunton for pinpointing the leafy pattern at Fort Kid in Fort Sanders across from the Knoxville Museum of Art. And because the Metro Pulse office is slowly becoming a “Knoxville Found” museum of sorts, we’d like to extend you an invitation to take your pick from the odd but wonderful prizes that remain unclaimed. Come on down, and see the gatekeeper at the front desk. Meet Your City A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend CITY COUNCIL MEETING Tuesday, June 22 • 7 p.m. • City County Building • Main Assembly Room • 400 Main St. Regular meeting.

Shades of Green
UT balks at considering students’ fee referendum

University of Tennessee administrators are refusing to take a green-power proposal approved by students in March to the UT Board of Trustees meeting.

The administrators claim that students don’t have the right to set fees and that proper procedures weren’t followed. But some student leaders worry that ignoring the proposal sends a message that administrators don’t care about students’ concerns or ideas.

“It should at least be considered, or it’s going to lead to a lot of apathy [from students],” says Chaz Molder, who was recently elected president of UT’s Student Government Association, which supports the proposal.

In March, students voted 4,117 to 3,022 in support of a proposal for an $8 fee funding green power initiatives. Of the $8, $4 would go toward buying green power through TVA, $2 would fund conservation measures, and $2 would pay for clean power generation on campus, says Christina Connally, of Students Promoting Environmental Action In Knoxville (or SPEAK), which pushed the referendum. Currently, the university gets 64 percent of its energy from coal-burning power plants.

The proposal would have to be approved by the trustees, but campus administrators have so far declined to put it on the agenda for the board’s meeting June 23 and 24.

“[Students] are the majority of what builds this campus,” Connally says. “For the majority not to be heard could be detrimental to our future, not only environmentally but financially, morally.”

Loren Crabtree, UT chancellor, says administrators support the idea of clean energy and conservation. “We support the green-power initiative. Certainly we support the intent of what the students are doing,” Crabtree says. “What we ran into are some procedural problems.”

UT has a policy of changing fees at most every four years, and the university is in the middle of that cycle. Crabtree says there might be better ways than a fee for “greening the campus.” The administration was not made aware of the referendum before it happened, he adds.

Student leaders say that some administrators were aware of it. “Somebody had to know about it. The dean of students is our advisor. She must have known during the election that [the referendum item] was on the ballot,” says Molder, who was not yet SGA president when the referendum was voted on. “Maybe only one or two of the administrators knew, but it just didn’t get up as high as it should have.”

Connally says that SPEAK representatives met with Maxine Thompson, dean of students, and another administrator shortly after the referendum to discuss how it might be implemented, if approved, and that both were supportive.

Phil Scheurer, vice president of operations for UTK, says the referendum came “out of the blue” at a time when the university is fighting to keep fees low. “We’ve been admonished by the legislative authority to keep fee increases to a minimum,” he says.

Administrators say they have a problem with letting students set fees. “We do not set fee levels on the basis of referendums. Some people agree with that, some don’t,” Scheurer says.

Crabtree concurs: “We don’t do this by direct democracy; we do it by representative democracy.”

But the referendum isn’t direct democracy in the students’ view—it was a non-binding way to gauge students’ wishes. The board of trustees still has the authority to deny, accept or alter the proposal, and administrators can make their own recommendation to the board. Molder says that students at UT Chattanooga have voted on two different fee proposals, approving one, rejecting the other.

“We’re not necessarily saying ‘You have to do this because we voted on it.’ We’re just saying, ‘Would you please at least consider it?’ Basically they’re stalling it,” Molder says. “I really don’t understand how it’s getting stalled when 4,000 students voted on it.”

SPEAK is sending the trustees information about the proposal and asking for one of them to bring it up.

The administrators’ hard line on the green-power proposal comes just two months after they approved an environmental policy for the school. Part of it reads, “The faculty, staff, administration and students will strive to increase awareness of environmental problems and will promote sound environmental practices.... In its daily operations, UTK will attempt to conserve energy and to promote the use of renewable energy sources at the same time that it champions waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting.”

Crabtree says the university remains committed to the environmentally friendly policies.

“We’re not dodging at all. We think we have an obligation to the environment,” Crabtree says.

—Joe Tarr

Bijou ‘Hit a Wall’
The theater’s financial problems built over time

Bijou Theatre building manager David Heltsley knew the end was at hand when payroll checks abruptly disappeared from the theater office last Thursday afternoon, apparently whisked away by a member of the board of directors.

“We had a mandatory employee meeting scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m., and everybody thought maybe we were about to be sold,” Heltsley said. “When they took away the checks, it was like, ‘Uh-uh.’ A lot of us guessed at that point we were closing down.”

Sure enough, the theater’s 20 or so employees were laid off Monday and were told that the Bijou was ceasing existence as a producing theater, under the burden of a $607,000 mortgage debt and $183,000 in other payables. Heltsley said the employees had about three hours to gather their belongings before locks were changed on theater doors Monday afternoon.

According to Chuck Morris, chairman of the Bijou Board of Directors, the theater had finally “hit a wall... there’s no money to pay debts. We have a mortgage payment due, and we still don’t know where it will come from.”

Morris said the board of directors will launch a community fund-raising campaign in the next couple of weeks, with the proceeds held in escrow by a trustee. Donors will be able to choose between donating toward the mortgage debt or the payables debt, which includes back salary owed to employees.

“We need a complete restart here,” Morris said. “There’s been a lot of bad blood that has kept people from giving to the Bijou in the past. We need to clean that up, restructure our board, and restore credibility to this organization.”

The Bijou has had a number of long-standing financial and management issues. Cumberland County Playhouse chief Jim Crabtree was hired around 1999-2000 in an attempt at rectifying problems. But his directorship was viewed as alienating by some members of the community, as the Bijou moved away from its role as a part-time concert venue, and grew increasingly reliant on middle-brow musical theater productions.

Crabtree resigned from the Bijou in July of last year, leaving it under the auspices of Lar’Juanette Williams, one of his employees.

“I think the board of directors waited too long to step in,” Heltsley said. “There was lots of unfounded faith in the management. The problem was that they were actors, not business people. They had lots of big ideas, many of which were unrealistic.” Heltsley noted, for instance, that a recent benefit production saw theater staff spend more on preparations than the production took in.

For now, the theater will continue to be available for rent, although incoming event-holders must hire their own production staff. Upcoming shows, such as a concert by the Dark Hollow Band this Friday, will continue according to schedule, Morris said.

“In a best-case scenario, the community rallies, we pay off the building and the debts, and have enough to start an endowment,” Morris said. “Then we can talk about the future. In the worst-case scenario, they foreclose on the building and it’s sold to the highest bidder.

“I’m laying down the gauntlet to the community now. I know we’ve cried ‘wolf’ many time before, but this time it’s for real. This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”

—Mike Gibson

June 17, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 25 © 2004 Metro Pulse