Comment on this story Seven Days Wednesday, June 16 • In Oak Ridge, federal inspectors urge Y-12 officials to increase security around plant chemicals that could be stolen and used in methamphetamine production. Soon thereafter, other plant workers note that security personnel appear strangely alert and “a little bit twitchy” despite working marathon triple-overtime shifts. Thursday, June 17 • The state Supreme Court rules against former Knoxville police forensics expert Art Bohanan, who demanded worker’s compensation for high blood pressure on the grounds that his job was too stressful. His former KPD boss loses a similar claim, this one to pay for a hemorrhoidal operation on the grounds that the Bohanan suit was such a pain in the ass. Friday, June 18 • A sure sign that University of Tennessee students are lagging in key academic areas: The News Sentinel reports that tuition will probably go up about $300 per student next year. Student protest is non-existent, until the campus newspaper reports the rate hike as “about a dozen six-packs and four sacks of weed.” Saturday, June 19 • A News Sentinel story says that parking at the Papermill Plaza shopping center is “disappearing into a hole” due to a collapsing drainage system earlier in the week. Oddly enough, the same phrase appears in two more news stories of the day, one about Knoxville Convention Center funding, and another about the new Bill Clinton presidential memoir. Sunday, June 20 • Officials in Memphis name a city street in honor of famed R&B producer Willie “Poppa” Mitchell. Word has it that nearby Roane County may follow suit. Mitchell has no connection to East Tennessee, but local officials apparently thought it would be great if Poppa was extolled by Roane. Monday, June 21 • The News Sentinel reports on how local residents feel about Knoxville’s soon-to-be-renovated Sunsphere: one respondent compares the tower to Seattle’s Space Needle, while another describes it as Knoxville’s “Beam of Pride.” Given its distinctive shape, we would simply call it the city’s Monumental Erection. Tuesday, June 22 • According to the Associated Press, California pilot Mike Melvill successfully flew the world’s first private “spaceship” more than 60 miles above the earth’s surface. And in Nashville, two escaped jail inmates remain at large despite the fact that both of them have prosthetic lower limbs. What’s the connection? A few more feet, and all three of these guys are gone for good. 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: On the southeast end of the recently renovated Gay Street Bridge, a quarter is lodged in the center of a bell-shaped thingy and cemented to the pedestrian barrier separating the sidewalk from the street. Congratulations to James Hill for identifying this local peculiarity. The Metro Pulse staff is thrilled to surrender a copy of Living the Rock ‘n Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason in exchange for your boundless wisdom. Meet Your City A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend WORLD’S FAIR PARK SUGGESTIONS FORUM Thursday, June 24 • 5 p.m. • Knoxville Museum of Art • 1050 World’s Fair Park Dr. Review the public’s suggestions and comments about the best uses of city-owned assets at the World’s Fair Park. KNOX COUNTY COMMISSION Monday, June 28 • 2 p.m. • City County Building • Main Assembly Room • 400 Main St. Regular meeting. KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION Wednesday, June 30 • 5 p.m. • City County Building • Main Assembly Room • 400 Main St. Regular session. (Replaces July regular session.)

Selling Greenspace
A ‘For Sale’ sign for Log Haven?

Renters and neighbors of 193 acres of largely undeveloped South Knoxville greenspace within two miles of downtown are concerned about its future.

Log Haven, a 97-acre wooded residential community with eight or nine rental houses occupied at any one time, is owned by Edward Smith of Nashville and Phillip Moffett of California. The property isn’t yet on the market, says Anne Pendley, who serves as liaison between the owners and renters. Sources say Log Haven could be up for sale as soon as July 1.

Mona Shiber de Kay, who lives with her husband Mark in one of Log Haven’s houses, is particularly concerned about the future of the land and its potential role as smartly developed greenspace.

“These are the lungs of our polluted city,” she says of the forested acres situated just across the Tennessee River from downtown Knoxville. An artist and architect respectively, the de Kays have traveled to India and across the United States studying alternative ways to develop land for communities. She imagines that Log Haven could be developed in a way that is “vernacularly and climactically appropriate,” she says.

De Kay also envisions that the south bank of the river could be developed much like Cherokee Park in Sequoyah Hills, a public park that increases the beauty and value of the private property around it. She also recommends that the greenway in downtown proper be extended to South Knoxville via one of the railroad bridges near UT.

Adjacent to Log Haven is a 96-acre tract, known as the Rose property, owned by brothers Jim and Morton Rose. That property runs along Cherokee Trail, backs up to Fort Dickerson, a city-owned park, and the bluff overlooking the Tennessee River and downtown Knoxville.

Coldwell Banker’s Tim Duff represents a developer out of Athens, Ga., who has a contract on the Rose property pending approval of a zoning change with the Metropolitan Planning Commission to allow for 300-plus condominiums on either side of Cherokee Trail. Building on top of Cherokee Bluff is a future possibility, he says. Duff emphasizes his client’s intention to leave most of the land as untouched as possible.

“This guy is going to leave an unbelievable amount of greenspace and as many trees as he can,” Duff says. “He’s not going to go in and clear cut by any means. That’s one of the reasons the Rose brothers went with this fellow.”

Duff and the developer have been in contact with city councilman Joe Hultquist about the potential to use part of the property for a greenway. “My man is all for that,” Duff reports.

Hultquist says is aware of the growing community concern over Log Haven and the Rose property, but he doesn’t have enough information to form an opinion yet. “I’m definitely concerned how the property gets developed,” he says.

Trudy Monaco rents the only residence on the Rose property. She estimates that, because of the steep landscape, only about seven of its acres are developable, including the flat land holding her house and a garden that’s maintained by Jim Rose. Monaco, who is a formative person in the South Knoxville Arts and Heritage Center, envisions that the property could potentially serve the greater Knoxville community as an eco-village with co-housing (a cooperative living concept that involves private dwellings with shared common spaces), solar power, a garden and other elements of sustainable habitation.

“There are ways to live with a minimum of disturbance [to the land],” she says, emphasizing the potential of developing smaller residences with shared areas—a library, tool room, music room, kitchen—to maximize the greenspace available to others, even those who don’t live in the village. Monaco is pursuing potential investors in her eco-village plan.

Log Haven’s owners are open to a range of ideas, says Pendley. “I think that they are interested in exploring new and creative uses,” she says.

Moffett is the former editor and publisher of Esquire magazine and a founder, along with Chris Whittle, of 13/30 Corp., the forerunner of Whittle Communications. Whittle was at one time a co-owner and resident of Log Haven. Moffett was unreachable for comment, and Smith and his wife Pam Weaver declined to comment.

Duff has been informed by MPC that foxholes and trenches previously thought to be Civil War sites actually are parts of a quarry and Jim Rose’s garden. Even without historical remains worth preserving, renters, neighbors and visitors who have experienced the remoteness of Log Haven and the Rose property have a strong sense of shared ownership of the untouched land and its trees, at least two of which are likely 200 years old.

“I think we have a responsibility to speak out,” says Monaco.

—Paige M. Travis

Movin’ on Up
That’s ‘up’ town, as in downtown, for WDVX

When WDVX began broadcasting on Nov. 5, 1997, the radio station’s grassroots popularity snowballed into a bona fide phenomenon. Stickers and license plates plaster Knoxville vehicles (and many a guitar case) from east to west and everywhere in between. And since the station broadcasts via the Web, it counts many international listeners as devout fans. Now, it’s coming in from the country to the city with its Americana music blend.

Last month’s Camperfest, a decidedly Appalachian music festival, was a testament to the national fame of WDVX, drawing listeners from as far away as Maine. Station manager Tony Lawson was pleased with the turnout and atmosphere of the event. “Camperfest was absolutely wonderful. Our first TV show taped [at Camperfest 2004] will air next month on East Tennessee Public Television.” TV crews documented each performance, and the first installment of the music series will premiere on July 10 at 10 p.m. on WKOP-TV, Channels 2 and 15.

From its humble beginnings in a camping trailer in Clinton, the station’s headquarters moved to the village of Arcadian Springs in Andersonville in 2003. “Our camper had been sitting out in the open for six years, and being used on an everyday basis,” Lawson says. “It was getting some wear and tear, and we didn’t want to be in there another winter, that’s for sure. We had a much more workable situation with Arcadian Springs than we did with the campground.”

On June 30, WDVX will move again, officially. It remains at 89.9 and 102.9 FM on the band, but it has a slick new studio at the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill. The One Vision facility at 301 S. Gay is providing the station with studio space and a performance area that will seat 75 people for live shows. The lobby features the Café Gourmet coffee shop where customers will be able to watch live broadcasts through a large window into the ground-level studio.

“We basically had a mutual interest where we both take the heritage and culture of the region and tell people who we are and where we came from...” says Robin Hamilton, vice president of sales and marketing for the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp., also located in One Vision Plaza. “WDVX played into the heritage and culture we were trying to get across, and they were perfect because they play the music that was indigenous to the region years ago. That was the first kind of idea, and, as we saw that things were going to work out with them, we saw the opportunity to introduce visitors to the culture and the heritage of the area. It became a programming idea if we could have them in 365 days a year. It’s a great opportunity for them to be a part of downtown Knoxville and share it with our visitors.”

Lawson says that the station’s in the process of moving equipment into the new space. “We’ve already got the furniture in, and we’re in the process of making it all happen. We will be broadcasting there on the 30th. We’ll be doing shows out there and should be full-time around then, but we are planning on having a big day.”

The big day Lawson refers to is a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration for the building, featuring performances by Robinella and the CCstringband, R.B. Morris with the Hector Qirko Band, and the Knoxville Bluegrass with special guest mandolinist Mike Compton from the Nashville Bluegrass Band and former Bill Monroe Bluegrass Boy, banjo player Butch Robbins. Gay Street’s 300 block will be closed to traffic at 5 p.m., with performances starting at 6 p.m. Copper Cellar catering will vend beer and food.

“I think that all of the energy makes it a very exciting time for downtown, and it’s a very exciting time for WDVX,” Lawson says. “The timing is wonderful, and I think that there will be so many more opportunities, not just for the station, but for the community itself.” WDVX plans on keeping a facility in Arcadian Springs.

—Clint Casey

June 24, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 26 © 2004 Metro Pulse