Comment on this story Seven Days Wednesday, Aug. 25 • A Tennessee Valley Authority police spokesman defends the practice of officers chauffeuring executives around the Southeast, arguing that the utility officials need protection from “security threats” such as anti-nuclear demonstrators and laid-off workers. If hippies and disgruntled employees qualify as security threats, shouldn’t managers at Domino’s have police escorts, too? Thursday, Aug. 26 • The Associated Press tells us that Memphis officials are investigating claims that members of its police department appeared in varying stages of nudity at a charity fashion show. Who cares? It would hardly be the first time a Memphis cop showed his ass in public. Friday, Aug. 27 • Disgraced former UT president John Shumaker sues for $425,000 in severance pay he says the university owes him in the wake of his forced resignation last year. You know you’ve succeeded when you make more money off getting fired than most people make for going to work. Saturday, Aug. 28 • According to reports, drug enforcement officers in Anderson County spent the better part of a day clearing more than 1,200 marijuana plants in the remote New River area near Clinton. Residents report that the officers spend about 3.5 hours at Denny’s upon coming back to town. Sunday, Aug. 29 • Bechtel Jacobs officials say the company will earn more than $160 million off its five-year contract to get rid of waste on the Department of Energy reservation in Oak Ridge. Guess that’s what they mean by “cleaning up.” Monday, Aug. 30 • More Oak Ridge news: Officials at Y-12 say they can’t dismantle warheads right now because their wet chemistry systems aren’t functional. We understand this is a common problem in men over 50. 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: This cute cartoon canine can be found on a number of helpful canisters located in public parks. We found ours recently on Market Square, ever at the ready to assist mutt guardians in capturing and disposing of smelly poo. Rachel Warren correctly identified the logo, although she recognized it from Lakeshore Park. Since there were no other respondents to challenge her accuracy, Rachel gets this week’s prize: a bobble-head doll of Bernie Mac as Mr. 3000.

Trucks-a-Comin’
A Virginia highway proposal could send thousands of trucks Knoxville’s way

Virginia is considering a massive expansion of Interstate 81, which would turn the highway into a toll road and widen it to at least eight lanes. But if the state goes ahead with it, much of that traffic would end up pouring through East Tennessee, including the already congested strip of I-40 in downtown Knoxville.

The Virginia Department of Transportation project could have ramifications throughout the Northeast corridor, locking other states into building bigger highways to meet the demand of more traffic channeled onto them.

Some Virginia residents—concerned about increased pollution, safety, traffic flow, and cost—are proposing that the state join with others in the region to invest in a major upgrading of the rail system.

Proposed by STAR Solutions, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the I-81 road project would cost at least $9 billion, possibly as much as $13 billion. Tolls collected on the road would finance the project.

The project would take 15 years and include adding four trucks-only lanes (two in each direction) along the 325-mile highway. The regular lanes would also be improved. It’s needed to meet an expected increase in the amount of truck traffic. In 1997, an estimated 10,000 trucks traveled over the road each day; by 2020 STAR Solutions estimates it will be 20,000 a day.

STAR Solutions proposes upgrading the rail system as well, enough to divert 500,000 to 1.4 million trucks each year. But the bulk of the improvements rests on bigger highways. A VDOT spokesman could not be reached for comment. The state is now preparing an environmental-impact statement on the proposal.

Reese Shearer, who lives in Emory, Va., and works with the group Rail Solution, says the highway project will only attract more cars and trucks, increase pollution in areas already violating federal pollution standards, and force other states to expand their highways.

“If Virginia decides to build [the STAR project], it would usurp Tennessee’s chances of having control over its transportation future,” Shearer says. “Imagine this—you’ve got eight lanes narrowing to four in Bristol. What’s that going to look like?”

Transportation officials in Knoxville and Tennessee hope Virginia works regionally in developing a plan instead of doing so on its own. In the past year, VDOT officials began consulting with counterparts from other states.

Jeff Welch, director of the Transportation Planning Organization (a regional advisory group made up of local government heads), was at a meeting where the project was discussed recently.

“The issue that I expressed and a few other people expressed is the trucks don’t stop at the state line. They’re going to come through the Tri-cities down to Knoxville,” Welch says. “What we’re encouraging them to do is expand their analysis and look at it more from a regional perspective.”

“The U.S. Highway Administration needs to step up to the plate and say, ‘This is a regional issue. How are you going to handle the movement of goods, and not just truck traffic, through the United States?’ They’re letting the states take the lead and I think it requires more of national perspective.”

Rail Solution is proposing an alternative, one it claims would cost only $3.6 billion. It calls for upgrading the corridor’s rail system to high-speed rail, which would include stations where trucks could easily drive on and drive off freight, similar to systems used in Europe. The group would like to see Harrisburg, Pa., linked to Knoxville, or possibly Chattanooga or Atlanta via rail in a first stage. Such a system would open the door to expanding passenger rail.

“We don’t think [the road project] is just bad for Virginia, we think it’s bad policy nationwide. [Moving freight] is just what railroads were built for. The railways need to be upgraded. It’d be the least damaging, environmentally,” Shearer says.

Shearer worries that if STAR Solutions’ plan is successful in Virginia, it’ll spread to other states. Federal legislation is in place to fund the Virginia project. “I think these big contractors are interested in privatizing these interstates into money-making roads for them,” he says. “Sen. [Bill] Frist is in a good position to say, ‘Hold on here, this is not working in Tennessee’s interest.’ We’re hoping people of Tennessee can become aware of this.”

Edward Cole, chief of environment and planning for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, says Tennessee is looking seriously at the VDOT project and talking with Virginia about a regional approach. TDOT is studying its own transportation needs, including its rail system.

“We don’t have a preferred option at this point in time,” Cole says. “In our long-range planning process we’ve made it clear that no ideas are off the table. We’re not in a position to say what’s a preferred option.”

The STAR Solutions proposal can be downloaded at www.virginiadot.org/projects/star.asp; Rail Solution’s plan is at www.railsolution.org.

—Joe Tarr

Last of the Row Houses
A local developer hopes to restore the Fifth Ave. Motel

A developer’s plans to renovate the Fifth Ave. Motel, a well-known flophouse for a couple of decades, have been set back by difficulty in getting historic landmark designation for the structure.

But Philip Welker says he hasn’t lost hope and believes the building will eventually get the distinction, which would allow him to capitalize on tax credits.

Welker, who recently renovated apartments a few blocks east on Fifth Avenue, plans to renovate the hotel as it was originally designed, as a row of townhouses. He would also include a small number of units as affordable housing for the working poor.

“We want to turn it back into what it originally was, row houses. We don’t intend to cut them up into offices or anything crazy,” Welker says.

At least for the first five years, the property would be rental only.

The historic tax credits are essential to making the project profitable, Welker says. They allow developers to deduct part of the renovation cost from their taxes, but they require developers to restore the building according to strict federal guidelines. Congress established the tax credit program in the 1980s as a way to encourage developers to renovate old buildings in center cities.

“Unfortunately these days instead of it being an incentive, it’s almost a necessity now. You’ve got to have it now,” Welker says.

The Tennessee Historical Commission’s initial recommendation (the National Park Service has final say) is that the building isn’t historic because it believed an extensive addition had been made to the Fifth Avenue side, which would have made it impossible to return the structure to its original shape. However, Welker discovered that a previous owner had merely bricked in the porch that ran along that side of the building. Restoring it won’t be difficult, he says. But he has to make his case to the state and federal agencies before he can get the credits.

Kim Trent, executive director of Knox Heritage, says the buildings are worth saving. “We don’t have a lot of those row houses left in Knoxville. There’s only a few examples left,” she says. “It represents what residential living used to be in downtown Knoxville. And they’re great buildings.”

The target market for the apartments is young professional looking for a bit of an urban life. The intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway is near two homeless shelters and a halfway house. A day shelter will soon be relocating nearby. But Welker isn’t worried about attracting residents. His apartments nearby show the area can be sold.

“A project like that could really change the perception of the area,” he says. “People will drive through it in two years and think, ‘This area’s not that bad.’ Whereas now they say, ‘I’d never live here.’”

—Joe Tarr

September 2, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 36 © 2004 Metro Pulse