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Seven Days

Wednesday, July 23
Page 1 story in the News Sentinel is headed "Barrels gone at Lovell Road." What a statement about the condition and duration of road construction and reconstruction in Knox County! Work and the congestion that attends it began there nearly three years ago.

Thursday, July 24
The ACLU's Tennessee chapter files suit in behalf of a Dickson woman whose free speech rights are allegedly being violated by a city ordinance prohibiting fortune telling. Of course, even outright charlatans have those rights. Otherwise Attorney General John Ashcroft couldn't speak in public.

Friday, July 25
The news breaks that people opposed to annexation by the city of Knoxville are actually looking forward to the fall election of a new mayor. Can't imagine why.

Saturday, July 26
Findings from a Knox County Health Department survey reveal that people who have more income feel better. Tell us again why the survey was conducted.

Sunday, July 27
Tennessee's statute banning possession of child pornography is in for an appellate court test over its implications for free speech, attorneys are quoted as saying. That's silly. Unless a fortune teller or the U.S. Attorney General acquires such pornography, where's the free speech issue?

Monday, July 28
The Associated Press reports that a state of Tennessee-commissioned survey indicated that companies that located facilities in other states did so because the cost of doing business elsewhere was lower. Somebody explain why that survey was conducted.

Tuesday, July 29
Questioned about the authority of the Knoxville campus chancellor to make controversial decisions, UT President John Shumaker has indicated to the faculty that the chancellor does have that authority, a News Sentinel report says. As if the president himself needs to be included in any more controversial decisions....

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:
Several folks took a stab at this one, offering various South Knoxville-based suggestions on the location and history of the building depicted at left. Which is understandable given that Gov. John Sevier<0x2019>s home and the highway named in his honor are both in that area. A couple of correct responses came in later in the week, the first being from Suzanne Smith of Mascot who identified the place as being on Old Rutledge Pike in the John Sevier Community near the old train yards. Congratulations Suzanne. For being this week's winner you will receive a copy of the internationally best-selling The Tale of the Rose by Consuelo de Saint-Exupery. Enjoy!

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

COMMISSION ON ACCREDITATION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
Monday, Aug. 4
6 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Small Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Public hearing by C.A.L.E.A. accreditation assessment team, inviting comment on the Knoxville Police Department.

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, Aug. 5
7 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

You've Still Got the Radio
WNCW's return: Who'll run it?

The popular public radio station WNCW could be back on the airwaves in Knoxville in a couple of months, even as Isothermal Community College debates the station's future.

Since it went on the air in 1989, WNCW has slowly built a solid base of fans in Spindale, N.C., as well as the communities it has translators in: Charlotte, Greenville, Boone and Beech Mountain. Broadcasting an eclectic mix of Americana, world and alternative music, along with some news programming, the station has earned national awards and fervent fans, but also significant controversy over programming.

It broadcast in Knoxville at 96.7 FM until early this year. But the college waited too long to respond to an offer to buy the frequency it had been renting.

It appears that the loss of the Knoxville frequency will soon be rectified.

The FCC recently announced that there were four open translator frequencies here—99.7, 100.7, 101.7 and 107.3 FM. WNCW applied for all of them, but no one else did, says David Gordon, station manager. "There's a very good chance we'll be awarded those frequencies. We'll probably take the one that works best for us and let the other ones go," he says.

Final paperwork is due at the end of August, and Gordon expects to hear shortly after that from the FCC. The station should be on the air here about a month later. "I think it'd be in pretty quick order. I would say a month or so...after the time the FCC says, 'Yes, you have this frequency.' I hesitate to put a date on anything with the FCC because you never know," Gordon says. The translator will be about 10 watts, but hopefully in a better location than the last one, Gordon adds.

The lapse is one thing that devoted fans have criticized the station's owner, the Isothermal Community College, about over the past three years. Some of the station's other translators have also been challenged or bid against. Because many decisions have to go through the college's board of directors, the station has been slow to respond.

"We feel like a decision should have been made in time to keep it on the air in Knoxville," says Lesley Groetch, who with her husband runs the Asheville club the Orange Peel and is one of the members of Preserve WNCW, a coalition of community members who want to keep the station run as it is. "That decision wasn't made and you lost your translator in Knoxville."

Several employees have also been terminated, including program director Mark Keefe, and conspiracy theories and rumors have spread about management, FCC violations, and underwriting.

At least two groups have offered to buy the station, WAY-FM, a Christian broadcasting group, and Preserve WNCW.

"What we really want to be is a safety net for the radio station. If the school decides to sell the radio station, we'd hope they'd want to sell it to the listeners and the community," Groetch says. "The listeners who have been paying for it all these years really deserve to own it."

All of those involved in the group—its website is www.preservewncw.org—have pledged not to be on the board or work as paid staff, but would help set up the non-profit group that would own it, Groetch says.

She didn't criticize the school, saying they've created a great station for the community. "So many things have happened that the college would be better served having the community and the listeners own it," she says. "I think it would be better off in the community's hands. Not to point the finger at ICC—they've been faced with a difficult situation. If we were able to purchase the station on behalf of the community, we could put in regulations and safeguards to prevent problems like this from happening."

Bill Lewis, college president, and Stephen Matheny, administrative services director, are recommending the college board keep the station. Their draft report, which will be presented on Aug. 12, can be read at www.wncw.org. The two also recommend that WNCW revise its mission statement, include more news programs, clarify and work more with the listener advisory board, and involve more students from the college.

"Really it's an affirmation of how the station has been run over the last couple of years," Gordon says. "Putting things in writing really spells things out much more clearly."

—Joe Tarr

Just Passing Through
Lending focus to the boulevard of life

Newly formed action group KnoxBlvd has recently gained attention for their proposal that the downtown section of Interstate 40 be not only improved, but replaced—with an idyllic four-lane, non-elevated, tree-lined boulevard. The boulevard would serve to unite downtown neighborhoods and encourage growth.

"If you're a business owner in downtown Knoxville, it's just common sense that you'd want traffic at street level at 30 mph, instead of traffic 45 feet in the air at 70 mph," says group leader Bill Pittman. A vice president of DeRoyal Industries, Pittman is interested in the project partly because his home is in the Fourth and Gill neighborhood, which would likely be adversely affected by further expansion of the Interstate.

The boulevard idea is not the group's only focus. "We came out fast off the track saying that we need to replace the interstate with a boulevard," Pittman says, "but what we truly need is more public input. The ideas of one or two cannot compete with the ideas of hundreds."

KnoxBlvd, which actually stands for Knoxville Building a Livable and Visionary Downtown (their website is at www.knoxblvd.org) seeks to gain opinions from community members, to address safety measures on I-40, and to urge the Tennessee Department of Transportation to reconsider interstate expansion plans. The group comprises four neighborhood associations, three business associations, and 32 individuals, most of them downtown professionals. The Sierra Club also supports the group.

Pittman believes the "Interstate 40 project," which would add more lanes through downtown Knoxville, is not based on enough research or community input. He says the expansion would only encourage people to drive through downtown, not to downtown. The planned expansion of the interstate would also displace 40 businesses and eight residences.

"We're looking for a comprehensive study that TDOT hasn't done," he says. "How much traffic on I-40 is through traffic? Quite frankly, I'm astounded TDOT is spending $150 million on an expansion project, and they haven't done any kind of origin-destination study," he says.

Group members stress that a downtown boulevard would unify Knoxville's central communities. Pittman says removing part of Interstate 40 is not as drastic as it may seem; other, bigger cities have already done it.

"Memphis fought to get Interstate 40 out of its downtown. San Francisco and Milwaukee have removed and are continuing to remove downtown interstates and now the movement is rising in Miami as well," Pittman says. "It's not a novel idea. It's something that other areas have done to work towards historical preservation, economic development, and safety."

And group members insist that with 342 accidents on downtown I-40 last year, safety needs to be addressed now.

The group also lobbied the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization to pass a resolution asking state officials to consider re-routing commercial trucks from Interstate 40 to Interstate 640, which would lessen traffic on downtown intersections of I-40, and hence increase safety—though, of course, it would add to the burden on 640, perhaps calling for more lanes there.

According to TDOT, working through the TPO is the first step in effecting change. "We would not anticipate reviewing a project without the city's request," says Ed Cole, chief of environment and planning for TDOT.

Cole says the TPO has a sizable influence in TDOT's decisions, and he hopes, along with KnoxBlvd, that community members will have influence as well.

"There's a lot of concern about lack of responsiveness of TDOT on road projects, so we've created a new community relations division," says Cole. "That division is up and running and covers everything from rapid response to inquiries to public meetings. We want to make sure people that have not had the opportunity to get heard get that opportunity. We're in touch with local officials—Mayor Ashe—we've met with the Fourth and Gill group. We will do everything that we know to do to make our planning process open."

Cole also says the TDOT has "massive research" regarding interstate traffic, regional traffic, and commuter traffic in downtown Knoxville, and certainly took this research into account when planning for the expansion.

But even with influence from the TPO and community members, TDOT would not likely make a big move without the next mayor's approval. Bill Haslam has agreed that Interstate 40 is no longer a benefit to downtown, but doesn't think it should be shut down. Madeline Rogero agrees alternatives should be addressed for downtown Knoxville transportation, but says she needs to learn more before lending her support.

For now, KnoxBlvd has downtown supporters with open minds. "We are very receptive to other ideas, the needs of each community," says Pittman. "KnoxBlvd believes that the correct transportation solution should not simply shift existing problems. The correct plan will be the one that is in the best interest of all of Knoxville while addressing the needs of each neighborhood."

—Cassie J. Moore