Author: Flyer Staff

Council Delays Vote For New Animal Shelter

The city’s canines won’t be getting a new dog house; at least, not yet.

Release of part of the $7.6 million scheduled to be allocated over the next three years for a new Memphis animal shelter has been delayed until at least 2004.

Led by city council member Barbara Swearengen Holt, the city budget committee voted 6-3 to delay $1 million in funding for land acquisition and engineering for the proposed shelter. The other $6.6 million was not scheduled in the budget for the next fiscal year.

The Memphis Animal Shelter, located on Tchulahoma Road, was the subject of an April cover story in the Flyer. In it, mishandling of the animals, overcrowding, and administrative mix-ups were listed as some of the shelter’s primary problems.

According to a study done by the National Animal Control Association last year, however, relieving overcrowding and increasing training for staff members would solve many of the shelter’s problems. The shelter takes in more than 16,000 animals a year –more than 1,300 a month; animals are held for a three-day waiting period before being euthanized.

Donnie Mitchell, director of public service for the city of Memphis, urged the council to approve the funding now so that it doesn’t cost more in the future. Recently in Knoxville, the city had to build a $1 million temporary shelter to house animals while another, more costly shelter was being constructed.

“We don’t own the land at the airport. They’ve already told us they’re going to call our number any time,” said Mitchell. A national trend to hold strays five days instead of three before euthanasia would also exacerbate overcrowding.

Holt said that she’d rather spend the money on things like curbs and gutters for annexed Raleigh.

But members of Responsible Pet Owners of Tennessee, at the meeting to hear about the shelter’s funding, disagreed.

“A life is a life is a life,” said a woman who would only give her name as M. Brodsky. “We need a new shelter. Every time I go to the shelter now, my blood pressure rises.”

Pat VanderSchaaf and John Vergos, two of the three members who voted against the delay, both cited the city’s mandated responsibility of animal control.

“Assume another project is inserted instead. We’re still going to have the same problem,” Vergos said. “It’s not going to go away.”

— Mary Cashiola

Memphis Earns General Excellence Award

Memphis editor James Roper (left) accepts award from University of Missouri professor Steve Weinberg.

Memphis magazine was the recipient of a Silver Award for General Excellence at the 16th Annual Editorial and Design Awards, held May 7th in Minneapolis during the annual conference of the City and Regional Magazine Association.

Professional journalists, designers, and photographers from magazines around the country, along with faculty from the University of Missouri, judged the more than 880 entries submitted for this year’s contest. The awards recognize excellence in design, writing, feature stories, photography, and special issues.

Other general excellence winners included D magazine, Columbus Monthly, Indianapolis Monthly, Texas Monthly, Boston magazine, and Atlanta magazine.

“We’re very pleased to be in such good company,” says Kenneth Neill, CEO of Contemporary Media, Inc., publisher of Memphis magazine and The Memphis Flyer. “It’s always nice when all our hard work is recognized by our peers in the magazine industry.”

MLGW Rejects Would-Be Benefactors

Responding to a story in last week’s Flyer, two Memphis men say they tried to pay the Memphis Light, Gas and Water bill for Mamie Parker, a struggling single mother. When they called MLGW, though, both men say that they were not allowed to pay Parker’s bill.

One of the men, Thomas Acree, says that when he called, an MLGW representative told him that the story published in the Flyer last week about Parker’s dilemma was not true and that Parker’s bill had already been paid in full. Acree also says that the representative told him that the reason Parker’s bill was so high was because she has a poor payment history and not because of the winter gas crisis, as last week’s story stated. According to Acree, the representative also told him personal information about both Parker and her sister.

“I hope they wouldn’t tell someone that kind of information about me,” says Acree.

The other man, Frank Barczak, says that on each of the two times he called about Parker, MLGW representatives hung up on him.

Mamie Parker is a mother of two severely asthmatic children who rely on a breathing machine. Parker, who is also caring for her mentally handicapped adult sister, says that the utility has vowed to turn off her power if her entire bill is not paid in full. If her power is turned off, the children’s breathing machine will not function.

The bill, which is currently more than $400, is a hold-over from this winter’s natural gas crisis and MLGW’s billing which, as the Flyer reported on April 12th, was 25 percent over the national average. In her job as a custodian at Rozelle Elementary School, Parker makes $300 every two weeks. She says she has asked the utility numerous times to be included in the much-heralded SmartPay program, which divides steep bills into smaller monthly payments. Each time, she says, she has been turned down without explanation. Parker also says she has asked to have a separate line in her house to power the breathing machine and has been denied this as well.

Barczak told the Flyer that when he called MLGW’s general information line he was transferred several times and when he said that he wanted to pay Parker’s bill, he was disconnected. He then called a second time, only to have this experience repeated.

Mark Heuberger, MLGW’s chief communications officer, did not accept or return multiple calls from the Flyer. MLGW president Herman Morris also did not accept or return several calls. As a result, the paper has been unable to learn why Parker has not been allowed to participate in SmartPay and why the two benefactors were rejected.

Both men say that they are still interested in helping Parker pay her bill and hope the utility will allow them to do so.

— Rebekah Gleaves

Former Bodyguard Now Heads Ex-Felon Program

Whoever said crime doesn’t pay never worked for the city of Memphis.

After serving five months in prison and five months under house arrest, former mayoral bodyguard Yalanda McFadgon was hired last July as a workforce development specialist for the city’s newly created youth opportunity program, a job which paid $34,940 a year. Since then McFadgon has changed jobs twice and now heads Mayor Willie Herenton’s Second Chance Ex-Felon Program, which finds employment for former convicts in the public and private sectors.

McFadgon has received two substantial raises since July, seeing her pay jump more than $14,000. Now making $49,000 annually, McFadgon is being paid $9,100 more than when she resigned from civil service in September 1998 to serve her prison sentence.

Before resigning, McFadgon was head of Mayor Willie Herenton’s Dignitary Protection Program, a bodyguard program established to protect the mayor.

She was convicted in federal court in March 1999 on three felony counts of concealing drug-dealing proceeds, interfering with a federal search, and conspiring to interfere. McFadgon had hidden money for her former boyfriend, drug dealer Calvin “Six-Nine” McKinley, and then attempted to have her 16-year-old niece hide the money for her in a high school locker.

Prior to entering the Dignitary Protection Program, McFadgon worked in several divisions of the Memphis Police Department. She began working in the City Hall bureau in January 1995 and moved to the mayor’s office bureau in November 1995.

While working in the mayor’s office, McFadgon saw her pay increase more than $9,000, including a $9,204 raise when she began working with the Dignitary Protection Program. She later received two pay deductions totaling $3,889 then got another raise of $1,897.

In June of last year, Mayor Herenton appeared before the Memphis City Council to promote the Second Chance Ex-Felon Program. As part of his presentation he distributed a booklet which contained three letters from persons who had varying criminal records and were then seeking employment. Among these was a letter from McFadgon.

The city of Memphis Records Office confirmed that the other two letter writers had not been hired by the city.

McFadgon could not be reached for this story and Mayor Herenton declined comment. — Rebekah Gleaves

Boardwalk Allows Access To Wolf River Floodplain

Perched safely above the delicate Wolf River floodplain swamp, students from St. George’s Day School spotted a water moccasin glide by on a recent field trip to the William C. Clark Preserve.

The class was one of the first groups to experience a new boardwalk in Rossville, Tennessee, which allows visitors up-close access to a rare and remote ecosystem.

“Getting into an area like the Clark Preserve is difficult any time of year and that’s where the boardwalk comes in,” says Scott Davis, state director of the Nature Conservancy of Tennessee. “Wetlands are such special places and this is a safe way for everyone to enjoy it.”

From the 1,800-foot boardwalk, visitors can also see river otter, bobcat, coyote, giant woodpeckers, ducks, and owls along the river, says Naomi Van Tol of the Wolf River Conservancy. Built by the Nature Conservancy, the boardwalk was constructed without the use of heavy equipment, which would have meant the loss of hundreds of trees and changed the water flow.

The boardwalk, located about a half hour east of Memphis, allows visitors to experience the upper Wolf River, which Van Tol says has been spared from channelization or significant pollution. The river is not so clean closer to home. From Germantown Parkway to the Mississippi River, because of residual pollution, fish caught in the Wolf River are not safe to eat, she says. — Andrew Wilkins

School Board Seeks More Info On Testing

With protests against high-stakes testing continuing around the country, the Memphis City Schools board voted last week to see if there was another way.

The board unanimously passed a resolution asking Superintendent Johnnie Watson to get information on a holistic accountability system that would look at all aspects of the school district, not just test scores.

The resolution, proposed by Commissioners Sara Lewis and Wanda Halbert, stresses the fact that test scores highlight students’ deficiencies but fail to address how to fix the problems.

“We can’t just look at test scores. We can’t let test scores alone dictate what we’ll do,” said Lynette Tabor, president of the Memphis Education Association. “A well-rounded education is much more than just test scores.”

The national trend in education seems to be a centralization of power at the state level. As such, high-stakes testing, using one standardized test to determine any number of criteria affecting students, is gaining popularity. Proponents say that, like any other industry, the business of education needs numerical indicators. Opponents say that high-stakes testing discriminates against low-income, urban, and minority students and often results in schools teaching to the test — focusing only on the skills and information needed to pass the exams.

But one common aspect of the testing is its do-or-die mentality. Students in Louisiana are required to pass the LEAP test in 4th and 8th grades. Students who fail must be held back by state mandate. If they fail the test a second time, the 4th-grade students are allowed to advance to the 5th grade, while second-year 8th-graders must either re-enroll in 8th grade for the third time or enter a vocational program.

In California, a state reward program gives a bonus to all the employees of schools that show improvement on the state’s Stanford 9 test.

In Tennessee, high school students have to pass the TCAP in order to graduate, but beginning in the fall of 2001, high school freshmen will have to pass Gateway Exams in algebra, English, and biology.

The Memphis resolution asks that the superintendent’s finding be presented to the board before the next school year begins.

“We want everybody accountable: the teachers, the parents, the community,” said Halbert. “You can’t expect students to be accountable if the teachers aren’t, and you can’t expect the teachers to be if the principals aren’t, and you can’t expect the principals to be unless the district is.” — Mary Cashiola

Last Place On Earth Club To Close

Last Place on Earth, the music club at 345 Madison Avenue that has served as one of the city’s prime venues for metal, punk, and indie rock shows, will close at the end of May, according to owner Chris Walker.

Walker opened the club in October 1999 after previously operating the similarly booked Barristers from 1994 to 1997. “I’m tired,” he says. “It’s a lot of responsibility and I have another job . Last year we were breaking even and even making money. But lately I’ve been losing money.”

The club took a hit with a rash of band cancellations over the past few months and lost money recently on what Walker describes as a poorly attended but otherwise well-done metal festival. The losses from that event put the club in a financial hole just as a large deposit was due for a Bad Brains reunion show scheduled for June 15th. The Bad Brains show has been cancelled.

“I don’t feel bad about it,” Walker says. “We got to do some really cool things.” He cites a post-Pyramid concert last fall with Sonic Youth and Eddie Vedder, a one-year birthday party with indie band Modest Mouse, and various Grifters shows as among the club’s biggest.

Last Place on Earth’s current soundman, Stephen Shoemaker, is negotiating to buy the club, so there is a possibility that it will reopen under new ownership.

— Chris Herrington

MLGW Employees Get Bonus While Memphians Pay Bills

The Memphians who got the most help paying their utility bills this winter may have been the utility’s own employees. In recent weeks all of Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s approximately 2,600 employees received a $1,000 bonus, for a total of about $2.6 million paid out by the utility.

MLGW’s Mike Magness, vice president of human resources, refused to comment to the Flyer but faxed a description of “Power Pay,” the program through which the bonuses were distributed.

According to the fax, Power Pay “is an employee incentive program designed to assist the Division in achieving strategic objectives in customer relations, employee health and safety, and cost saving efficiency.”In 2000 “employee innovation stimulated by Power Pay brought about improvements in processes and resulted in considerable savings.”

However, most Memphians probably didn’t notice these “savings” this year, at least not this winter, when utility bills tripled and quadrupled across the city.

Richard Freudenberg, plant manager for Fineberg Packing Company, Inc., in North Memphis, says his company is still coping with this winter’s bills. Fineberg, a meat-packing company, uses natural gas to power much of its plant operations.

“In a small, family-owned company like this, those high bills damn near broke us,” says Freudenberg. “We went from our bills being $32,000 a month last year to $72,000 a month this year. Even now our bills aren’t back to normal. They’re still about two and half times what they normally are.”

Freudenberg says that Fineberg Packing Company, which has been in North Memphis for 62 years, may have to close its doors for good due to this winter’s bills. With a hefty MLGW balance still hanging over their heads, Fineberg isn’t in the clear yet.

“[MLGW)] sent us a cut-off notice and I had to do a little politicking to keep from being cut off,” says Freudenberg. “Now they want us to pay $10,000 every Friday until we get caught up. But we’re not caught up yet.”

In the meat business, where profit margins linger around the single digits, an extra $10,000 a week isn’t easy to come by. Unfortunately, Fineberg Packing Company isn’t alone in its struggle to pay off their winter gas bill.

La Montagne Natural Food Restaurant on Park Avenue was hit so hard by this winter’s bills that the restaurant is now closed on Mondays.

“We decided to close on Mondays after we received our December bill,” says La Montagne general manager Terry Cox. “That bill pretty much doubled and the next bill was the same.”

Cox, who has followed the national energy crisis closely, fears that the predicted summer electricity crisis won’t help the restaurant’s situation. He doesn’t know when they will be open on Mondays again.

“We’re still closed on Mondays,” says Cox. “It was a temporary move directly related to our utility bills. We don’t know when we will be able to be open on Mondays again.”

And, while the winter gas crunch didn’t mean much to the animals, even the Memphis Zoo — and its patrons — are paying up.

A number of factors, including the high utility bills, caused the zoo to increase adult and senior admission prices by $1. While the largest factor in the zoo s financial woes was decreased attendance, high gas bills certainly didn t help.

Basically, we have 3,000 mouths to feed, says Carrie Strehlau, a communications specialist for the Memphis Zoo. This past winter was extremely difficult for us. With our attendance down and our utility bills up, we had to have more money.

As did those 2,600 MLGW employees. While Magness fax states that the utility has used similar gain share programs since 1988, inside sources at MLGW tell the Flyer that the utility instituted a specific gain share program unsuccessfully in 1988 and then discontinued the program because it proved to be ineffective.

Magness fax does not say when the Power Pay program began, and MLGW representatives did not respond to the Flyer s request for this date. Sources tell the Flyer that the program was originally instituted to reward specific departments for superior performance, but the program now flatly rewards all employees regardless of their department s performance. In addition, these sources say that the checks were supposed to be distributed in January, but the utility waited until April because of public grumbling over the high winter bills.

Two weeks ago the Flyer reported that due to numerous factors, Memphians paid their highest gas bills ever.

?Rebekah Gleaves

CA Plans Layoffs; Guild Urges Buyouts

The Commercial Appeal recently notified 16 newspaper employees they will be laid off in the coming weeks.

Seven of those employees are members of the Memphis Newspaper Guild-CWA, which covers workers in the areas of editorial, advertising, business office, housekeeping (custodial services), general mechanical, and transportation.

“It’s unfortunate that anyone is ever laid off,” says Lela Garlington, newspaper guild president. “Except for when the Press-Scimitar closed we have had very few layoffs. I am glad that we haven’t seen as many layoffs as other newspaper chains are facing.”

In accordance with their contracts, employees who will be losing their jobs will receive one week’s pay for every six months of service to the company for up to 42 weeks. This money is deducted from the former employees’ pension plans and as such it is subject to tax penalties for early withdrawal if it is not reinvested. Those employees will also receive all due vacation pay.

“To the CA‘s credit,” Garlington adds, “for months now, rather than laying more people off, they have simply not filled positions that have been vacated.”

The guild has asked The Commercial Appeal management to follow the lead of the Cincinnati Post and consider the possibility of voluntary buyouts. These would eliminate the need for layoffs by allowing employees who have devoted a certain number of years to the company the option of having their contracts bought outright. According to a newsletter distributed by the guild, the CA considers this course of action to be a legal liability, though they have not ruled it out entirely.

The guild’s newsletter also states that managing editor Henry Stokes and chief counsel Warren Funk of the CA told guild officials that the layoffs were due to “declining ad sales, flat circulation figures, and a bleak economic forecast.” There was also an indication from the guild that additional staff cuts might be forthcoming.

Information provided by Media Marketing Consultants, Inc., shows that from January to March 2001 the CA has improved on the previous year’s advertising sales. The report shows that in that period the newspaper sold 53,244 column-inches of display advertising space, an improvement of 5,724 column-inches over the previous year’s figures.

The Commercial Appeal did not return calls regarding this story. — Chris Davis

Theft Victim: “Please Return My Medication”

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something … stolen? That’s not how the rhyme is supposed to go, but that’s what happened to one Memphis newlywed.

After her wedding on Saturday, April 21st, while she and her husband were staying at the French Quarter Suites in Midtown, the woman — who wishes to remain anonymous — had her truck broken into. The thieves nabbed wedding presents and money for her honeymoon, which has now been postponed because of the theft.

Also stolen was medication used to treat the woman’s diabetes and epilepsy. Along with the medication were a pair of prescription shaded reading glasses that allow her to read, since the black-and-white contrast of text can bring on a seizure. The woman says the cost of the medication, which was stored in prescription bottles, was $3,200 for the four-month supply.

The woman is a senior at the University of Memphis studying special education and history and works as an intern at Memphis Goodwill. Neither her student status nor her job offers medical insurance, leaving her little recourse in getting more medication.

Her main desire is to have the medication returned to her as soon as possible. The pills cannot be used recreationally and might be dangerous if consumed. If anyone knows of their whereabouts or has information relating to the stolen medication, please contact the Memphis Police Department’s auto-theft division at 545-5200. — Chris Przybyszewski

City Schools Going Back To Basics

The Memphis City Schools haVE quietly made a fundamental change in the way reading is taught in the elementary grades.

Beginning this fall, all city elementary schools will use the same set of readers and workbooks. The way reading is taught currently varies from school to school and sometimes even from classroom to classroom in the same grade in the same school.

The new materials were unveiled last week at the MCS Teaching and Learning Academy. The textbooks, published by Scott Foresman, were adopted after a six-month review by principals, teachers, and school board members. They might remind some baby boomer parents of the sort of reading materials used in the Fifties and Sixties, when phonics and “the workbook” were staples of elementary education.

Why is something so retro potentially so revolutionary? Because under former Superintendent Gerry House, MCS adopted something called site-based management which let schools basically call their own shots by choosing from 18 different options.

“The district has an adopted text but it’s been pretty much a free-for-all as to what people really have been using,” says Dr. Susan Dold, English/Language Arts facilitator in the Office of Student Standards, in the current issue of the MCS publication Teaching.

The new reading program is supposed to do two things. By standardizing the curriculum, it recognizes that many children attend more than one elementary school because of the optional program, open enrollment, and general student mobility. In the current system, some students had trouble adapting to new schools and new reading programs. And teachers and administrators found it hard to measure progress because there were so many different methods in use.

The second main feature is close correlation with the Terra Nova standardized test given to all elementary and middle-school students. The test is the basis for the scores by which individual students, schools, and school districts are measured. The low performance of MCS on the test has been widely publicized, and Superintendent Johnnie B. Watson vowed to do something about it when he took over last year. Implementing a systemwide curriculum change in less than a year is in itself considered something of an accomplishment in the school bureaucracy.

The reading selections for each grade range from easy to difficult so that teachers have some flexibility in gearing work to individual student abilities. Every student, however, gets a strong dose of the sort of test-taking skills used on the Terra Nova.

For example, sixth-graders read a passage called “A Trouble-Making Crow” then pick the sentence that does not support the statement “Crows are very secretive” and make predictions about what will happen next in the story. There are also exercises in drawing conclusions, summarizing, separating fact from opinion, and other skills.

Many reading teachers already do that, but the new program will make the process more systematic. Ironically, some of the city schools with the highest standardized test scores, such as Rozelle Elementary and Grahamwood Elementary, allow teachers to do the most free-lancing. — John Branston

School Board Debates Cell Phones, Safety

Student safety seemed to be the theme during student night at Monday’s Memphis City Schools board meeting.

Groups of students, led by their district’s student advisory board member, raised concerns about textbooks, lack of higher-level classes, and cafeteria food.

“Some things never change,” board president Barbara Prescott told the students about their cafeteria complaints.

But some things have. Five of the nine student advisory groups told the board they were concerned with student safety, specifically that metal detectors in district schools needed to be used more effectively and consistently.

Later the board looked at a resolution proposed by Commissioner Patrice Robinson regarding the board’s zero-tolerance policy on electronic devices. Currently the possession of a beeper, pager, or cellular phone results in an automatic three-day board suspension; Robinson’s resolution would have made the offense using a cellular phone rather than possessing one.

Although most of the board agreed that cell phones should not be used or even present in the classroom, the issue became divided over cell phones at after-school activities.

But Commissioner Lora Jobe wondered if having cell phones would make campuses less safe.

“I know it’s old-fashioned, but parents who need their children can still call the office,” said Jobe.

“Safety is one of our main issues,” said Jobe, before observing that it would be best if students didn’t have a quick means to call someone else after an altercation.

“We don’t want a student with a phone to call their big brother and say, ‘Get down here and bring your gun,'” she said.

The board decided to refer the resolution to an ad hoc committee. —Mary Cashiola

E-Commerce Firms Have Mixed Success Here

In the tumultuous world of e-commerce, with “dot-coms” closing around the country, some local firms are doing well while others are experiencing setbacks.

In recent years, firms Barnesandnoble.com, ToysRus.com, PlanetRx.com, and Hallmark-flowers.com have called America’s Distribution Center home. The presence of these new businesses has changed the economic landscape of Memphis.

“I think that what is going on in Memphis right now is that companies that are delivering services are in line with what Memphis’ strengths are,” says Howard Zimmerman, vice president of dotLogix, a provider of business-to-business e-commerce help for both software and distribution.

Memphis’ strength, according to Zimmerman, is distribution between businesses as provided by such mega-companies as FedEx. Firms like those, according to Zimmerman, are doing well in the new e-commerce world.

Others haven’t fared as well. “There are a lot of business-to-consumer applications [e.g., ToysRus.com] that have experienced setbacks and have unfortunately closed,” he says. “That’s part of the business cycle and not out of the ordinary.” This leads Zimmerman to believe that Memphis is “not as susceptible to the market” as other cities with dot.coms providing their economic infrastructure.

Some area businesses are feeling the sting of the new economy. While Barnesandnoble.com and Hallmark-flowers.com have experienced growth, ToysRus.com will soon be closing its distribution site in Memphis.

Jeanne Meyer, vice president of corporate communications for ToysRus.com, says that the company will hand over its online operations and distribution to Amazon.com. ToysRus.com has since moved most of its inventory from its one distribution site, located in Memphis, to Amazon.com’s seven distribution sites.

The Memphis site currently still ships out ToysRus.com’s line of baby products but is scheduled to shut down “in about five weeks,” according to Meyer. She does say that there are efforts to keep the Memphis site open by offering it to other companies. However, the company has already laid off a number of workers, leaving only a “skeleton crew” here.

— Chris Przybyszewski

Soulsville Breaks Ground At Stax Site

After forming two years ago to build the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, a music academy, and performance center on the abandoned grounds of Stax Records, the nonprofit Soulsville USA is ready to break ground.

The organization will kick off construction of the project on Friday, April 20th, at 9 a.m. with a “Ground Shakin’ Ground Breakin'” at the Stax site at 926 E. McLemore. The event is free and open to the public.

“We hope that all of Memphis will come into Soulsville USA to experience the community and what we’re doing here,” says Soulsville executive director Deanie Parker. “We’re going to wake the community up with some familiar Stax hits.”

Key figures in the development project and in the history of Stax records will be introduced at the groundbreaking. Students from a recent Stax music academy project, the Stax Academy Rhythm Section, will make their performance debut backing up singers from the LeMoyne-Owen College choral program and former Soul Children singer Anita Louis. Visitors will also be able to see an artist’s rendering of the completed project.

Actual construction should begin soon after Friday’s groundbreaking, and Parker says, “We are hopeful that sometime in 2002 we’ll have yet another celebration, and that is the grand opening.” According to Parker, the timing of this groundbreaking results from a variety of factors, including reaching a certain funding level, architectural readiness, and the recent unanimous approval of the project by the Land Use Control Board.

Soulsville has currently raised $14 million of the project’s $20 million price, which includes an operational endowment for the organization. “We’re stepping out on faith somewhat here,” says Parker. “We had some discussions with the board about whether to wait for all of the funding or go ahead and stay on schedule. Based on a readiness recommendation from the design team and our current level of funding, we decided to raise the rest of the money during the building phase.” The current $14 million has come from government sources, foundations, and anonymous donors. Last month Soulsville announced a Fund Development campaign to privately raise the remaining $6 million.

“We’ve got some wonderful financial supporters who are committed, and the community has not been given an opportunity to do their part, to express how delighted they are that Memphis is finally doing something to showcase this great cultural legacy,” says Parker.

— Chris Herrington

Council Mulls Hunting On Presidents Island

Memphians who might never have gone to Presidents Island before may have a reason to visit it in the near future. A resolution sponsored by Councilman Brent Taylor to allow primitive firearms hunting on the island will be presented before the Memphis City Council in upcoming weeks.

According to Taylor, “primitive firearms” primarily applies to muzzle-loaded guns — that is, guns that require the shooter to load gunpowder and a bullet in the muzzle of the gun in order to fire it.

“Muzzle-loaded guns don’t have the same range as rifles,” says Taylor. “The range on primitive firearms is only about 150 yards, so hunters won’t run the same risk of shooting someone who is out of their sight as they would with a rifle.”

The county commission and the city council have already approved resolutions permitting archery and bow hunting on Presidents Island. Hunters will be allowed to bow hunt on the island beginning this fall. If the present resolution is passed, primitive firearms hunting will not be permitted until the fall of 2004.

Pete Aviotti, a member of the Memphis/Shelby County Port Commission and Mayor Willie Herenton’s special assistant, says that the hunting seasons will not overlap.

“Archery season is longer,” says Aviotti. “It starts at the end of September and runs through part of October. Primitive firearms season doesn’t begin until later in October and runs through November.”

According to Aviotti, only about 20 hunters each year will be issued permits to hunt on the island using muzzle-loaded weapons.

“We’ll issue a notice and then everyone can send in a postcard with their name on it and we’ll have a drawing to issue permits to about 20 hunters,” says Aviotti.

Taylor, a self-described “gun advocate,” says he decided to sponsor the resolution to help the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) combat the current overpopulation of deer on Presidents Island.

— Rebekah Gleaves

Restoration Hardware Closes In Saddle Creek

Want the perfect Victorian clear-glass door knobs or a 20th-century heating register cover? Restoration Hardware in Saddle Creek could probably help, but after May, shoppers will have to resort to the catalog.

The upscale furnishings retailer, one of the larger stores at the Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown, will close May 12th after almost three years in Memphis.

Store manager Vicki Harrison would not comment on the specifics of the closing, though she did say that the reason “was a combination of things.”

According to her, the store was doing brisk business and is doing even brisker business now.

“Things are going fast, especially since we just found out on Friday,” said Harrison. Right now, the store’s goods are 20 percent off and will continue to be discounted even more in the coming weeks.

Five other Restoration Hardware stores are closing nationwide, the first of which will be the company’s store in New York City on April 28th.

The California-based chain was founded by Stephen Gordon in 1980, four years after he began restoring his Queen Anne house. Company lore says that he spent days hunting for authentic hardware and, after talking to other people going through the same frustration, opened a store of his own.

Restoration Hardware has faced difficulties in the last two years. Gary Friedman, considered the brain behind Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn, was named CEO of the company in March. At the time, Friedman talked about possibly paring down the mix of goods the store carries.

But if the corporate office wanted to close the store at Saddle Creek, they weren’t the only ones.

Cindy McCord, regional manager for Saddle Creek, says, “We initiated it. Restoration Hardware is not performing well at a number of locations around the country. We worked it all out.” Poag McEwen Lifestyles Shopping Centers, the company that owns Saddle Creek, has already signed a new retailer for the space.

McCord says Saddle Creek will announce in May who will take over the space and says, “They’re new to Memphis and they are a very big name.” Another new-to-Memphis retailer which will take over the space next to J. Crew will be announced later this week.

—Mary Cashiola

Flinn Shuffles Sports Talk Talent

Recently WMC-AM79 radio announced that it would be changing to an all-sports talk format. And while Bill Graffman, program director for Flinn Broadcasting, which up until now monopolized sports-talk radio in Memphis, doesn’t really view WMC as competition, a number of changes are being made at Flinn’s Sports56 and AM1210 stations. Graffman says of WMC, “They are going to have more national shows while we will still cover a lot of local events. It’s not going to affect our programming content.”

As of April 30th, the Rainman, whose gaming advice show has been a morning fixture on Flinn’s FM sports channel Sports56 WHBQ, is moving to the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. time slot at the station’s AM affiliate 1210. .

Pete Cordelli, assistant coach for Christian Brothers High School, will keep the 6 to 8 a.m. time slot on 56 and will be joined by weekend sports jock Chris Vernon.

Press Box, the noon to 2 p.m. show on 1210 AM, has been canceled. Press Box host Jake Lawhead will be moving to Sports56 to join Dana Kirk, the controversial former basketball coach at the University of Memphis.

“There are two shows, one with Greg Gaston and Michael Eves, which is very informative but dry,” says Lawhead, “and then there is the Jeff and Jack show which is like Andy Kaufman doing sports radio. We want to be somewhere in between.” — Chris Davis

Update: “Perfect Storm” Continues For MLGW Customers

The lights in Mamie Parker’s house are on, but she doesn’t know for how long. The 34-year-old single mother of three was mentioned in last week’s cover story in the Flyer because she was not able to participate in any of Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s bill payment programs.

Parker told MLGW representatives about her 19-month-old son Keith’s severe asthma and his reliance on an electricity-powered breathing machine during attacks. Knowing this, MLGW nevertheless has already turned off her power once and has told Parker that it will be turned off again if she doesn’t pay the $400 balance soon.

Things haven’t gotten any better for Parker since last week’s story. When she visited MLGW’s offices again to ask about participating in one of the utility’s payment plans, Parker was once more told that the plans do not exist.

“I spoke with one of the counselors there in the office and she said that she really can’t stop it from happening,” says Parker. “She said that if they’re going to cut off my power, they’ll cut it off anyway.”

Councilman Rickey Peete, who helped the utility craft the payment plans, is calling for MLGW to be investigated.

“I think it is a travesty of justice for a utility to make a commitment to assist customers with the programs it agreed to implement and then abdicate its responsibility to implement those programs,” says Peete. “There needs to be an investigation by the appropriate authorities not only as to the programs but as to the validity of the ‘energy crisis’ at its purported extremities.”

Problems with the payment plans, and several other factors, were highlighted in last week’s Flyer. The story discussed the “perfect storm” of events at MLGW this winter which caused Memphians to pay their highest utility bills ever. The other factors detailed in the story were:

· MLGW billed its customers 25 percent more than the national average for gas this past winter. When asked by the Flyer to explain the overbilling, MLGW officials could not justify the amount.

· The Purchase Gas Adjustment (PGA), used to determine the amount MLGW bills for gas, allows the utility to adjust the amount customers are billed up or down to cover the utility’s gains and losses, alleviating a major incentive for MLGW to purchase gas at the lowest prices.

· MLGW executives ignored the warnings of Walter Zimmerman, a national expert paid by the utility to consult on these matters. Zimmerman warned in November 1998 there would be a national gas crisis this past winter. MLGW executives did not take his advice to secure enough gas futures contracts to insulate the utility from this year’s rising gas prices.

· MLGW neglected to warn customers about the higher bills in time for customers to plan. Other gas companies, like Mississippi Valley Gas, began warning customers in September that their bills could be double and triple what they were last year. MLGW did not issue an official warning until January, days before customers would begin receiving the high bills.

· Many of those responsible for gas purchasing and supply planning for MLGW have very little experience in those fields. Herman Morris, an attorney appointed by Mayor Herenton to be president of the utility, had experience only as legal counsel before taking the top post. Since 1996, Morris has, in turn, replaced the experienced executives and managers with less experienced ones. Insiders insist that cronyism, rather than merit, controls promotions.

· Henry Nickell, formerly the department manager responsible for gas purchasing, left the utility in April 2000 and filed a lawsuit against MLGW alleging that Morris and other executives took specific and dramatic actions to make it impossible for Nickell to do his job. Nickell was replaced with Lee Smart, who had no prior experience in gas purchasing. — Rebekah Gleaves

Chamber’s “Conservative” NBA Impact: $880 Million

Not wanting FedEx to be the only one to throw around big numbers in Memphis’ bid for an NBA team, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce did its own number crunching on a team’s overall impact to the city and came up with a whopping $880 million.

Larry Henson, the chamber’s vice president for research and the man who led the study, calls the number “conservative.”

According to Henson, the chamber decided not to use so-called multipliers such as gate receipts, broadcast revenues, tourism growth, concessions, parking, or area retail shopping in its research. Instead, he says, “We decided to make this experiential instead of forecast,” using provable numbers based on the other cities with existing franchises, such as the Charlotte Hornets, one of the two franchises applying to Memphis for relocation for the 2001-2002 NBA season.

Those multipliers, according to Henson, can double or triple the estimated economic impact. However, they are also subject to debate by experts. Henson says, “That’s one reason we did not want to do that. What if we did, and it still doesn’t answer the questions? We don’t need to inflate. The numbers are enormous.” As noted below, the chamber did use one such multiplier in arena construction economic impact.

The chamber based its impact study on a variety of contributing factors. One is a $48 million direct team impact which includes contributions from both home and visiting teams, referees, and scouts in terms of money they spend in Memphis, as well as the money spent by those attending the game. The chamber based this estimate on the numbers of the Charlotte Hornets, adjusted for inflation.

The second is a one-time arena construction impact, assuming a $250 million arena in downtown Memphis. The chamber estimates that building the arena will generate over $432 million for the city in terms of paying contractors and builders. The chamber did use one multiplier here, supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Henson says the numbers generated “specifically … work for Shelby County.” Included in that $432 million is the city’s stated goal of 25 percent minority business contribution, generating $58 million in that sector.

Another is an estimated $165 million in capital improvements to the land surrounding the new stadium. The chamber estimated this number based on improvements around AutoZone Park, which equaled roughly 66 percent of its total construction costs.

The study also focused on the amount of money that the team could bring into Memphis and lure away from Tunica. The chamber took the amount that the casinos win from gamblers as well as the amount each person spends in non-gambling costs (e.g., food, tickets for shows) — an estimated $10 a person. That number equals $1.3 million a day going outside of Shelby County for entertainment. The chamber estimates that if the team can “recapture” 10 percent of that amount during the 41 home-game dates, then the city would take in $5.3 million a year.

In addition to drawing money from Tunica, the chamber estimates that visitors coming into Shelby County from surrounding states will generate $16 million annually in terms of hotel and food costs, other entertainment costs, and merchandise.

Finally, the chamber added $213 million in earnings from national and international TV, radio, and newspaper coverage, hits on the NBA.com Web site, licensed merchandise, and total image/name recognition value.

Since learning of Memphis’ potential for an NBA team, debate has focused on the relative economic benefits versus the costs of building a new arena for that team. The NBA pursuit team, headed up by J.R. “Pitt” Hyde III, has been wooing public and private support for this venture and has achieved mixed results. While local and state government leaders have expressed guarded enthusiasm, there has also been a call for hard numbers on the financing of an arena as well as the economic impact of the team.

Memphis NBA hopefuls now wait for official word from the league’s board of governors, who are expected to accept Memphis as a relocation city and to name which franchise will be permitted to move here.

— Chris Przybyszewski

City Schools Switch Information Systems

Memphis City Schools associate superintendent Bob Archer and his

staff have settled on a take-no-prisoners approach for the district’s new computer

system. It needs to be ready by August 2001 and he says it will be.

WinSchool, the new student information system that has been allocated

$12.7 million for software, hardware, training, and support, replaces OSIRIS, the

DOS-based operating system the district has been using for more than 15 years. At a

Board of Education meeting April 2nd, OSIRIS was said to be awkward and currently

on life support, having been upgraded several times over the years.

The state is requiring that school systems have an operating system in place by

August that is able to send data such as

attendance information, class size, and teacher

certifications. OSIRIS lacks those capabilities.

But Archer cautions against saying the state is the reason for the switch.

“The first priority is for the district

to have a working student managing system,” says Archer. “Just because we had to do

the state reports is not why we bought it. It’s because OSIRIS had become obsolete.”

Not only does it lack the ability to transfer student data even between schools

in the district, but NCS Pearson, the company that recently bought OSIRIS, has

stopped supporting the version that MCS has in place.

After looking at several options, including designing their own system, the

MCS staff decided it could not be done in time to meet the August deadline. When

superintendent Johnnie Watson took over last spring

on an interim basis, funding was being identified, but the project itself had not yet begun.

The data requested by the state, attendance figures in particular, will be used

to determine funding for the district, making meeting the August deadline crucial.

The data will also be used to decide if the school systems are in compliance on issues like

class size and teacher certifications. If they violate state-set guidelines, school systems

can lose funding.

But the system will be ready. Archer says they are currently on schedule and plan

to stay that way.

At the April 2nd board meeting, commissioners worried that the computer might

not be ready in time and asked Archer what the district’s plan B was. Archer replied:

“Well, paper, but like I said, that’s not an option.”

Twelve pilot schools will be sending the information to the state later this spring.

It remains to be seen if the state’s system will be able to handle it. —

Mary Cashiola

Despite Rezoning, Cordova Winery Says It Won’t Close

After submitting a controversial rezoning plan to the Shelby County

Commission, Cordova Cellars is seeing an unexpected development.

“People keep coming up to me and saying, ‘I’m so sorry the winery is closing,'”

says owner Mary Birks.

But the winery, which applied for rezoning from agricultural use last September,

is not closing. Nor, says Birks, is the land scheduled to be developed anytime soon.

“We’re not planning on development

right now,” says Birks. “We just wanted to have

a plan drawn up so when the time came …”

After rezoning, the winery land could be used for single-family

residences, apartment complexes, and commercial buildings. That plan drew

complaints from local community members because of the increased number of students

it would bring to already-full schools.

“We’re preparing for the future,” says

Birks. “I wouldn’t have processed all the grapes I

did last year if we were closing this month.”

Although the winery used to grow its

own grapes, the vines were pulled out three years ago because of disease. Now the grapes

come from Middle Tennessee, Arkansas, and Washington

state.

According to Birks, the new plan does not encompass the winery itself and

tries to take into account the surrounding zoning: large residential lots,

commercial buildings, and some light industrial

across the street.

“Things are being built up so much around us. [Development is] inevitable

down the line,” says Birks. “Right now we’re

like this little island.”

— Mary Cashiola

Women’s Football Comes To Memphis

Not as publicized as Memphis’ other new professional sports leagues,

the Memphis Maulers — a team organizing to play in the Independent Women’s

Football League (IWFL) — are holding tryouts at East High School on Poplar Avenue.

The IWFL is a nonprofit organization, with each team under independent

ownership and management. The fledgling IWFL hopes to gain status among its

sister leagues: the National Women’s Football League, the Women’s Professional

Football League, and the Women’s American Football League. Unlike those leagues,

the IWFL does not require a large franchise fee to start a team. The IWFL adheres

to NFL tackle football rules but uses a slightly smaller football. A

complete physical, including a pregnancy exam, is required of each player.

The Memphis Maulers join a league currently consisting of five teams, with

two other teams at the organizational stage as well. The regular season of the IWFL

began on March 31st and the first game will be played in Memphis on May 5th,

with the Maulers facing the Austin Outlaws. According to Maulers general

manager Tiffany Ross, the season will run until July 14th this year, but the first

season will consist only of scrimmages played on local fields.

The IWFL will charge for admission, with proceeds going to team operations

and then to local community organizations. A portion of the gate proceeds from

each game will go to a local charity. For more information on tryouts, contact Ross

at 458-0828. — Emily Bays

Public Works Makes Pothole Promise

Tired of hitting the same pothole day after day? You’re in luck. The

Department of Public Works is at your service, backed by a guarantee, no less. If

you report the location of a pothole before noon and it’s not fixed by 5 p.m. that same

day, you get to name that pothole.

Potholes are the unfortunate result of a cold and wet winter, explains Jerry

Collins, director of public works. This past

winter was especially bad.

On the first day of the challenge, Collins says 625 potholes were reported,

resulting in a number of potholes receiving names

that day. But one day recently, 101 potholes were reported and all of them were filled.

“We’re trying to exceed customer

expectations,” explains Collins. “If we don’t,

call us and we’ll do whatever we can to meet their needs.” To report a pothole, call

528-2911 and leave a good description of the location, ideally the street address

nearest to the pothole. The challenge is only good for reports received any weekday

before noon. — Emily Bays

TennCare Report Card Shows Deficiencies

The Comptroller of the Treasury Department of Tennessee issued a yearly

assessment of the TennCare program on March 30th. Its major findings pointed fingers at

TennCare’s leadership, undersized staff, mismanaged

information control, and lack of self-monitoring practices.

The TennCare program includes nearly 3 million Tennesseans who would not

otherwise benefit from medical insurance since

Tennessee formally withdrew from Medicare in 1994, a historic move at the time. According to

this most recent audit, the program “lacks

stable leadership.” In its seven-year history, the

program has had five directors and two acting directors. There has also been significant

turnover in other top divisions such as the

operations, budget, and finance. During the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the program saw four top

administrators resign, including program director Brian Lapps.

In addition to unstable leadership, the report says that TennCare has “inadequate

system and staff resources,” that the computer

information processing system is “complex …

outdated and inflexible,” and that “the

TennCare program is understaffed.” In one instance,

the audit notes that the program’s Division of Programs is staffed by only one person despite

the division’s responsibility for “the provision of

special services to children and seriously

mentally ill individuals.” A recent Associated Press

story reported that many mentally ill Tennesseans were hospitalized for too long or that they

were jailed unnecessarily due to the lack of

management by the TennCare system.

Also according to the audit, TennCare

showed a history of “inadequate monitoring,” since

the program lacks the ability to monitor itself,

and that TennCare “once again did not

adequately monitor the internal operations of the Bureau.”

In a written response included in the

audit, the TennCare management agreed with the conclusions, stating that measures have been

taken to improve these issues, though those

changes might take time. In TennCare’s defense, the

response reads, “It must be recognized that

major improvements in such a large and complex program cannot be accomplished in just a

few months, and it must be recognized that work on program improvements is made even

more challenging by the constantly changing landscape of TennCare [including] health plans

coming into and out of the program, court actions, provider concerns, etc. We believe the

activities of the past year have helped us move

forward.” Those activities include the hiring of

new director Mark Reynolds and the hiring of a manager of personnel who is addressing

the lack of staff in some areas and the mismanagement of personnel in others.

Manage-ment’s response also included the establishment of an on-site auditing office with

24 hired auditors. — Chris Przybyszewski

STCC Searches For New President

With 29 applicants in the pool, the presidential search advisory committee for

Southwest Tennessee Community College will begin

the process of picking one on Wednesday, April 11th.

The search committee is scheduled to meet for the first time that morning and decide on

a process to evaluate the candidates, as well as a schedule for future meetings.

Two of STCC’s current administrators are

vying for the position as the school’s first

permanent president: interim president Nathan L. Essex

and executive director of transition F. Ercille Hall

Williams. Other candidates include a vice

president for student affairs at Rutgers University, a

senior fellow at the University of Kentucky at

Lexington, and presidents from community colleges around the country.

A Tennessee Board of Regents staff member says that usually the search committee

meets and reduces the number of candidates to about 10 based on the candidates’

résumés, then conducts phone interviews to reduce

the number to five. The remaining candidates are then invited to the campus to meet with

the community.

Currently, the search is still open to

other candidates. — Mary Cashiola

Developer Sues Revelation Corporation

Not everyone gets to ride on Rusty Hyneman’s plane for free.

The developer filed a lawsuit in Chancery Court last week alleging that John Lowery

and Lowery’s Revelation Corporation owe him more than $56,000. According to the complaint

from Hyneman, who could not be reached for this

story, the debt was incurred after Lowery contracted

to use Hyneman’s private jet and pilots in the

spring of 1999 and then did not pay for the services.

Revelation Corporation is a privately

owned, for-profit corporation headquartered in Memphis whose owners include five of the

largest African-American church denominations in

the United States. The organization is similar to

a goods and services buying club for its African-American and Hispanic members.

Lowery, who heads the organization, does

not deny that Revelation Corporation owes the money.

“We do absolutely acknowledge the

debt,” says Lowery. “We hope to pay it in full

before we go to court.”

Revelation Corporation, also known as Revelation America, chartered the plane to take

several staff members on eight business trips.

Lowery says that when arranging travel for a number

of people, it is less expensive to charter a plane

than to buy commercial airline tickets for everyone.

He says his organization fell on hard times after

a partner in a credit card venture filed bankruptcy.

“We’re just a start-up company,”

says Lowery. “We had an interruption in our

cash flow because of our credit card business. I

do expect us to be caught up enough to pay this debt in full before we have to go to court.”

He also acknowledged that another, similar

lawsuit has been filed by WBT Media. According to Lowery, Revelation Corporation contracted

to buy advertising time from the company and then did not pay for the advertisements.

Hyneman is also asking that 18 percent interest be added to the $56,426.25

Revelation Corporation owes and that the company pay all costs associated with the collection

of the debt. — Rebekah Gleaves

Groups Push For More Recycled Paper from Staples, IP

At 100 Staples stores across the country, protesters gathered last week to call

attention to the impact paper production is having on Southeastern forests. While there are

no branches of the nation’s largest office supply chain

in the Memphis area, International Paper, the

world’s largest timber company, is the largest provider of

paper to Staples, meaning much of our region’s

timber goes to the 1,125 Staples stores around the world.

“The expansion of the paper industry

across Tennessee and throughout the Southern U.S. has

resulted in unprecedented levels of clear-cutting

and the conversion of native forests to pine

plantations,” says David Heeks, Tennessee organizer for the

Dogwood Alliance, a Southeastern environmental group.

The Dogwood Alliance and other environmental groups across the nation are calling

on Staples and IP to provide more recycled paper products in an effort to preserve

Southeastern forests.

Carl Gagliardi, director of environmental business services for IP, says his company

provides Staples with many recycled products and that all the wood fiber in their office paper

comes from sustainable managed plantations or

second- or third-growth forests in the Southeast.

Though not blaming IP directly, Heeks says he has too often seen Southeastern forests

destroyed and replaced with pine plantations. Heeks says one county in Tennessee had

12 percent of its native hardwood habitat cleared for pine plantations in a period of just 18 years.

Staples is working to provide more

recycled products, says Tom Nutile, Staples vice

president of public relations, and he says they are being

unfairly targeted simply because of their size.

As was done successfully against Lowe’s, the nation’s largest hardware store, Heeks

says environmental protesters are targeting the

top chain in a wasteful industry to pressure their suppliers to increase the use of recycled

goods industrywide. — Andrew Wilkins

Old Debate Continues on School Consolidation

While some Shelby County residents reacted negatively toward a proposed school consolidation bill last week, at least none of them, or their municipalities, threatened secession.

School consolidation has a controversial history in Shelby County. When the idea of joining the city and county school districts was considered more than 10 years ago, the mayors of Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, and Millington warned they would secede from the county if the two districts consolidated. The secession, had it occurred, would have created Neshoba, the first new county in Tennessee since 1869.

Luckily, then-county Mayor Bill Morris quieted supporters on both sides by forming a 62-member task force to study the districts’ options.

“We’ve been through studies before on this matter,” long-time Memphis City Schools board member Carl Johnson recalled early last week. “Consolidation didn’t mean a good thing in ’71, ’72, ’73, or through the ’80s.”

The 1990 threat of secession by the suburban mayors was the result of a 1988 proposal by J.C. Williams, then a member of the city school board, who thought the city and the county school systems should consolidate to unify funding.

But even before the task force could issue its suggestions, a deficit of $35 million in the city schools’ proposed budget reopened the school consolidation debate in 1991. The city school board decided to wait for the task force’s results before taking any action.

Eventually the task force came back with the solution of single-source funding under the Shelby County Commission, possibly setting up a central overseeing body, and creating five smaller districts. Ultimately tabled because of statewide education and tax reform, the idea of five school districts was not revisited.

The idea of limited consolidation, however, resurfaced in 1993, when it was mentioned by city Mayor Willie Herenton. Herenton had proposed an all-inclusive city-county consolidation, but his plan was rejected because of its various legal and political entanglements. Memphis would have had to surrender its charter and it could not do that without approval from the state legislature. Limited school consolidation was suggested as a way to slowly consolidate the city and the county, but it was never carried out.

“I feel like we’ve been talking about this issue forever,” Memphis City Schools board president Dr. Barbara Prescott said last week.

In 1998, the Memphis City Schools board passed a resolution to study the effects of consolidation on the schools, but the study somehow got lost in the shuffle. It was never presented or even conducted.

The Memphis City Schools board reissued the resolution February 19th so that they could take an educated stand on the issue. Three days later, the Shelby County Schools board, as well as many residents, made up their mind to oppose the measure.

A consolidation of the Memphis city and Shelby County school districts would create a system of 160,000-plus students, making it the 10th largest in the country.

Were the measure to pass, it would take effect September 2004.

And even if school consolidation doesn’t pass, proponents take heart: This probably won’t be the last time we hear about it.

— Mary Cashiola

Zoo Plans To Open New China Exhibit With or Without Pandas

Motorists driving down North Parkway near McLean cannot help but notice that a good chunk of the Memphis Zoo appears to have been flattened by a meteorite. While the reasons behind the clear-cut are not quite so unusual, they are pretty exotic in their own right.

Though the zoo officially broke ground for its forthcoming China Exhibit back in December, it has only recently begun to transform one of the oldest and most outdated portions of the zoo into a Chinese garden complete with a pagoda, stone bridge, and a number of wild animals that can’t be found outside of China. Featured animals will include Asian small-clawed otters, a species of monkey found only in China, Chinese goldfish, and pandas.

Well, maybe not pandas — at least, maybe not right away.

Visitors to the China exhibit will begin their tour by watching a film about panda conservation, and early press releases mentioned areas for viewing pandas up close. Still, there is no guarantee that the zoo will have the animals on display by the time the exhibit opens. In fact, there is no guarantee that it will have pandas at all. The zoo does have a letter of intent filed with the Chinese government and is presently working diligently to secure a pair of the endangered animals.

“We’ll open the exhibit with or without pandas,” says zoo spokesperson Carrie Strehlau. “After all, it’s about Chinese history, culture, and architecture, too. And there are other animals.”

According to Strehlau, obtaining pandas is extremely difficult since the animals are found only in China and are among the most endangered creatures in the world. “It’s very political,” she says. “It’s a question of conservation. You have to prove that you are capable of doing more than just putting these animals on display.”

Nevertheless, the zoo is confident that the exhibit, which is scheduled to open in Spring 2002, will eventually have pandas. “It’s just a matter of time,” Strehlau says. Zoo director Charles Brady was unavailable for comment. He’s currently in China. — Chris Davis

Galloway Fees Remain a Mystery

Playing golf on the renovated Galloway Golf Course will cost golfers more than it used to, but how much more remains to be seen.

Paul Evans, city golf operations administrator, told the Flyer that the exact fees have not yet been established.

“I can’t even speculate on what the fees will be,” says Evans. “I don’t think it’s going to be as much as some people think it will be. I think the increase will be moderate.”

When the city council approved $3.7 million in renovations for Galloway, it was estimated that fees would increase from 3 to 5 percent, or approximately $18 to $25. However, now that the renovations have begun, some, including city councilman John Vergos, doubt that the $18 fees will cover the debt. Vergos and some Galloway golfers speculate that the fees will more likely be in the $35 to $50 range to play 18 holes. This pricing is in line with what area public, non-municipal courses charge.

“I don’t know how you can spend almost $4 million on a golf course and not raise fees significantly,” said Vergos.

City Finance Director Mark Brown confirmed that Galloway will pay the principal and interest over 20 years and that studies conducted before construction showed that Galloway can repay the loan with only a modest increase in fees. The exact amount of increase, however, remains a mystery to everyone.

“The city provides park services for its citizens,” says Vergos. “I just don’t think the city should provide top-flight courses. I’m concerned that it will cut out the senior citizens and kids that would have played Galloway before.”

— Rebekah Gleaves

Death-Row Update: Workman Loses Last Appeal; West Is Tried For Competency

PHOTO AP

Philip Workman

Philip Workman’s only chance to live now rests with Governor Don Sundquist.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal that the death-row inmate was convicted on perjured testimony and that ballistics evidence suggested he did not kill a Memphis police officer in 1981. Sundquist can commute Workman’s sentence to life in prison, a decision the governor is taking what he calls “a reasonable amount of time” to make.

One month ago Workman was granted a stay of his scheduled January 30th execution date — a move by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals one day after a state paroles board voted unanimously not to recommend that Sundquist grant clemency. The board’s decision came after nearly 12 hours of testimony, which included lengthy debates about an autopsy X-ray which the defense says demonstrates that Workman’s bullets would not have caused the type of wounds the officer suffered.

The autopsy was not introduced as evidence in Workman’s 1982 trial. A reference to the document was found by the defense as they were perusing paperwork from the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s office. Workman’s attorneys claim that the X-ray was purposefully omitted.

Workman’s attorney Jefferson Dorsey says he is “more than a little bit surprised” and had “high hopes that the Supreme Court would step in.”

Dorsey says he believed that the highest court would hear Workman’s case because of a tied ruling delivered by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals last fall during a rare en banc (entire bench) hearing. All 14 justices split their decision to grant Workman an evidentiary hearing along party lines, with seven Democratic-appointed justices voting in favor and seven Republican-appointed justices voting to deny the inmate a forum. It was the 6th Circuit that stepped in the day after Workman’s January 26th clemency hearing to issue the prisoner’s current stay.

“It’s just an extreme letdown,” says Dorsey.

The Tennessee Supreme Court could set a date for execution any day.

Late last week, U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier stayed death-row inmate Stephen Michael West’s execution until June 15th.

Longtime West attorney Roger Dickson of Chattanooga says that a hearing has been set in Knoxville for June 13th to decide if the prisoner is making a “knowledgeable and intelligent” decision not to file any more of his allotted habeus corpus appeals. West purposefully did not choose to pursue his appeals and told Riverbend Maximum Security Institution officials that he wished to die in the electric chair.

But Saturday Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers filed a petition to proceed with the execution. The petition, arguing that West is competent and has given no indication of mental deficiency, was filed with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. There is no word yet on whether the request will be granted.

But opponents of the death penalty, most vocally the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, stated that they believed the execution to be “state-assisted suicide.” West declined after being asked three times by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell to explain why he’s chosen not to pursue his federal appeals for an expedient death in the electric chair — a relic that was tuned up 10 years ago but hasn’t been used since 1960.

Campbell assigned Dickson to this portion of West’s defense. The inmate’s case is Dickson’s first death-row litigation since 1979. — Ashley Fantz

Fighting Words Turn To Bluster, Backtracking

The fight between Alabama football booster Logan Young and University of Tennessee booster Roy H. Adams looks more like a farce, at least temporarily, as both men backtracked last week.

Young said two weeks ago that he plans to sue Adams for alleged defamatory comments on the Internet. Such a lawsuit could test the limits of Internet freedom of speech and, possibly, help get to the bottom of the Memphis football recruiting rumors.

But now the Young-Adams fight looks more like a spitwad war, with both men saying, in effect, they had their fingers crossed.

Young will wait until the NCAA finishes the investigation of the Alabama football program announced last Thursday. If the investigation leaves him and Alabama unscarred, as Young hopes it will, then he may not “stir it all up again” with a libel suit, Young said. A damning investigation, on the other hand, would undermine a libel suit.

Many skeptics have doubted all along that Young would follow through. In a radio interview with the Flyer last week, Birmingham Post-Herald sports columnist Paul Finebaum said Young is “famous for threatening to sue.”

If so, the threat seems to have gotten the attention of Adams, the chatty Memphis booster known as “Tennstud” on the Internet. He posted messages suggesting someone else could have used his computer to say those bad things about Young.

“In fact, my computer is in an open area in my library and numerous friends have lurked and some have even posted using my name,” he said in one Internet message on the Gridscape Web site. “Under Gridscape, tacked to a shelf, I have left on an index card my pass word for Gridscape!”

Fellow posters greeted this with a razzing (“As the Dud backstrokes,” began one), giving the whole bizarre affair the tone of a schoolyard shoving match between two boys who don’t really want to fight while the crowd eggs them on.

In an interview with the Flyer, Adams owned up to the mystery-poster posting.

“I’ve been real careful in making posts about the Memphis situation that I didn’t use [Young’s] name in a defamatory or mean-spirited manner,” said Adams. “I’ve tried to be careful not to open myself to any libel or defamation suits.”

Young’s lawyer, Louis Allen, says they are “still looking into all aspects and going ahead with our investigation.” Former Shelby County District Attorney General John Pierotti, now in private practice, is also working for Young and Allen, “doing whatever they ask me to.”

Young has been repeatedly mentioned in Internet postings and news reports in connection with an alleged $200,000 payment to high school football coach Lynn Lang for delivering player Albert Means to Alabama. Young and Lang have denied that there was any such payment.

The source of the allegation is former coach Milton Kirk. According to Adams, Kirk blurted out the story last October to a crowd of people, including Adams.

“I know a dozen or more people heard it that night,” Adams said, but it was January before Kirk went public with his story in The Commercial Appeal. Adams denies speculation that he paid Kirk to put the story out in order to hurt Alabama’s recruiting.

“The only advice I have ever given Kirk was to keep it quiet, and that shows how much influence I have on him,” said Adams.

Adams, University of Tennessee Class of 1963, even disavowed his now infamous nickname. He said he tried several other Internet handles before choosing “Tennstud” after the Doc Watson tune about a horse that was “long and lean, the color of the sun and his eyes were green; he had the nerve and he had the blood, and there never was a horse like the Tennessee stud.”

“I hate that damn name more than anyone knows,” he said. “I am short, fat, ugly, old, and balding and anything but a Tennessee stud.” — John Branston