Business Highlights – Water battles planned for new Dollywood ride

Scheduled to open in 2008, the River Battle sends eight passengers on rafts down a 500-foot channel lined with more than 100 targets.

The targets include large-scale talking animals such as beavers, skunks, otters and bears, some of which shoot water back at the riders.

Riders can also aim at other passengers on their raft or park guests along the edge of the ride.

The Great Smoky Mountains venue will also build a new connecting walkway between two areas of the park. The project is the park’s largest earthworks project since a train track bed was completed in 1960.

“In addition to creating a fun new ride for our guests, we will improve the flow of traffic as guests will be able to access two vital areas of our park via the new connector,” said Ken Bell, senior vice president.

Dollywood, Tennessee’s top tourist draw with more than 2 million guests annually, opened a new $17.5 million roller coaster called Mystery Mine in April.

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GLASGOW, Ky. (AP) ‘ A Nashville company will open a call center in Glasgow, creating some 500 jobs in the Barren County town, an official said Friday.

Sitel Operating Corp. plans to hire a contractor within 30 days to handle construction, said Scott Luth, head of the Glasgow-Barren County Industrial Development Economic Authority.

“We have a very successful traditional manufacturing base in this community,” Luth said. “We have a growing manufacturing base in this community with our existing industry, but what’s lacking are these types of service-oriented, non-manufacturing type jobs.

Sitel provides customer support services for other companies.

State lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that would allow Sitel to receive tax incentives if they located near a regional university and hired students.

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NEW YORK (AP) ‘ Wall Street pulled back Friday, retreating from record levels following disappointing results from longtime favorites Caterpillar Inc. and Google Inc. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 150 points.

The drop in stocks capped a losing week for the Dow after three weeks of gains, and came a day after the blue chips finished above 14,000 for the first time.

While Friday’s retrenchment might not be surprising following weeks of somewhat volatile trading and the big gains Thursday, Caterpillar has been one of the best-performers among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow and a big contributor in the blue chips’ march to 14,000.