As of version 4.3.0.37, download the tar file from Skype and install it in your $HOME (on CentOS 6) that way.  The RPM doesn't work out of the box; maybe it will work with hacking.

Then just make a desktop or panel launcher and call it to the executable you just installed.  Icons are also included (96x96 seems to work well).

Get your sounds into /usr/share/skype/sounds

You may get them from another machine that already has skype, or by installing the RPM first to get the sounds.  Then uninstalling it and using the .tar process described above.