The last of three candidate forums at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday features a Democrat and Republican running for Anderson County mayor.
Tuesday’s “Coffee with the Candidates” starts at 7:30 a.m, and it features Terry Frank, a Clinton Republican, and Warren Gooch, an Oak Ridge Democrat.
Anderson County Democrats, including former party chair Richard Dawson, standing at center, celebrate the grand opening of their headquarters on South Illinois Avenue on Thursday. (Photos courtesy of John and Mary Norris)
Anderson County Democrats have a “better-than-average” chance of taking back the county mayor and state House seats in the August and November elections, a party official said Monday.
In particular, Democrats believe they can beat first-term legislator John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican, said Richard Dawson, Tennessee Democratic Party executive committee member in Senate District 5.
Bids on the project to expand and renovate the Anderson County Jail came in within the expected price range when they were opened Thursday, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
The apparent low bid of $9.66 million was submitted by Rouse Construction of Knoxville, WYSH reported. The other five bids were said to be competitively priced as well.
Volunteers make free repairs for homeowners who are elderly, disabled and/or low-income during ADFAC’s annual Summer Repair Fair. (Photo submitted by ADFAC)
More than 800 teenagers and adult volunteers have come from across the county to make repairs to homes in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.
The work is part of the 16th Annual Summer Repair Fair organized by Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties, or ADFAC.
The fair started June 17 and ends June 30. The volunteers could make repairs to as many as 84 homes, an ADFAC press release said.
Orrin Westley Thomas Jr.
Orrin Westley Thomas Jr., 86, passed away June 21.
He was born in Lakeland, Fla., to Orrin and Verna Thomas.
Rogers Group operator Randy Wilkerson dumps gravel for a sidewalk in front of DoubleTree Hotel on South Illinois Avenue as laborer Dustin Hawkins spreads it.
Money from Oak Ridge’s four traffic camera systems is being used to build five new sections of sidewalk along South Illinois and Jefferson avenues.
The city is using roughly $217,000 from a special programs fund set up for the traffic camera money to build the sidewalks and install crosswalks, pavement markings, and pedestrian push buttons at traffic lights, Oak Ridge City Engineer Steve Byrd said.
Shoppers line up to buy meat at J&M’s Butcher Shop on Jefferson Circle during a ‘cash mob’ Saturday morning.
Two Oak Ridge businesses reported more than 100 customers shopped at each of their stores during a Saturday morning “cash mob.”
The two businesses picked for Saturday’s cash mob were J&M’s Butcher Shop on Jefferson Circle and Mickey’s Produce on Jefferson Avenue.
“We have been swamped,” said Vicky Wallace, who owns J&M’s with her husband John Wallace, as shoppers lined up to buy meats or sample products such as beef and pimiento cheese.
Trina Baughn
The future of Oak Ridge is entirely dependent upon our ability to attract new residents and businesses. To do that, we must first acknowledge an unspoken truth: Outsiders view Oak Ridge as being too expensive. We must work to change that. Oak Ridge must become competitive.
Why do people say that it costs so much to live and work in Oak Ridge? What I hear is that our leases, properties, gas, and even our groceries, all cost more than our neighboring communities. I haven’t verified that to be the case, but those are things that the city government can’t (and shouldn’t) control.
Bobby Coward age 74, of Clinton, passed away Friday, June 22, at the Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge.
Bobby was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather.
A Georgia man celebrating the fifth anniversary of a friend’s recovery from a wreck on Windrock Mountain survived, but was injured, when he plunged 100 to 150 feet down a hillside on an all-terrain vehicle Friday night, a rescuer said Saturday.
“He was fortunate,” said Terry Allen, chief of the Anderson County Rescue Squad in Clinton. “He went off a very high embankment.”
Allen did not identify the man, who is in his mid-50s, because he wasn’t sure if all family members had been notified.
Hazel G. McLaughlin
Hazel G. McLaughlin, age 80, of Oak Ridge, died Thursday, June 21, at the Golden Living Center in Clinton.
She was born April 21, 1932, in Julian, Pa., the daughter of John Henry and Ruth Gill.
Firefighters put out a fire in the kitchen ventilation system at Long John Silver’s on Oak Ridge Turnpike Saturday morning. (Photos by Tom Scott)
Long John Silver’s could be closed at least a week after a grease hood in the kitchen caught on fire Saturday morning, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.
Workers were “cranking up the grill” and turning on fryers when the hood caught on fire about 8:30 a.m., Kerley said. The fire extended into the ventilation system, and a fan motor on the roof burst into flames.
