Note: This story was updated at 9:15 a.m. April 6.
Key Springs Road was closed due to a jackknifed tractor-trailer on Monday afternoon, the Oak Ridge Police Department said.
Key Springs Road is a steep, curvy road with switchbacks that connects north Oak Ridge to Marlow.
It wasn’t clear how long the road will be closed. (Update: At about 2:35 p.m. Tuesday, the ORPD said the roadway had re-opened.)
[Read more…]The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission will discuss a site plan for the planned storage facility at Main Street Oak Ridge and apartments on Emory Valley Road on Thursday.
The storage facility would be built along Rutgers Avenue in the area between JCPenney and Walmart. The apartments would be at 689 Emory Valley Road.
Also on the agenda are a master plan and subarea plan amendment for The Preserve at Clinch River, Subarea G.
[Read more…]
The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival will feature three renowned storytellers on June 5. This year’s festival, led by volunteers from three Oak Ridge Rotary clubs, will be virtual because of COVID-19 concerns.
The featured storytellers will be Andy Offutt Irwin, Bil Lepp, and Kim Weitkamp. They are known to audiences nationwide for their wit, wisdom, and abilities to make audiences laugh, cry, and reminisce, a press release said.
Information on ticket purchases, prices, and additional workshops will be announced later. The evening show will be 8 p.m. Saturday, June 5.
[Read more…]
Nine men, including at least five who met with undercover agents posing as juveniles, were arrested on trafficking, sex, and prostitution charges in Oak Ridge on Thursday during a two-day undercover operation targeted at human trafficking in East Tennessee.
As part of the operation, law enforcement officers said they placed several decoy advertisements on websites known to be linked to prostitution and commercial sex cases.
“The focus of the operation was to identify individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with minors,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
The covert operation included the Oak Ridge Police Department, special agents from the TBI Human Trafficking Unit, the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force (CTF), the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Seventh Judicial District Attorney General’s Office.
In a press release, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said the operation was conceived by ORPD in response to recent cases where men from other areas have solicited sex from juveniles and traveled to Oak Ridge to meet the girls. The ORPD led the covert operation on Wednesday and Thursday with technical and manpower help from the TBI, CTF, the Sheriff’s Office, and the DA’s Office, Clark said.
“Arrests were made when men came to an Oak Ridge location to pay to have sex with minors,” the DA said.
The operation also focused on identifying potential victims of trafficking. Two adult women were identified and offered services such as housing and counseling through Grow Free Tennessee, a program of the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the TBI said.
The covert human trafficking operation was conducted in Oak Ridge. Officers were focused on investigating people who buy sex as well as people engaged in sex trafficking, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.
Here are the allegations against the defendants charged in cases involving undercover agents posing as juveniles, according to the arrest warrants. The offenses occurred within 1,000 feet of a daycare facility.
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Nine men, including at least five who met with undercover agents posing as juveniles, were arrested on trafficking, sex, and prostitution charges in Oak Ridge on Thursday during a two-day undercover operation targeted at human trafficking in East Tennessee.
As part of the operation, law enforcement officers said they placed several decoy advertisements on websites known to be linked to prostitution and commercial sex cases.
“The focus of the operation was to identify individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with minors,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
The covert operation included the Oak Ridge Police Department, special agents from the TBI Human Trafficking Unit, the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force (CTF), the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Seventh Judicial District Attorney General’s Office.
In a press release, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said the operation was conceived by ORPD in response to recent cases where men from other areas have solicited sex from juveniles and traveled to Oak Ridge to meet the girls. The ORPD led the covert operation on Wednesday and Thursday with technical and manpower help from the TBI, CTF, the Sheriff’s Office, and the DA’s Office, Clark said.
“Arrests were made when men came to an Oak Ridge location to pay to have sex with minors,” the DA said.
The operation also focused on identifying potential victims of trafficking. Two adult women were identified and offered services such as housing and counseling through Grow Free Tennessee, a program of the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the TBI said.
The covert human trafficking operation was conducted in Oak Ridge. Officers were focused on investigating people who buy sex as well as people engaged in sex trafficking, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.
Here are the allegations against the defendants charged in cases involving undercover agents posing as juveniles, according to the arrest warrants. The offenses occurred within 1,000 feet of a daycare facility.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.
Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:
Basic
Pro
Temporary
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:
Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831
We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.
We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription.
Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
Canceled last year, the postponed Secret City Festival is scheduled for September this year.
Normally held in June, the Secret City Festival was canceled last year a few months after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
This year’s festival is scheduled for September 24 and 25 in Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. Organizers said it will feature two days of music, food, history, science, and more. Details of the festival haven’t been announced yet.
[Read more…]
The Lavender Festival will not be held again this year, organizers announced Sunday after consulting with Oak Ridge city officials.
“While many people have been vaccinated and COVID-19 cases are decreasing, Lavender Festival’s crowd and limited area make it an unsafe event to hold early in the summer,” organizers said. “We have always prided ourselves on creating a happy, stress-free festival focused on good health. We cannot in good conscience create an event that would endanger our vendors or guests, many of whom attend the festival from other states, or anyone in the Oak Ridge community.”
Organizers said vendors accepted to the 2020 festival should check their email for information for vendors.
[Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge said it has received a $500,000 contribution from the UT-Battelle Development Corporation to help with the planned airport at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.
The contribution is meant to provide funding that can be used to secure state and/or federal grants that require a local funding match, a city press release said.
Thomas Zacharia, president and chief executive officer of UT-Battelle and director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Jeff Smith, president of UT-Battelle Development Corporation, presented the contribution to Oak Ridge City Council at its March 8 meeting. Smith is also vice chair of the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority.
“I believe the presence of a new airport will be a key differentiator for this community because it supports existing trends so clearly: The airport will make Oak Ridge more attractive to companies and professionals interested in low-cost, high-quality communities with easy access to other cities,” Zacharia said, according to the press release.
[Read more…]
A tall, talented Houston team with several future Division I basketball players eliminated Oak Ridge 77-45 in a Class AAA state semifinal tournament game in Murfreesboro on Friday.
Oak Ridge (28-6) took an early 6-0 lead in the BlueCross Basketball Championships game at Middle Tennessee State University. But after Houston (22-3) took the lead with about three minutes left in the first quarter, the Mustangs never gave it up and they led by as many as 33 points.
Still, Oak Ridge was down by only eight points, 29-21, at halftime.
However, the Mustangs outscored the Wildcats 33-10 in the third quarter and had a 62-31 lead going into the final quarter. Houston senior forward Zander Yates (6-foot-8) scored 14 points in less than two minutes in the third quarter to help open up that lead for the Mustangs.
Houston, a team from Germantown east of Memphis, had four starters, including Yates, who are 6-foot-6 or taller. Oak Ridge had one, 6-foot-8 senior center Jonathan Milloway. The Mustangs had a rebounding advantage, 40 to 27, and they also shot 50 percent from the field (26 of 52) and almost 50 percent from beyond the three-point line (11 of 23).
[Read more…]
Oak Ridge advanced to a state semifinal basketball game on Friday with a 68-57 win over Siegel in a Class AAA quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Here are photos of Thursday’s game by Zack James.
The Wildcats (28-5) will play Houston (19-3) of Germantown, east of Memphis, at 8:30 p.m. Central time Friday in a semifinal game in the BlueCross Basketball Championships at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
[Read more…]
Note: This story was last updated at 12 p.m. March 19.
Oak Ridge advanced to a state semifinal basketball game on Friday with a 68-57 win over Siegel in a Class AAA quarterfinal game on Thursday.
The Wildcats (28-5) will play Houston (21-3) of Germantown, east of Memphis, at 8:30 p.m. Central time Friday. The BlueCross Basketball Championships are in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council will discuss a special recreation district, which could allow a motorsports park, among other potential uses, during a meeting this evening.
The special recreation district is being considered as a zoning ordinance amendment. The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission has recommended it, but the City Council has not approved it.
A motorsports park has been proposed at the Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The proposal has both supporters and detractors.
The zoning ordinance amendment would not endorse that specific proposal. Instead, it would create a new zoning district, the special recreation district, which could be used for large-scale recreation and entertainment developments.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Wildcats will play Siegel in the first round of the Class AAA state high school basketball championship on Thursday.
Oak Ridge (27-5) and Siegel (27-4) are two of eight Class AAA boys teams in the BlueCross State Championships in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
The Wildcats and the Stars, a Murfreesboro team, are scheduled to play at 7 p.m. Thursday (Central time). You can see the tournament bracket here.
Oak Ridge, which had finished second in Region 2, advanced to the state tournament by beating Dobyns-Bennett, which had finished first in Region 1, 65-61 in a Class AAA sectional game in Kingsport on Monday, March 8.
[Read more…]