Tre Hargett
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett will present a $4,000 archives grant in Anderson County on Friday.
The grant, distributed through the Tennessee State Library and Archives, will fund development of the Anderson County Archives, a media advisory said.
“The Anderson County Archives will receive a $4,000 Archives Development Grant to preserve court documents,” the advisory said. [Read more…]
Image from a Billy Stair presentation on the Oak Ridge Airport project to Roane County officials at the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017.
KINGSTON—Tennessee officials have appropriated $15 million that could be used for the proposed airport at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.
The appropriation, which is pending approval of the Oak Ridge Airport by the Federal Aviation Administration, would be enough to cover about 33 percent to 38 percent of the current estimated project cost of $40 million to $45 million.
The appropriation was announced by Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John C. Schroer in a November 8 letter to members of the Tennessee General Assembly. Oak Ridge Today received a copy of the letter on Monday.
The $15 million that could be used for the Oak Ridge Airport is one half of a $30 million appropriation approved by the Tennessee General Assembly for the Aeronautics Economic Development Fund earlier this year, said Billy Stair, a former communications director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who is now a consultant helping with the airport project. That half was to support the construction of new general aviation airports like the project in Oak Ridge, and Oak Ridge received all of the $15 million for general aviation airports, Stair said.
“MKAA (Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority) is the only public entity in the state with planning documents for a new airport currently under review,” Schroer said in his November letter to legislators. The $15 million will be allocated to the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, which would own and operate the Oak Ridge Airport, pending FAA approval. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
The Clinton City Council on Monday unanimously approved a resolution to transfer the Green McAdoo Cultural Center and Museum to the Tennessee State Museum, a move officials said will ensure that the facility remains open to tell the story of the first black students to attend a previously all-white, Southern, public high school in 1956.
The state budget passed earlier this year included $100,000 to be used exclusively for maintenance and operational expenses at the museum, located on School Street. The museum opened in 2006, on the 50th anniversary of the day in 1956 when 12 black students walked from the former Green McAdoo School down the hill to Clinton High School and into history. Green McAdoo was, at the time, the school for black students in Clinton. [Read more…]
The Hon. William Everette Lewallen Memorial Bridge is pictured above on Clinch Avenue near downtown Clinton. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Information from WYSH Radio
Clinton will have to continue to wait for the Lewallen Bridge replacement project to proceed as city officials have told WYSH Radio that the Tennessee Department of Transportation has not yet obtained the necessary permits from either the Tennessee Valley Authority or the Coast Guard that would allow the work to begin.
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said that the permit application process will likely take six to nine months, meaning that the timeline has been pushed back once again by the state.
A request for bid proposals is now expected to be sent out next month, with those bids tentatively scheduled to be opened in January. TDOT could award a contract for the new bridge in February and construction, provided the necessary permits have been obtained, could now begin sometime in the spring. [Read more…]
State Rep. John Mark Windle will be guest speaker at the Oct. 23, 2017, meeting of the Anderson County Democratic Women’s Club. (Submitted photo)
State Representative John Mark Windle will be the guest speaker at the Monday, October 23, meeting of the Anderson County Democratic Women’s Club. The club will host a pot luck dinner at 6 p.m. in the Club Room of the Clinton Community Center, 101 South Hicks Street in Clinton.
Windle, a Democrat representing District 41, which includes Morgan, Jackson, Overton, and part of Fentress Counties, will discuss what to expect in the next session of the Tennessee General Assembly. He will also address the electability of Democratic candidates.
Windle was elected to the state house in 1990, and he served as majority floor leader from 1997-2000. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge History Room (Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy)
The Tennessee State Museum will have its fall bus excursion to Oak Ridge on Saturday, November 4. It will be a one-day guided trip to the former “Secret City,” a press release said.
“Local historian Ray Smith will join the bus in Oak Ridge and accompany the group on its stops at the American Museum of Science and Energy, the Y-12 History Center, as well as drive by other locations,” the press release said. “Don’t miss this chance to see the museum before it closes at the end of the year and moves to a new, smaller location.”
Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians, the area that is now Oak Ridge was created when the U.S. government started buying up more than 50,000 acres of land for one of three major sites for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. (Besides Oak Ridge, the other two major sites were Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.)
“Even Governor Prentice Cooper didn’t initially know what was going on as he complained about 1,000 Tennessee families losing their homes,” the press release said. [Read more…]
A section of New River Highway, also known as Highway 116, is pictured above between Briceville and Rosedale in November 2012, when the Graves Gap wildfire was reported on a mountain east of the highway (to the right in the photo above). (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Two Anderson County commissioners have planned a mountain drive on Tuesday that they say will again show the need for guardrails along Highway 116, also known as New River Highway, in north Anderson County.
The commissioners, Tim Isbel and Shain Vowell, represent District Four in Anderson County. That district includes Briceville and Rosedale, among other parts of mountainous north Anderson County.
They have scheduled a meeting with a representative of the Tennessee Department of Transportation at about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, September 26, at the Anderson County Career and Technical Center beside the Anderson County High School. The purpose is to explain the need for the guardrails, the commissioners said in an email forwarded to other county commissioners, county officials, and the media. [Read more…]
An ash tree is pictured above in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
The Oak Ridge Tree Board is hosting a workshop focused on the impact of the emerald ash borer in the area. The event, scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, August 29, will provide important information regarding the emerald ash borer for property owners, landscapers, and others involved in the maintenance of green spaces, a press release said.
Ash trees make up a significant percentage of the urban forest in the area and have traditionally been a landscaping staple. Many of these trees in Oak Ridge are already dead or beyond treatment, but a significant number can be saved. At the workshop this evening, experts from around the area will address issues that include the identification of affected ash trees and responses to emerald ash borer infestation, including appropriate treatment. [Read more…]
Craigh Fitzhugh
Craig Fitzhugh, a Democratic candidate for Tennessee governor, is visiting Oak Ridge this evening.
Fitzhugh will have a meet and greet from 7 to 8 p.m. today (Tuesday, August 29) at Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Café at 223 Jackson Square in Oak Ridge. The event is being sponsored by the Anderson County Democratic Party, a press release said. The public is invited.
“‘People Matter,’ the campaign slogan of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Craig Fitzhugh, ties together the very essence of why he has thrown his hat into the race for governor in 2018,” the press release said. “It connects voter concerns from across the state.”
When asked why he chose “People Matter” as his slogan, Fitzhugh said he’s concerned Tennessee is falling behind, citing education, jobs, infrastructure, and health care, particularly the expansion of Medicaid as top issues, the press release said.
“The problems and the situations that people in North Nashville and south Memphis find themselves in are not much different than those in Ripley, or Columbia or Etowah, or other communities,” Fitzhugh said. “There are things that we can do to give people an opportunity to better their lives.” [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
Wednesday morning, officials gathered at the new Tennessee College of Applied Technology–or TCAT—facility on Andersonville Highway for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The new but temporary TCAT facility is expected to be a boon to local industries and prospective employees alike by offering courses geared toward the industries operating in this area.
The owners of the former Hensley’s grocery store donated the vacant 20,000-square foot building to the state to renovate and use as a temporary training facility for a period of about two years. The temporary facility will be needed while the state builds a new, premanent TCAT on land donated by SL Tennessee in the I-75 Industrial Park. [Read more…]
Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge
The Edgemoor Road project in Anderson County that is listed in a state three-year transportation program is in the earliest development stages, and officials don’t have details yet, including about road widening or traffic signals.
The three-year transportation plan includes a reference to 6.2 miles of SR 170 (Edgemoor Road) between SR 9/US 25W (Clinton Highway) and SR 62 (South Illinois Avenue).
“The first step, which is under way now, is the completion of what’s known as a planning document,” said B.J. Doughty, director of community relations and communications for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. “Until we get further into the engineering process, we won’t have details about the features of the project—widening, traffic signals, etc.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer released TDOT’s annual three-year transportation program in May. It features approximately $2.6 billion in infrastructure investments for 101 individual project phases in 40 counties, as well as 15 statewide programs. [Read more…]
The 2017 lifeguard staff at Norris Dam State Park is pictured above. They are, from left to right, Bailey Braden, Ben Vinsant, Emily Griffith, Chris Powell, Issac Ward, Jordan Goins, Devon Reeves, Kaitlyn Meyers, and Lauren Floyd. (Submitted photo)
The Norris Dam State Park Pool opens for the season on Saturday, May 27.
Admission is $5 per person for ages 3 and older, and $3 per person for campers and cabin guests. Pool passes are available for $140 for 40 visits.
Children age 3 and younger must wear a swim diaper/swimsuit at all times in the pool area, a press release said.
More information can be found here. [Read more…]
