Officials from the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will celebrate a unique carbon fiber facility on Tuesday morning.
DOE will also announce a new U.S. manufacturing initiative during the ceremony at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Horizon Center Business Park in west Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
This month’s ”Breakfast with the Legislators” will be on Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
The hour-long breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m. in the Oak Ridge Civic Center Social Room. A free, light continental breakfast will be served. [Read more…]
There have been concerns about how plans to redraw Tennessee’s judicial districts might affect Anderson County, and a local organization has scheduled a Thursday night forum to discuss the proposals.
The forum is presented by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, and it starts at 7 p.m. Thursday in the City Room at the Roane State Community College campus in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
Dave Clark
The most recent proposal to redraw judicial districts in Tennessee did not include Anderson County, but the battle isn’t over yet, an official said Wednesday.
Roane County also would not be affected under the proposal, announced Monday by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Blountville Republican. The proposal could affect 22 of the state’s 95 counties, said Dave Clark, Anderson County district attorney general.
Still, there is a month or more left in the legislative session in the Tennessee General Assembly in Nashville, and the proposals—there are more than a dozen—are subject to amendment, Clark said during a Wednesday morning presentation to the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office is initiating a series of controlled burns of grassland areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation for prescribed burning at the East Tennessee Technology Park and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory during March and April.
On March 15, weather permitting, controlled burns are taking place:
Information from WYSH Radio
Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Karla Davis have awarded Incumbent Worker Training Program grants totaling $29,947 to Protomet Corp. in Oak Ridge and $25,000 to Techmer PM in Clinton.
“If Tennessee is going to become the number one location in the Southeast for high-quality jobs, then we must offer a well-trained workforce to employers,” Haslam said. “This kind of training grant not only helps educate workers, but also provides incentive to employers looking to relocate or expand in Tennessee.”
Since the program’s inception, Incumbent Worker Training grants have assisted more than 600 businesses by providing $14 million to train approximately 50,000 employees.
Information from WYSH Radio
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will spend more than $1.2 million to make safety improvements on Highway 116, also known as New River Highway, in Anderson County’s Briceville community.
After a string of accidents, including some fatalities, on the rural road, local officials began trying to find ways to prevent them in the future and those efforts paid off last August when a team of TDOT officials joined Anderson County commissioners Tim Isbel and Zach Bates, members of the Briceville Volunteer Fire Department, and deputies from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department on a tour of the 11-mile stretch of road from Frost Bottom to the Campbell County line.
This month’s “Breakfast with the Legislators” will be Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
The hour-long breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m. in the Oak Ridge Civic Center Social Room. A free, light continental breakfast will be served.
A concept plan by Benefield Richters of Knoxville for the $1 million revitalization of historic Jackson Square in Oak Ridge.
After a brief discussion Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council unanimously agreed to award a $150,000 contract to a company that will help in the first phase of a $1 million project to redevelop Jackson Square, the city’s original town center.
The contract for design services was awarded to Vaughn and Melton Consulting Engineering Inc. of Knoxville. V&M will help with services ranging from deed research and field surveys to preliminary plans and construction estimates.
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said V&M has helped with the redevelopment of Gay Street in Knoxville.
The work is part of a project funded with help from a Tennessee Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant that was announced by Gov. Bill Haslam in Jackson Square in June 2012.
A plan for the proposed Southern Appalachia Railway Museum at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site. (Submitted image)
Although they had concerns about potential worst-case scenarios, Oak Ridge City Council members on Monday unanimously agreed to accept a state grant worth up to $480,000 for construction of a railway museum at Heritage Center, a project first proposed more than a decade ago.
By approving the resolution, Council also authorized the city to enter into a construction management agreement with the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and Heritage Center LLC. That agreement calls for CROET and Heritage to offer the 20 percent local match required under the grant, or $120,000, as well as associated construction management services.
A Tennessee Department of Transportation employee who worked in Oak Ridge resigned Thursday after he was charged with driving under the influence following a police investigation of a crash at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Louisiana Avenue on Friday, Feb. 1, officials said.
Police said William Hays Halbert, 56, of Knoxville, had been driving a state-owned 2010 Ford F150 pickup truck, but he had slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes, according to an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court. Halbert smelled like alcohol and appeared to be confused, and he had a hard time following directions, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Garrett L. Robbins wrote in the affidavit.
Governor appoints Commissioner Jim Henry as interim
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today announced that Department of Children’s Services Commissioner Kate O’Day has resigned from her post.
“Kate has informed me that she felt the time was right to step down,” Haslam said. “She was concerned that she had become more of a focus than the children the department serves.
I appreciate Kate’s service to this administration and to our state. She has done a lot of good work in identifying longstanding problems that have hampered the department, and we will build on those efforts as we move forward.”
