Oak Ridge Today

Teresa Robbins named NNSA Production Office field office manager

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Teresa Robbins

NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant and Y-12 National Security Complex

The National Nuclear Security Administration has named Teresa M. Robbins as field office manager for the NNSA Production Office, or NPO. NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

Robbins served as NPO deputy manager for the past six years, and she has more than 29 years of experience in nuclear facility operations, engineering, safety analysis, maintenance, and risk analysis at U.S. Department of Energy sites.

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Education Foundation awards more than $100,000 in grants to Oak Ridge educators

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Pictured above is a 2020 grant ceremony for Oak Ridge High School Spanish teacher Abigail Hoshall, “Improving Language Reading Comprehension Skills Through Engagement.” (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation awarded more than $101,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers on Wednesday, during teacher appreciation week.

“Regrettably, due to COVID-19 concerns, there will not be an awards ceremony again this year,” a press release said.

However, the Education Foundation partnered with Oak Ridge Utility District and Millborne Bakery to deliver cookies for all staff in each school during Teacher Appreciation Week. The Foundation said it wants to honor and recognize the 2021 grant recipients in Oak Ridge Schools as follows: [Read more…]

Marshals catch fugitive after pursuit, injury to deputy

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Jesse Duncan

The U.S. Marshals Service has caught a fugitive who was being pursued when an Anderson County Sheriff’s Office deputy was hit by a vehicle on Saturday night, sending the deputy to the hospital, the ACSO said.

The fugitive, Jesse Duncan, 38, was captured Tuesday night near Harriman Highway by the U.S. Marshals Service, the ACSO said.

The deputy, Stephen Carroll, has been released from the hospital, and he is “recovering nicely,” the ACSO said.

“He is grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers from everyone,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

Duncan had been pursued this weekend by Carroll and others on Tri County Boulevard in Oliver Springs when Carroll was hit by a vehicle, the ACSO said. His leg was broken, and it was repaired during surgery this week.

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Roane State radiology lab named in tribute, memory of donors

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The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated. (Submitted photo)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated.

The Casnelli’s estate included a $250,000 endowment for the lab administered through a partnership of The Trust Company of Tennessee and Roane State Foundation, and it’s been “put to excellent use,” according to Dr. Julie Hall, director of the community college’s radiologic technology program.

The gift “made it possible for us to buy equipment for the lab that normally would be outside of our reach,” Hall said. It also will fund professional development options for radiologic technology staff, she said.

Each year, four students in the program are also awarded scholarships from the endowment.

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Commercial horse stables, horse therapy proposed near Big Turtle Park

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Commercial horse stables and horse-based therapy programs have been proposed near Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge on about 31 acres at the end of Hermitage Boulevard. (Aerial property image from Oak Ridge Board of Zoning Appeals agenda)

Commercial horse stables and horse-based therapy programs have been proposed near Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge.

The Oak Ridge Board of Zoning Appeals will consider a special exception to allow the commercial facility in a residential/open space district on Tuesday, May 11.

The request has been sought by Sean and Sara Pennington, who could buy roughly 31 acres at the end of Hermitage Boulevard for the project. The property is currently owned by the owner of an adjacent single-family lot, Joseph and Tanya Tuminello.

“The stables are intended to board horses and provide people with horse-based therapy programs,” according to a staff report for the zoning appeals board.

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Roger Miller will seek re-election as general sessions judge

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Roger Miller

Judge Roger A. Miller will seek re-election to a second eight-year term as General Sessions Court Judge, Division II, in Oak Ridge.

Miller was elected to be one of the two general sessions judges in Anderson County in 2014 after practicing law for 16 years in Clinton, a press release said.

A lifetime resident of Anderson County, Miller graduated from Clinton High School in 1980. Prior to practicing law, he served as an EMS paramedic for 13 years with the Anderson County Ambulance Service and Methodist Medical Center. Miller was the first full-time paramedic employed in the Methodist Medical Center Emergency Room in the mid-1990s, the press release said.

Miller obtained an associate degree in applied science from Roane State Community College before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences. He obtained his law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 1998, the press release said.

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Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce names Sassy Pants small business of the month

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Sassy Pants Sweets and Treats, located in Security Square in Oak Ridge, was recently named the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month. The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union. Pictured from right to left are Christine Michaels, Naomi Asher, Katy Watt, Sassy Pants owner Sheri Hartzog, Craig Peters, and Whitley Myers. (Submitted photo)

Sassy Pants Sweet & Treats is the inaugural winner of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for May 2021.

The award, sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union, is awarded every month to a member of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees are eligible to receive this designation. To be considered, the establishment must have been in business for three or more years and show active involvement in the community and/or the chamber.

According to the nominator, “Sassy Pants moved and expanded operations at the beginning of the pandemic. They have done an amazing job staying engaged with the community and surviving during a time when other longer-established businesses were unable to stay open. They have fought hard to grow their business over the past year. I think this is worthy of being nominated as a small business of the month!” [Read more…]

Tim Shelton seeks re-election as AC register of deeds

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Tim Shelton

Anderson County Register of Deeds Tim Shelton will seek re-election to a four-year term in the county elections next year.

Shelton has served as register of deeds since September 2002, and he has received statewide recognition for his work. Shelton was recognized as Tennessee’s register of the year in 2004 and 2009, and he was elected as president of the Tennessee Register of Deeds Association in 2005, a press release said.

He was elected as president of the County Officials Association of Tennessee in 2013.

“In 2017, Shelton received the ultimate award for a county elected official by being selected as the county official of the year for the State of Tennessee,” the press release said.

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History of death penalty in Tennessee to be discussed today

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Hemant Sharma

The history of the death penalty in Tennessee will be discussed in a lunchtime meeting today (Tuesday, May 4).

The meeting is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. It will be virtual (online). The speaker will be University of Tennessee Lecturer Hemant Sharma.

Along with John M. Scheb, head of the Political Science Department at the University of Tennessee/Knoxville, and others, Sharma authored the 2013 study “Race and the Death Penalty: An Empirical Assessment of First Degree Murder Convictions in Tennessee after Gregg v. Georgia,” a press release said. Published in the Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice, the study analyzed 1,068 first-degree murder convictions in the state following the 1976 Supreme Court decision that ended the four-year court moratorium on the death penalty across the nation.

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COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations have fallen

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These charts show the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations reported by month in Anderson County from March 2020 to April 2021. (Data from Tennessee Department of Health/Charts by Oak Ridge Today)

After peaking in December and January, the numbers of new COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have fallen during the past three months in Anderson County.

The largest number of new COVID-19 cases, 2,524, was reported in Anderson County in December. The highest number of new hospitalizations, 43, was also reported in December. The highest number of deaths, 56, was reported in January. State officials have said holiday gatherings were at least partially to blame for the spikes after Thanksgiving.

Since January, though, the number of new COVID-19 cases has fallen almost in half each month—from 1,608 in January to 732 in February, then to 483 in March and 275 in April. That’s according to data published by the Tennessee Department of Health.

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New fire station, emergency operations center being built at Y-12

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A new fire station is being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Above, NNSA, Consolidated Nuclear Security, and Y-12 Fire Station leaders toss the first shovels of dirt for the new fire station on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Photo by Y-12)

A new fire station and emergency operations center are being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

They are pilot projects designed to streamline the efficiency and delivery of specific construction projects under $50 million, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in a press release.

The NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Y-12 managing and operating contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security had a groundbreaking ceremony for the fire station on Tuesday. A few blocks away, the emergency operations center (EOC) is already under construction.

The fire station replaces one built in 1947, and the EOC will be the home of the site’s operations center, which is currently located in a World War II-era building. “Together, these new facilities will replace two outdated buildings and enhance our emergency response capabilities,” said Gene Sievers, Y-12 site manager.

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Local attorneys remembered on memorial plaque

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Pictured above at the Memorial Plaque in the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton are, right, Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Don A. Layton and Circuit Court Clerk Rex Lynch. (Submitted photo)


Four local attorneys were added to the memorial plaque titled “In Memory of those who served Justice” at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton, a press release said. The attorneys served in multiple legal professional roles during their careers, the press release said.

Robert “Bob” Stivers had a legal career of more than 50 years. He worked with Union Carbide and Martin Marietta.

W. Clark Meredith was a partner in the firm of Joyce, Anderson, and Meredith. He later practiced with the firm of Joyce, Meredith, Flitcroft and Normand.

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