Slider Archives - Page 27 of 165

Baby boy found dead near river bank in March remains unidentified

Posted at 4:28 pm October 6, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Police Department and Police Chief Robin Smith are offering a $1,500 reward for information about the baby boy found dead near the river bank along Melton Lake Greenway on Thursday, March 26, 2020. The Oak Ridge Police Department has named the baby boy “Wyatt,” which means “little warrior,” the city said. On Thursday, April 2, ORPD officers and the Oak Ridge Fire Department set up a memorial in baby Wyatt’s name near the parking area on Melton Lake at Edgemoor Road. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

The baby boy found dead near the river bank along Melton Lake Greenway in March remains unidentified, and the Oak Ridge Police Department is offering a $1,500 reward for information about the boy.

The Oak Ridge Police Department has named the baby boy “Wyatt,” which authorities have said means “little warrior.”

Oak Ridge Police Chief Robin Smith has pledged $500 of the $1,500 reward being offered by the police department for information about the boy.

The ORPD has received $950 in community donations to use for a memorial for baby Wyatt. ORPD officers and the Oak Ridge Fire Department set up a memorial in baby Wyatt’s name near a parking area along the Clinch River at Edgemoor Road in April.

The baby boy’s body was found near the river bank just north of the Edgemoor Road bridge on Thursday, March 26. The boy’s umbilical cord was still attached before he was placed in the water, Smith said in a Facebook video in April. A piece of clothing was with Wyatt, although it’s not being described for investigative reasons.

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After falling in August, new COVID cases have plateaued

Posted at 5:03 pm September 26, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

After falling in August, the average number of new daily cases of COVID-19 appears to have plateaued in Anderson County.

But there is at least one complication in the data. More than 30 cases reported in Anderson County in mid-September had been assigned to a different county earlier, or the the county of residence had not yet been reported, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

So, for at least a few days, the data seemed to include an unusually high number of new cases per day (20-29 new cases per day on September 10 and 11, compared to one to six new cases per day other days that week).

Since then, though, the average number of new cases per day has remained about the same, in a range between 11.1 and 13.7 new cases per day. Fourteen new cases were reported Saturday.

The seven-day average number of new cases in Anderson County had fallen to 5.4 per day on September 1, according to calculations by Oak Ridge Today. That was a low that the county hadn’t had since early July, before new case growth peaked later that month.

But since then it’s gone back up to an average of more than 10 new cases per day, where it appears to have plateaued. It’s not clear why.

Anderson County has reported five deaths due to COVID-19 this month. That’s more than one-third of the 13 deaths reported in the county since the pandemic began March 20. Two of the deaths were reported by state health officials in the past few days, on Thursday and Friday.

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After break, schools will continue mix of in-person, staggered schedules

Posted at 2:39 pm September 22, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

After fall break, Oak Ridge Schools will continue using in-person instruction for students from pre-kindergarten to fourth grade and staggered schedules for students in fifth grade to 12th grade, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said Tuesday.

The younger students have five days of in-person instruction per week, while the older students have staggered schedules: two days of in-person instruction and three days of online learning per week.

In a letter to staff members and families on Tuesday, Borchers said school staff and students have kept the spread of COVID-19 low during the first term using contact tracing, isolation, quarantine, and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; practicing good personal hygiene such as hand washing; maintaining physical distances and wearing face masks; and providing or being able to use hand sanitizing stations and clean facilities.

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UT Arboretum Society has online fall plant sale from Sept. 25-Oct. 10

Posted at 12:09 pm September 21, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

*Conifers from East Fork Nursery of Sevierville (Submitted photo)*

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society’s Annual Plant Sale will be online only this year. It is scheduled from September 25 to October 10. You can shop for new plants from home.

The UT Arboretum Society’s plant sales are some of their biggest fundraisers of the year. They help support the arboretum’s community education, trail improvements such as its Nature Book Trail, and children’s programs, a press release said.

The online plant sale will give you a chance to enhance your garden this fall.

“Fall is always a wonderful time for planting as it gives your plants time to establish great root systems for the spring,” the press release said.

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Updated: ORHS principal leaving Oak Ridge, going to Greeneville

Posted at 12:13 am September 16, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Note: This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. Sept. 17.

Oak Ridge High School Principal Martin McDonald announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he is leaving his job at ORHS and starting a new job at Greeneville High School in East Tennessee.

On Wednesday, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said McDonald will continue at ORHS through the end of the first term and will transition to his new role in Greeneville during the first weeks of October.

Neither McDonald nor Oak Ridge Schools said why the principal is leaving Oak Ridge.

[Read more…]

Evaluation ordered for Finnegan at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute

Posted at 4:44 pm September 15, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Sean Finnegan, one of two defendants in a series of gruesome alleged crimes in Oak Ridge some time between December 2019 and August 2020, including murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping, is pictured above in a mugshot from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office.

A forensic evaluation has been ordered for Sean Finnegan—one of two defendants in a murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping case in Oak Ridge—at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute.

The forensic evaluation was ordered last Tuesday by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller. The order was based upon a petition by the defense and a recommendation from Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services. Finnegan, 52, had an evaluation scheduled at Ridgeview in Oak Ridge on August 31.

Under the new order, he is to be evaluated at the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute—Intensive Services Program for a maximum of 30 days regarding his competency to stand trial and his mental condition at the time of the alleged crimes (the insanity defense).

IQ testing is to be included in the evaluation, the order said. The mental health evaluation is also expected to include a finding about whether Finnegan meets specific criteria for being committed.

It’s not unusual for defendants in homicide cases to have a mental health evaluation of this type. The results are generally not available to the public.

[Read more…]

Nine Lakes Winemaker’s Market is Saturday, precautions in place

Posted at 9:44 am September 10, 2020
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Bottles of Tennessee wine not found in stores will be for sale at the Nine Lakes Winemaker’s Market at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (Photo courtesy Nine Lakes Wine Festival)

The fourth annual Nine Lakes Wine Festival has been converted to a safer, spread out, open-air “Winemaker’s Market” on Saturday, September 12, a press release said. The festival is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge.

“All of our winemakers will be wearing masks, and we ask that the public does, too,” said event director Rebecca Williams. “They will be spread out in the park, with at least 10 feet between vendor tents, and we may have to limit ticket sales to allow for social distancing.”

The event will not offer wine samples to taste this year.

“The state will not allow it, and we agree it would not be a safe thing to do,” Williams said. “Instead, we’re offering a unique shopping event, sort of like a farmer’s market for wine. Tennessee wines are not generally sold in stores, so you really have to come to an event or drive out to a winery to find them.”

Thirteen local wineries will be represented at the event. General admission tickets are $10, and they benefit United Way of Anderson County. They include a wine tote and tasting glass to take home, the press release said.

[Read more…]

Oak Ridge celebrating 65th anniversary of school desegregation

Posted at 4:36 pm September 5, 2020
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Four of the “Oak Ridge 85” students at a recent music event. From left to right are Larry Gipson (Oak Ridge 85), Eric Dozier (musician), Deloise Mitchell (Oak Ridge 85), Emma McCaskill (Oak Ridge 85), and Mary Guinn (Oak Ridge 85). (Photo by Barbara McCord)

Oak Ridge is celebrating the 65th anniversary of its school desegregation this weekend.

“Sixty-five years ago this September, 85 brave and dedicated young African American students entered all-white classrooms in the Oak Ridge High School and the Robertsville Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in a historic school system desegregation,” organizers said in a press release.

It wasn’t the first public school desegregation in the nation, but organizers said it was the first public school desegregation in the Southeast.

“As such, it challenged the racist and sometimes dangerous Jim Crow culture,” the press release said. “This desegregation stands as an important milestone in American civil rights history.”

The anniversary events are being held with the Oak Ridge school system. Public participation in some events had to be scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Read more…]

New daily COVID case average falls to early July level

Posted at 1:36 pm September 2, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases in Anderson County the past week fell to a level last seen in early July, about five new cases per day.

Last week’s average of 5.4 new cases per day is about a 40 percent drop from the average nine new cases reported per day during the previous week.

It’s the third straight week of a decline in the average number of new cases per day in Anderson County.

Although it’s falling, the seven-day average remains higher than it was in late June, before the case growth started to accelerate in the county.

The highest seven-day average, as calculated by Oak Ridge Today, was in late July, when Anderson County averaged more than 24 new cases of COVID-19 per day. July appears to have been the worst month of the pandemic so far.

[Read more…]

For members: Thousands of movies, games, ink cartridges seized from McGuire, Packard’s, indictment says

Posted at 1:39 pm August 30, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Law enforcement officers who searched McGuire Used Books and Packard’s stores in Oak Ridge, Clinton, and Kingston more than two years ago seized thousands of movies, video games, and printer ink cartridges, and after the searches and seizures, an Oak Ridge man was charged with money laundering, organized retail crime, and theft, according to an indictment filed in Anderson County in June.

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Russell Barker and the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force executed search warrants at McGuire Used Books on Thursday afternoon, May 24, 2018. The law enforcement search at McGuire—a store that sold used books, compact discs, digital video discs, and electronics—lasted hours and continued throughout the night. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

More than 50,000 items were seized, according to a tally of the exhibits included with the indictment.

The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: an advertiser or subscriber to Oak Ridge Today.

Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.

Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:

Basic

Pro

Temporary

Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

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!