Submitted image
A Wildcat Den Preservation Party on Friday will feature Soul Sanction.
The Preservation Party is promoted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
It is scheduled from 7-10:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the Midtown Community Center at 102 Robertsville Road. [Read more…]
Lee Harold Cromwell, the Oak Ridge man convicted of vehicular homicide in a fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after July 4 fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015, was sentenced to 12 years in prison during a hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 19, 2017. In a separate case, Cromwell was convicted this week in Nashville along with four other defendants in a fraudulent liens case, and he will be sentenced June 27. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 8:30 a.m. May 4.
Five “sovereign citizens,” including Lee Cromwell of Oak Ridge, were convicted of more than 200 counts in Nashville this week in a case where the defendants had been accused of filing fraudulent liens against local and state officials in East Tennessee, including judges, prosecutors, and police officers in Anderson County, an official said Thursday.
Before the convictions, seven sovereign citizens from Anderson County had been charged in February 2017 with forgery and filing liens without a legal basis, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said in a press release Thursday. Those charges came after an investigation that had been requested by Clark and was conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Many of the cases were tried in Nashville, and a jury returned a verdict this week of guilty on all counts, Clark said. Clark and his wife were both victims of the fraudulent liens, so Clark had requested another district attorney general to prosecute the case.
“As the liens were filed electronically at the Secretary of State’s Office in Nashville, it made sense to have the defendants indicted and prosecuted in Davidson County,” Clark said. [Read more…]
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank (Submitted photo)
Note: This story was last updated at 9 a.m. May 2.
CLINTON—Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank narrowly won the Republican Party primary on Tuesday, beating Anderson County Commissioner Steve Emert by 153 votes, according to unofficial results.
Frank, a former small business operator who was first elected in August 2012, had 4,771 votes, compared to 4,618 for Emert. That was a slim margin of 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent.
Frank has served one special two-year term as mayor and one full four-year term. There was no Democratic Party candidate for mayor in the Tuesday primary, meaning Frank won’t have a challenger on the ballot in the August 2 county general election and is essentially assured of serving again.
Emert is a small business owner who has served as Anderson County Commission chair. Like a previous candidate for mayor, former Tennessee Representative Jim Hackworth, Emert had emphasized what he characterized as dysfunction, including lawsuits, in the Anderson County Courthouse under Frank. Among other pledges, he had promised to restore civility to the county government.
But that and other campaign issues weren’t enough to give Emert the win, even if it might have helped to keep the election close. Emert initially had a narrow 63-vote lead after early and absentee voting results were counted. But the lead flipped when Election Day results started coming in from across Anderson County. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Commission, which is pictured above on March 20, 2018, unanimously censured Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk William Jones on Feb. 20, and asked him to resign after sexual harassment allegations were reported. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 10:40 a.m.
CLINTON—He’s been accused of inappropriate behavior that includes unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted touching, and lewd and vulgar text messages. He’s been unanimously censured and asked to resign by the Anderson County Commission. He’s been sued in federal court. And some residents have joined commissioners in asking him to resign, or at least not seek re-election.
Despite those pleas, though, Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk William Jones, who has denied many allegations and called others false, is seeking re-election in the Anderson County Republican Party primary election on Tuesday, May 1. Jones has filed counterclaims in federal court and filed a defamation lawsuit in state court.
Some of the sexual harassment allegations appear to have been forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies, including the Tennessee Attorney General, Tennessee Department of Labor, and Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, according to records released by Anderson County. It’s not clear which outside agencies, if any, might be investigating the complaints, or whether the local district attorney general might be investigating.
Willliam T. Jones
Commission censures Jones, asks him to resign
The accusations against Jones, who is seeking his second four-year term, were publicly disclosed during a review of a sexual harassment complaint at an Anderson County Commission meeting on February 20.
During that meeting, Kim Jeffers-Whitaker, Anderson County’s chief deputy director of human resources and risk management, said her department had received five reports of inappropriate workplace behavior by Jones.
“The five reports create a harassing pattern,” Jeffers-Whitaker said.
She said the reports are supported by two affidavits and four sworn statements that the county’s human resources department obtained from the victims, who include four past or present employees and one citizen.
According to Jeffers-Whitaker, the alleged instances of unprofessional conduct include: [Read more…]
Oak Ridge senior pitcher Seth Caldwell (0) is pictured above during a 9-1 win over Campbell County at Bobby Hopkins Park in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 8:05 p.m.
The regular baseball season ends this week, and the district tournament begins.
As of Tuesday, Oak Ridge was 15-11 overall and 7-6 in District 3-AAA.
In their last district game, at home on Tuesday, the Wildcats beat Campbell County 9-1. They were scheduled to play their final regular-season district game, a rescheduled game, at Campbell County this afternoon (Sunday, April 29).
Oak Ridge will play a a non-district game at Walker Valley in Cleveland on Monday and a throwback game using wooden bats at Farragut on Tuesday.
The district tournament starts on Thursday, and games will be hosted by the top two seeds, which could be Karns and either Halls or Powell. [Read more…]
An aerial view of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center in west Oak Ridge, where the final drums of legacy transuranic waste stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be processed before shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)
The final drums of old transuranic waste stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been prepared for disposal.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management reported Tuesday that it had recently completed installing vents and sample ports in the final drums of the legacy transuranic waste stored at ORNL. The decade-long effort ensures that the drums do not contain any hazardous gases that could cause rapid combustion.
The ventilated unit where the drums were vented is closed and explosion-proof, DOE said. It is capable of withstanding a combustion event while keeping workers and ORNL, the nation’s largest multi-program national laboratory, safe, DOE said.
“Venting and sampling these drums is an essential part of the waste disposal process,” ORNL Portfolio Federal Project Director Bill McMillan said. “Now that we can ensure the safety of each drum, they are ready for transport to the Transuranic Waste Processing Center for processing and subsequent shipment to a permanent disposal facility away from Oak Ridge.” [Read more…]
Image by USA Cycling
The USA Cycling Pro Road, Time Trial, and Criterium National Championships will be in Oak Ridge and Knoxville in June, and the first of those races, the Time Trial races, will be in Oak Ridge on Thursday, June 21.
The Oak Ridge races will kick off the championships, according to Explore Oak Ridge and Adventure Anderson County.
The Time Trial championships will be hosted by Visit Knoxville and the City of Oak Ridge, the two tourism organizations said.
They said the Time Trial course is a seven-mile section of roadway that will include part of Melton Lake Drive, which is along the Oak Ridge waterfront, and Union Valley Road. The professional and elite women will complete two laps for a total distance of 14.1 miles. The professional and elite men will complete three laps for a total distance of 21.25 miles.
The course allows spectators to see athletes pass multiple times from one viewing location, Explore Oak Ridge and Adventure Anderson County said. [Read more…]
Small businesses have many opportunities to support NASA’s space flight mission—such as the Space Launch System that will be used for deep space exploration and new missions to the moon—and additional NASA projects. Learn more at the June 19 NASA networking conference “Think Big: Learn How To Do Business with NASA” at Roane State’s W.H. Swain Scott County Center in Huntsville, Tenn. (Artist’s concept courtesy of NASA).
Small businesses are invited to a conference in June that will offer information on how to do business with NASA.
It’s an all-day networking conference titled “Think Big: Learn How To Do Business with NASA.” It’s scheduled for Tuesday, June 19, at Roane State’s W.H. Swain Scott County Center, which is at 410 W.H. Swain Boulevard in Huntsville. It was organized by U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, and Congressman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican.
At the conference, small businesses can meet with NASA officials and representatives from NASA prime contractors, a press release said. Conference participants will learn about various small business opportunities provided by NASA.
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is just four hours from Huntsville, Tennessee,” Roane State President Chris Whaley said in the press release. “Opportunities with NASA are abundant for businesses of all shapes and sizes in this region. We want to raise awareness that big agencies such as NASA want and need services from small businesses. A business from a small community in a rural county can think big because NASA may be interested in your products.” [Read more…]
Anderson County residents have organized a rally to show support for the Second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution in Clinton on Saturday.
“Aware of the threat to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of our great nation, some very concerned citizens of Anderson County, Tennessee, have banded together to demonstrate to those who attack our liberties that they will not be successful in their attempts to destroy America,” a press release said.
“While recognizing there is no immediate threat to to our liberties in East Tennessee, we feel strongly that we must stand with those in other parts of our county who are seeing immediate threats to their right to keep and bear arms, a right that is guaranteed and protected by the Constitution of our country,” the press release said.
The rally is scheduled to start at noon Saturday, April 21, on the steps of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. It is meant to “show support and solidarity with freedom-loving citizens throughout the United States,” the press release said. [Read more…]
University of Tennessee Arboretum Society Spring Plant Sale (Submitted Photo)
The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will have a spring plant sale this weekend that will gather the best of four local nurseries in one location.
The public sale, the 51st Annual Spring Plant Sale, will be held on Saturday, April 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the UT Arboretum at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. The “Members Only” sale will be on Friday evening, April 20 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Memberships may be purchased at that time for this “early bird” shopping opportunity, a press release said.
“By joining UTAS on Friday night, people can enjoy the membership benefit of having the first pick of our beautiful selection of plants, some of which sell out that evening,” the press release said.
Checks, cash, and credit cards will be accepted. [Read more…]
Pictured left to right are Oak Ridge Wildcats Levi Parish and Miko Jakowski meeting Maryville’s Blake Miles and Nathan Vaughn during team introductions for doubles matches on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo courtesy David Bowman)
The Oak Ridge Wildcats tennis team played Maryville last Thursday.
At number one singles, Archer Marlow won against Maryville’s Matthew Gideon 8-5, and Wildcat Andrew Brady defeated number three Devon Jones 9-7.
Archer partnered with Stuart Dorman at number two Oak Ridge High School doubles to win 8-1 against Maryville’s Devon Jones and Nick Van Son.
For the Lady Wildcats, number one singles Jasleen Narula was narrowly defeated by Maryville‘s Rebecca Birdwell 9-8 (3).
A big win at number four doubles was had by Stephanie Romanoski and her partner Morgan Loggins 6-2 against Lady Rebels Faith Kirby and Brooklyn Kahn. [Read more…]
Two Oak Ridge Fire Department swimmers rescued a man who had fallen out of a canoe near Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge on Thursday afternoon, April 12, 2018, authorities said. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Fire Department)
Two Oak Ridge Fire Department swimmers rescued a man who had fallen out of a canoe near Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The man, who was not identified, cannot swim, but he was wearing a life jacket, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release Friday. He was hanging onto a fence post in the water after falling out of his canoe, but he was cold and could not get himself back into the overturned canoe or to the shore, the press release said.
The Oak Ridge 911 dispatch center had received a call that a canoe had overturned in the cove at the entrance to Clark Center Park at about 3:35 p.m. Thursday.
Oak Ridge Fire Department Captain Jason Benjamin has been training a crew of firefighters to become rescue swimmers during the past 24 months, and their training was put to the test on Thursday, the press release said. [Read more…]
