Information from WYSH Radio
Early voting for the November 4 general election in Anderson County begins Wednesday, October 15, and runs through Thursday, October 30.
Early voting hours Monday through Friday will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon at the Clinton Community Center, the Midtown Community Center in Oak Ridge, and at the North Anderson Government Office in the Anderson Crossing Shopping Center in the Norris/Andersonville area. [Read more…]
At left, Mattie Livengood of Oak Ridge, the District 3 champions, goes up against defenders Anne Abernathy (11) and Alexis Parker (6) of Farragut, the Region 4 runner-up, during semifinals at the Region 2-AAA championship at Bearden High School on Tuesday. Farragut beat Oak Ridge and went on to win the regional championship in the finals match against Bearden. (Photos by Nicholas Rhodes)
Note: This story was updated with stats at 10:10 a.m. Oct. 16.
BEARDEN—The first matchup of the night featured the Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats battling the Farragut Lady Admirals. Oak Ridge fought hard against Farragut, but was eventually beaten in straight sets: 25-8, 25-10, and 25-11.
The first set was all Farragut. After putting up the first six points of the set, the Lady Admirals kept piling on the score. At one point of the set, they commanded a 15-3 lead on the Lady Wildcats. Before the Wildcats knew what happened, Farragut had won the set 25-8.
The second set was closer at first, but Farragut seemed to overpower Oak Ridge with every serve, kill, or block. The Lady Wildcats brought it to 4-3 before the Lady Admirals went on a 10-3 scoring run to pull the lead to 14-6. After that, Farragut didn’t look back.
After the second set, Coach Carmen Foster huddled her girls up and she told them to calm their nerves.
“Stay together,” Foster encouraged. “Concentrate on the pass, talk to each other out there, and stay positive.” [Read more…]
New Hope Center
New Hope Center to be closed to public until noon
Emergency response personnel from the State of Tennessee and the Y-12 National Security Complex—along with other federal, state and local emergency management personnel—will conduct an emergency management exercise on Wednesday, October 15, at Y-12’s New Hope Center.
Because of the activities associated with the exercise, New Hope Center, located on Scarboro Road, will be closed to the public from 8 a.m. to noon the day of the exercise, and so will East Portal Road from Scarboro Road up to and including Portal 13.
The exercise should be completed by late morning or early afternoon, a press release said. [Read more…]
Terry Frank
The Anderson County Tea Party meeting this evening will feature Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Aaron Wells, a candidate for Oak Ridge Board of Education.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. today (Tuesday, October 14) at the Red Cross building on Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Aaron Wells
Other agenda items will include a presentation by the “Yes on 1” group, member reports from the latest Oak Ridge City Council meeting, and a book raffle of “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinski. The Red Cross building is located at 908 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.
This meeting is open to the public and will last until approximately 8 p.m., a press release said.
Strong to severe storms and flooding are possible across the region as a band of showers and storms slowly moves east across the area, forecasters said.
A flood advisory is in effect in Oak Ridge and Clinton, among other areas, through 11:15 a.m., and a flood watch is in effect from noon to 11 p.m.
The National Weather Service in Morristown has also issued a wind advisory that applies to Oak Ridge and Clinton, among other areas. It’s in effect through 8 p.m.
The NWS said heavy rainfall of one to two inches can be expected across much of the area, and rainfall of up to three inches is possible in a few locations. The rain and storms are expected today over the southern Appalachians and eastern Tennessee Valley as a strong storm moves east from the Mississippi Valley, slowly pushing a cold front across the area. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats volleyball team won the District 3-AAA championship on Wednesday night at Central High School and will play for a regional title at Bearden High School on Tuesday. (Submitted photo)
Submitted by Coach Carmen Foster
The Oak Ridge High School Lady Wildcats volleyball team went into the District 3-AAA volleyball tournament undefeated.
The Lady Wildcats faced the winner of Powell and Central for their first match last week. Powell overcame a scrappy Central team to advance into the District Round.
The Lady Wildcats beat Powell in straight sets: 25-9, 25-15, and 25-13. They were led by a wonderful serving game led by senior captain Rachel Card and freshmen Reagan Dickens with nine and 10 service aces, respectively. Sophomore Alex Sherles had the most kills of the evening with 10. Sophomore Beth Wyatt, who is currently replacing the injured Emily Lawless in the setter position, added 32 assists. [Read more…]
David Lynn Crowley
Note: This story was updated at 3 p.m.
Anderson County Public Works Director David Lynn Crowley was arrested Thursday morning by agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on five charges of violating state laws dealing with having the proper licenses to perform building inspections.
In a press release, the TBI said Crowley, 62, of Clinton, is accused of performing building inspections he wasn’t certified to do. Crowley was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury. He is charged with five misdemeanor counts of violating the state’s building official certification law.
Crowley was booked into the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton at 9:45 a.m. Thursday and released on a $1,000 bond a little more than an hour later. [Read more…]
Note: This story has been updated to correct the date of the Oak Ridge-Anderson County football game.
Information from WYSH Radio
The Associated Press high school football polls for this week were unveiled Monday.
Here is a look at the teams from East Tennessee who are ranked this week.
In Class 6A, Maryville remains #1, with Science Hill at #6 and Dobyns-Bennett #9.
In Class 5A, Knoxville West (5-1) stays in first place, while the Anderson County Mavericks (7-0) remain at #3. South Doyle (6-0) is #7 in Class 5A, and Oak Ridge (6-0) made its debut in the poll this week at #10. [Read more…]
Junior running back T.J. Allison (#6) of the Wildcats runs behind the blocking of senior tight end Ryan Waddell (#86) as senior Joseph Elkins (#5) of Campbell County tries to strip the ball away. Allison ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns on Friday. (Photos by Julio Culiat)
Note: This story was last updated at 2:15 p.m.
Wildcats shut down big passing gains for Cougars
The running game was working well and burning up the clock, so Oak Ridge coach Joe Gaddis stuck with it.
Two running backs, juniors T.J. Allison and Jaylen Nickerson, racked up more than 100 yards each and led the Wildcats to three touchdowns in the first, second, and third quarters. Kicker Brandon Nickle added a field goal in the fourth.
The 24-8 victory was an important district win for the Wildcats, who are now 6-0 overall and 4-0 in District 3-AAA. The only other undefeated team in the district is Anderson County (7-0, 6-0). The two teams will face off in the season finale on Thursday, October 30.
Oak Ridge came close to picking up its fourth shutout of the season on Friday night at Blankenship Field, preventing the Cougars, who had averaged 42 points per game, from scoring until late in the fourth quarter.
“Our defense played really well,” Gaddis said.
Information from WYSH Radio
One person died in a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 75 North in Anderson County on Thursday afternoon.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol responded to the scene just before 3:30 p.m. at exit 129, the Rocky Top (Lake City) exit.
The THP report indicates that a 1998 Ford pickup left the right side of the roadway, traveled into a ditch and flipped, partially ejecting the driver, 29-year-old William Overton of Jacksboro. Troopers say he was not wearing a seatbelt.
Chris Phillips
CLINTON—Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank announced Thursday that Chris Phillips will be rejoining Anderson County government as budget director.
“I never wanted Chris to leave, but I certainly understood from the beginning that Lake City, now Rocky Top, was in search of next-level management in modernizing their accounting structure,” Frank said. “Though Chris tried to accomplish Rocky Top’s goals by working part-time on weekends, it really took him leaving the county to be in Rocky Top full-time. I made it clear from the get-go that if I had not filled the budget director position, he was always welcome back home here in Anderson County government.”
“While the thought of disappointing those who were kind enough to vote for me weighs heavily on me, I know I can best serve the people of this county by implementing and directing policy, rather than making policy, and that requires that I step down from my position as Commissioner to serve Anderson County in another way,” said Phillips, who was elected to one of two Anderson County Commission seats in District 4 on August 7.
Phillips will resign his County Commission seat effective October 10, a press release said.
Former Anderson County Commissioner Zach Bates, who ran for county mayor in the May 6 Republican primary, did not seek re-election in District 4, which includes the Lake City (Rocky Top), Briceville, and Rosedale voting precincts. [Read more…]
Mark Watson
In December of 2013, the City of Oak Ridge was given a Christmas present: a strong, viable prospective property owner that would help reclaim the center of our precious city. Crosland Southeast, well-respected developers from North Carolina, came to our city and said they could help us redevelop the crumbling mall within our city. This mall, newly named Main Street Oak Ridge, had come to symbolize the ultimate development challenge for our city.
Now, 10 months later, the time has come for the details of our work to begin to come out in the open. This project has taken several courses. First, the City of Oak Ridge and Anderson County said that they would support the development of this project with what is known as a tax increment district, or TIF. The governments would continue to receive their marginal values in property taxes, but the “new” value created by the private investment in Main Street Oak Ridge would be used to pay for public improvements on the project such as new traffic configurations, road improvements, and building demolition. In return, the private developer would borrow money at his own risk and develop major new retail shopping, with a potential hotel and residential development on the 65-acre site.
This effort has been successful, and major retail tenants have been lined up for filling a targeted 260,000 square feet of new facilities. Our Belk store will receive a facelift, and JCPenney will continue to perform. At present, stores are in the initial inquiry stages of building and will be moving to make announcements by the first of the year or shortly thereafter. I would love to tell you the names of the stores (which I have seen), but we need to honor the wishes of the companies as they make their expansion announcements. I believe the Oak Ridge community will be pleased! [Read more…]
