Resurfacing of parts of 25 Oak Ridge streets is scheduled to start Saturday.
“The project will begin on Wisconsin Avenue with repairs to correct surface and drainage problems, which will be followed by concrete work by city personnel to correct drainage problems,” a press release said. “This project will generally proceed from west to east.” [Read more…]
Myron Iwanski
I agree with Martin McBride that Oak Ridge is a great place to live. However, I do not agree with his statement in recent columns that high property taxes are the reason Anderson County’s and Oak Ridge’s populations are not growing as fast as those in some area counties.
The following information from county and city audit reports and websites, the University of Tennessee County Technical Advisory Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website help make my point. [Read more…]
USEC Inc. announced Friday that it had not been able to conclude a deal for the short-term extension of uranium enrichment at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, and the company will begin ceasing uranium enrichment at the end of May. The Paducah plant is the only U.S.-owned and operated uranium enrichment facility in the United States. USEC, which has operations in Oak Ridge, leases the Kentucky plant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“While we have pursued possible opportunities for continuing enrichment, DOE has concluded that there were not sufficient benefits to the taxpayers to extend enrichment,” said Robert Van Namen, USEC senior vice president and chief operating officer. “I am extremely disappointed to say we must now begin to take steps to cease enrichment. [Read more…]
Brian Blocher
Brian Blocher, a sophomore on Southern Virginia University’s men’s tennis team, was recently named to the Capital One Academic All-District First Team and was a Non-USCAA Sports National All-Academic award winner.
Blocher is originally from Oak Ridge, and he played at Webb School.
An SVU press release said the Capitol One all-district teams are divided into eight districts and are separated by NCAA Divisions I, II, III, and College Division—including NAIA, two-year, and independent institutions. To be recognized, a student athlete must have at least a 3.3 cumulative grade point average and serve as a key contributor to the team. [Read more…]
Working the retail scene
As you read this, a team of representatives from Oak Ridge is returning home from Las Vegas, Nev., where we attended the International Council of Shopping Centers annual ReCon convention. The convention is the largest gathering of representatives of national retailers and restaurants in the world.
Our team walked an average of about nine miles per day making sure we visited as many representatives as possible during our time here. We also exhibited in a pavilion that is set up specifically for cities around the nation. Several Tennessee communities were represented there. While there, we had 20 face-to-face meetings with representatives of national retailers and restaurants as well as representatives of Kroger Real Estate and Crosland Southeast, the company contracted to purchase the Oak Ridge City Center. [Read more…]
Denise Kiernan
Denise Kiernan, author of “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II,” will speak at Lunch with the League on Tuesday.
The program begins at noon Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
“The Girls of Atomic City” is the true story of the young women during World War II who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, one of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities. Through their efforts were crucial to the development of the world’s first atomic bomb, the vast majority of Oak Ridge residents did not know what they were working on until the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy” detonated above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. [Read more…]
A large white oak fell on a home in west Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoon, damaging a garage and deck railing.
Trees fell on several roadways and at least one home in west Oak Ridge during a short, severe storm Sunday afternoon.
There were reports of hail in some parts of East Tennessee, and the storm brought high winds. In Oak Ridge, trees fell on or along Gum Hollow Road, Mason Lane, and Westover Drive. [Read more…]
Trina Baughn
During our May 13 and May 28 meetings, the Oak Ridge City Council will determine your property tax rate for the next year via our annual budget. Our decision will directly affect your personal finances. Of greater consequence, however, we will establish our city’s competitive position.
Currently, Oak Ridge has the third-highest property tax rate in East Tennessee at $2.39 when you add in the Anderson County rate of $2.35. Each penny of our rate equals approximately $90,000 of spending. We have a tremendous opportunity to make Oak Ridge more competitive and attractive to prospective residents and businesses without sacrificing our quality of life.
In addition to increasing our revenues (I’ve suggested converting select city-owned assets into taxable properties, eliminating tax abatements, and negotiating voluntary payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements), we must ensure the highest and best use of each and every penny you entrust to us.
During our deliberations, I will make the following motions to immediately reduce our tax rate and/or improve our marketability to outsiders: [Read more…]
The total number of crimes reported to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department has dropped by about 25 percent in the past two years, Sheriff Paul White said.
He said overall crimes decreased by an even larger percentage, roughly 35 percent, from 2007 to 2012. Crimes against property, such as burglaries and thefts, fell about 20 percent over two years and close to 30 percent since 2007.
“This drop in overall crime can be directly attributed to proactive law enforcement and increased patrols of the rural areas of the county,” White said in a Monday press release. [Read more…]
Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.
I hear the siren. It’s noon on May 1, the first Wednesday of the month. What a coincidence, as I sit at my computer reading the Washington Post article “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” It mentions that siren and reveals the circumstances of the Y-12 security system breach last year. The article links Oak Ridge’s first known prophet, John Hendrix to the nun, painter, and drifter who made national news.
I think to myself, “God WAS responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb….and there ARE real prophets in Oak Ridge – still today!”
“What?” your mind must be responding, as you wonder how I could think such a thing. Well, if you’ll stick with me, you’ll see the path to my conclusion. [Read more…]
The city’s annual brush pickup program started Monday, April 29.
The second week starts this Monday, and here is the schedule: [Read more…]
State and federal officials announce a plant to treat mercury-contaminated water at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Pictured from left are Mark Whitney, Robert Martineau, Lamar Alexander, Dave Huizenga, and Stan Meiburg.
Cleanup work in Oak Ridge could shift from radiological contamination to mercury contamination, and a new $120 million water treatment plant at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce mercury as workers tear down four contaminated buildings that were used to make nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, officials announced Friday.
“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican. He said mercury contamination can cause brain and nervous system damage in people who eat contaminated fish.
Alexander was at Y-12 on Friday along with other federal and state officials to help announce the new water treatment plant, which will be at the head of East Fork Poplar Creek on the south side of Y-12’s main production area. The plant would be connected to a Y-12 storm water system, and it could begin operating in 2019. It would be able to treat 1,500 gallons of mercury-contaminated water per minute. [Read more…]
