Employers are invited to participate in a Feb. 27 job fair for Roane State Community College students who are pursuing careers in health care and plan to graduate this year.
The fair is planned for Wednesday, Feb. 27, from 2-5 p.m. at Roane State’s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Ave. Setup begins at 1 p.m.
American Water Resources of Tennessee has mailed a solicitation for service line insurance to Oak Ridge homeowners.
Homeowners should be advised of the following:
It took about 20 minutes to demolish the last section of the North End of the historic K-25 Building in west Oak Ridge on Wednesday morning. Shut down for several decades, K-25 was built to enrich uranium during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, and it was once the world’s largest building under one roof.
Watch the last section of the North End crash to the ground in this video:
Standard and Poor’s Rating Services recently raised its rating on Oak Ridge’s electric system’s revenue debt one notch, from “A-” to “A.”
“This is very good news for the City of Oak Ridge,” City Manager Mark Watson said. “Bonds for the city’s electric utility systems were upgraded and recognized for the stable outlook observed during Standard and Poor’s normal review. A better bond rating will have a positive impact on lower interest rate considerations in the future, if needed.”
Forecasters say air moving into the southern Appalachians will turn rain into snow by this afternoon. (Image courtesy of National Weather Service in Morristown.)
There is a 100 percent chance of snow in the Oak Ridge area today as cold air moves into the southern Appalachians, turning rain showers into snow by this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.
The rain will start turning to snow by about 2 to 3 p.m., and the precipitation should be all snow by about 4 to 5 p.m., said Derek Eisentrout, spokesperson for the National Weather Service in Morristown. He said the snow should start tapering off by 7 or 8 p.m.
The Weather Service doesn’t expect a lot of snow in the Oak Ridge area, forecasting about a one-inch accumulation.
A major concern for forecasters is the black ice that could be on roads tomorrow morning as temperatures plunge into the 20s overnight.
The Oak Ridge City Council tonight will consider applying for $18 million in two state loans to help repair all sewer system overflows by September 2015.
The two state loans are low-interest loans granted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and they can be used for engineering and construction costs. Oak Ridge has received two earlier loans, one in 1998 and 2002.
The sewer system project is expected to cost $23 million total. The project, which will start in east Oak Ridge and move west, will also be funded by a $2 million Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund Loan and about $3 million in future debt or an amendment of the state loans.
Note: This is a copy of a letter sent to Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Oak Ridge City Council members, among others.
Dear Mayor Beehan,
Next Monday evening you will begin considering a major increase in the Oak Ridge city debt to finance the sewer upgrade project. This increase and the associated utility rate increases:
Technicians trained in mechatronics work with high-tech robotic equipment. (Photo courtesy of Anne Arundel Community College)
Roane State Community College is hosting information meetings about a new certificate program that will train students to become technicians who operate, maintain, and repair high-tech automated manufacturing systems.
Anyone interested in the one-year mechatronics program is invited to attend information meetings on Thursday, Jan. 3, at the college’s Oak Ridge campus; Tuesday, Jan. 8, at the college’s Loudon County campus in Lenoir City; or on Thursday, Jan. 10, at the Clinton Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility.
The information sessions will be held at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. each day. Interested students only need to attend one of the sessions.
The program begins Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the Clinton Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility.
Chuck Fleischmann
Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved it, the U.S. House passed legislation late Tuesday night to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” but seven Tennessee Republicans and one Democrat opposed it.
The bill, which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature, averts income tax increases for most Americans and temporarily delays large across-the-board spending cuts to defense and domestic programs.
However, the Associated Press reported most Americans will still end up paying more federal taxes in 2013 because the legislation did not renew a temporary 2 percent cut in the payroll tax. That reduction was worth about $1,000 to a worker making $50,000 a year.
U.S. senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both Tennessee Republicans, voted for the bill in the Senate, where it passed 89-8 early Tuesday morning. Alexander and Corker said the legislation, reached after weeks of negotiations between the White House and Congress, “rescues” 99 percent of Americans from a tax rate increase.
But all seven Tennessee Republicans in the U.S. House, including Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, voted against it. The vote in the House was 257-167.
Roane State Community College campuses will offer extended business hours after the holiday break to help students get ready for the start of spring classes.
Roane State has been closed since Dec. 15 and will be closed through Tuesday, Jan. 1, for the holidays. All campuses will reopen on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
Readers have inquired about the work at this 13-acre site at Oak Ridge Turnpike and California Avenue, and a property owner said the land is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
Several readers have noticed what appears to be construction work at a former Chevrolet dealership on Oak Ridge Turnpike and asked what is happening there.
On Friday, Rick Chinn, partner in R&R Enterprises, which owns the 13-acre lot, said it is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
The land, which is east of Oak Ridge Veterinary Hospital and across from California Avenue, will also be used for operations during the sewer system project.
State and local officials from Oak Ridge and Anderson and Roane counties recently attended the U.S. Department of Energy’s Annual Intergovernmental Conference in New Orleans. Participants met with federal, state, and local leaders from DOE sites across the nation, including top managers overseeing DOE’s Environmental Management, or EM, program.
Two senior DOE officials were keynote speakers at the conference. David Huizenga, senior advisor for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, provided an update on the EM program, which is responsible for environmental restoration, waste management, and long-term stewardship at DOE sites across the complex.
Neile Miller, recently named acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration and acting undersecretary for nuclear security, addressed the relationship between NNSA and EM, and how the programs work together at sites with multiple missions like Oak Ridge.
