Molly Tuttle and the Alex Leach Band will perform in a free concert in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
It’s the last Summer Sessions concert of 2019 presented by ORNL Federal Credit Union.
Summer Sessions is a free concert series featuring bluegrass and American bands from throughout the region. Jim Lauderdale, Steve Gulley and the New Pinnacle, The Travelin’ McCourys, Circus No. 9, Ricky Skaggs, and Kentucky Thunder have also performed during the 2019 concert series.
[Read more…]The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats are 9-1 overall this volleyball season, and they are 4-0 in district games.
The team will play again after the Labor Day weekend, traveling to Knoxville Catholic on Tuesday and to play district opponent Powell on Thursday.
Here are summaries of games this season submitted by Buzz Patrick, with some light editing.
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You can learn more about the history of desegregation and profiles of those who have shaped the area during a September 9 meeting in Oak Ridge.
It’s a kick-off meeting for Women’s Interfaith Dialogue of Oak Ridge. It is scheduled to start with a brief meet-and-greet at 10:45 a.m. Monday, Saturday 9, at St. Stephens Episcopal Church at 212 North Tulane Avenue, and the program will start at 11 a.m.
Rose Weaver—an active member of the Oak Ridge community, a poet, and a historian—is currently working on researching the history of desegregation of the area and the people who have had the greatest impacts in shaping Oak Ridge, a press release said.
Weaver will also speak about the exciting NAACP Tennessee State Convention that is being hosted in Oak Ridge from Thursday, September 26, through Saturday, September 28, the press release said.
[Read more…]The Oak Ridge Board of Education on Monday approved, in the first of two votes, a policy change that would require the superintendent and principals to live in Oak Ridge.
Assistant principals, the executive director of school leadership, and the executive director of teaching and learning would be required to live in Oak Ridge if they are relocating to the region after being hired by Oak Ridge Schools. This would not apply to new administrators in those positions who already live in adjacent counties, such as Knox County.
The policy change would reduce the number of administrative positions with a residency requirement. The current policy requires the superintendent, executive director of school leadership, executive director of teaching and learning, director of pupil services, principals, and assistant principals to live in Oak Ridge “to be thoroughly familiar with the community and to be available beyond the regular day.”
But the current policy is suspected of reducing the number of candidates who apply for jobs at Oak Ridge Schools, according to administrators.
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Join a park ranger for a walk through the pre-Manhattan Project community of Wheat on Saturday, September 14.
Wheat was in what is now west Oak Ridge, around the area of Heritage Center, the former K-25 site. It was one of several local communities displaced by the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.
Oak Ridge and two other sites involved in the Manhattan Project—Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico—are now part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
[Read more…]The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats started the regular soccer season with a 2-1 win at Knoxville Catholic on Tuesday.
The game was tied 1-1 at the half, with the Oak Ridge goal scored by junior Taylor Del Toro.
The Lady Wildcats scored again in the second half on a pass from senior Katie O’Brien to senior Maddie Peters, who scored the goal, giving Oak Ridge a 2-1 lead, according to Oak Ridge Lady Soccercats.
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The Oak Ridge Wildcats will start the regular football season at home on Blankenship Field on Friday, August 23.
The Wildcats will open the season in a game against Hardin Valley. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
It will be the first time the Wildcats have played a regular-season game on the new synthetic turf on Blankenship Field.
[Read more…]The renovated Blankenship Field—the city’s football field—and its walking track are now open for public use.
The main change is that the grass field has been replaced with synthetic turf, but there are other changes as well, including to scoreboards and end zone areas.
The Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department and Oak Ridge Schools announced the opening of the renovated field on Tuesday.
The field and track are accessible through a gate adjacent to the lower concession stand, a press release said. Like other public park facilities, public use is permitted from sunup to sundown, except when the field is reserved for special events, the press release said.
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Waste Connections of Tennessee, the city’s garbage contractor, will stop accepting glass for recycling next week.
The glass has been accepted for recycling at the Convenience Center in east Oak Ridge.
The last day glass will be accepted at the Convenience Center will be Thursday, August 29, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release Tuesday.
Beginning Friday, August 30, glass should be placed with regular trash, the press release said.
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Note: This story was last updated at 5 p.m. Aug. 20.
Dairy Queen is coming to Oak Ridge.
The Dairy Queen will be located at the corner of Rutgers Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike, where a Taco Bell restaurant used to be. A new Taco Bell has been built east on the Turnpike, at the intersection with Bus Terminal Road.
Workers were at the Dairy Queen restaurant site on Monday, putting up a “DQ Coming Soon!” sign and unloading construction equipment.
[Read more…]A fallen tree caused the widespread power outages in Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoon, city officials said.
On Monday, the city didn’t have an exact number of homes and businesses affected by the power outages after heavy rain and lightning hit Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoon. The Oak Ridge Police Department had reported on Sunday that the power outage was nearly citywide.
On Monday, the Oak Ridge Electric Department said a fallen tree along Oak Ridge Turnpike near Gum Hollow Road caused the outage on Sunday. Three substations were affected, which led to outages across much of the city. The outage lasted about one hour, the city said.
Note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m.
Power has been restored to most, if not all, customers after being out across nearly all of Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoon, the Oak Ridge Police Department said.
If you are still without power, you can call (865) 425-1803.
The cause of the power outages weren’t immediately clear, but there were thunderstorms over Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoon. The storms brought heavy rain and lightning and thunder.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the power was out for different customers and where.
It would be the second major outage in Oak Ridge since mid-June, the weekend of the Secret City Festival, when the city had several electrical power outages. The most widespread outage that weekend occurred Saturday afternoon, when approximately 11,455 homes and businesses were affected across the city. The outage area included nearly everything north of the Oak Ridge Turnpike and west of Rutgers Avenue. Other areas in the central-south part of the city were also affected. Power was out for about two hour and 20 minutes.
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