Oak Ridge Today

Letter: Asks City Council to create budget advisory board

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To the Editor:

Our city has over $168 million dollars in debt—that is a 168 with six zeroes after it.

We, as the citizens of Oak Ridge, owe this debt. The number sounds huge. But the size of this debt is actually not unbearable. It is like a mortgage, we just have to pay a little bit each year—and we can afford to.

But there is a key difference between this debt and a mortgage: With a mortgage, you pay off a little bit each year, and then you are done. Unfortunately, the city of Oak Ridge is not paying down its aggregate debt each year. Instead, the city is borrowing more money each year, just making the debt larger and larger.

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Alexander Inn on endangered places list again

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Alexander Inn

The Alexander Inn in Oak Ridge has again been named an endangered place in East Tennessee.

The Alexander Inn in Oak Ridge has again been named an endangered place in East Tennessee.

The vacant, two-story hotel was included on a list of 17 endangered places released by the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance on Monday. The Alexander Inn, which could soon be converted into an assisted living center, has been on the list in previous years as well.

Announced Monday in Knoxville, the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance’s list includes endangered historic buildings and places in a 16-county region.

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Applewood Apartments could be demolished, replaced by new complex

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Note: This story was last updated at 5:38 p.m. March 6.

Eight of the 10 Applewood Apartments buildings could be demolished, and a new apartment complex could replace them under a plan proposed by an Alabama company.

The project, proposed by Huff Management Company of Opelika, Ala., is a “strong candidate” for a potential tax credit, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark S. Watson said. He said Huff Management has a contract with the present owner, Knoxville attorney Joe Levitt.

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Council approves $18 million in borrowing for sewer system repairs

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Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

After more than an hour of discussion, the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday approved the borrowing of $18 million in low-interest state loans to help pay for a $23 million project to fix the municipal sewer system.

Council voted 6-1 to borrow the money at a 1.23 percent interest rate through the State Revolving Fund program, which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

The work is being done to comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires Oak Ridge to repair all sewer system overflows by Sept. 28, 2015.

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Guest column: Researches EPA sewer order, says more work needed

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Last month, Oak Ridgers were hit with a water/sewer rate increase for the second time in nine months to pay for $15 million worth of debt that you were told (incorrectly) was issued to cover a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate. On Monday night, City Council is preparing to approve another $18 million in debt for the same cause, which will result in subsequent rate increases.

A statement I received this weekend from one resident sums up the frustrations that so many of you have been sharing with me: “Utility rates (water, sewer, electrical, trash pickup, etc.) keep going up; the city and county property ‘double’ taxation is simply too much. It so happens that our group of friends and us discuss the idea of moving to other less costly vicinities nearby more often than before. We would strongly suggest that our city government start budgeting our expenditures with the money we have.”

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Guest column: The beginning of hopeful change in economic development

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By Pat Fain and Leslie Agron

On a cool Monday evening at a recent Oak Ridge City Council work session, City Manager Mark Watson did something else. He offered the city and the Council a creative and achievable road map to changing the decades-old paradigm that is today’s Oak Ridge. He offered new exciting ideas geared to the 21st century and designed to promote both the fiscal health and the allure of the city.

The focus of the room was total, and one could almost hear the gray cells churning to take it all in. It is really fun to be present at the very beginning of hopeful change. The inertia of the city has been challenged, the status quo has been shaken, and the restlessness of the citizenry has been given a positive direction around which to coalesce.

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Council unanimously approves $150,000 contract for Jackson Square work

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Jackson Square Revitalization

A concept plan by Benefield Richters of Knoxville for the $1 million revitalization of historic Jackson Square in Oak Ridge.

After a brief discussion Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council unanimously agreed to award a $150,000 contract to a company that will help in the first phase of a $1 million project to redevelop Jackson Square, the city’s original town center.

The contract for design services was awarded to Vaughn and Melton Consulting Engineering Inc. of Knoxville. V&M will help with services ranging from deed research and field surveys to preliminary plans and construction estimates.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said V&M has helped with the redevelopment of Gay Street in Knoxville.

The work is part of a project funded with help from a Tennessee Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant that was announced by Gov. Bill Haslam in Jackson Square in June 2012.

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Council accepts $480,000 grant for railway museum at K-25

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Southern Appalachia Railway Museum Building

A plan for the proposed Southern Appalachia Railway Museum at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site. (Submitted image)

Although they had concerns about potential worst-case scenarios, Oak Ridge City Council members on Monday unanimously agreed to accept a state grant worth up to $480,000 for construction of a railway museum at Heritage Center, a project first proposed more than a decade ago.

By approving the resolution, Council also authorized the city to enter into a construction management agreement with the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and Heritage Center LLC. That agreement calls for CROET and Heritage to offer the 20 percent local match required under the grant, or $120,000, as well as associated construction management services.

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Report: Oak Ridge officials discuss wastewater issues with EPA in Atlanta

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Editor’s note: The Oak Ridge City Council recently established an ad hoc subcommittee to focus on issues related to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrative order on inflow and infiltration of the city’s wastewater system. Councilman Chuck Hope, who is chairman of the subcommittee, provided the following report on its recent meeting with the EPA in Atlanta.

The subcommittee of City Council that was formed to address our EPA Administrative Order concerns, went to Atlanta, Ga., on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, to meet with staff from the Southeast Regional (Region 4) EPA office.

The meeting was attended by four EPA staff members: Denisse Diaz, clean water enforcement branch chief; Maurice Horsey, municipal and industrial enforcement section chief; Michele Whetherington, assistant regional counsel; and Dennis Sayre, our assigned contact in municipal and industrial enforcement.

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Council considers first phase of $1 million Jackson Square redevelopment

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Jackson Square Revitalization

A concept plan by Benefield Richters of Knoxville for the $1 million revitalization of historic Jackson Square in Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge City Council members on Monday will consider awarding a $150,000 contract to a company that could help in the first phase of a $1 million project to redevelop Jackson Square, the city’s original town center.

The contract for design services could be awarded to Vaughn and Melton Consulting Engineering Inc. of Knoxville. V&M could help with services ranging from deed research and field surveys to preliminary plans and construction estimates.

The work is part of a project funded with help from a Tennessee Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant that was announced by Gov. Bill Haslam in Jackson Square in June 2012.

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City Council to discuss electronic signs, economic development

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Rivers Total Car Care Electronic Sign

Business owners with electronic signs, including Toney Stevens of Rivers Total Car Care in Oak Ridge, objected to a letter they received in December asking them to fix sign ordinance code violations. Since then, the violation notices have been canceled, and the Oak Ridge City Council will discuss the electronic sign ordinance in a work session tonight.

The Oak Ridge City Council will review the city’s electronic reader board sign ordinance during a work session at 7 p.m. today.

The meeting will also include a presentation and report on the city’s economic development programs and possible changes in how the city supports new jobs and companies, improves retail opportunities, and enhances housing improvements.

Changes to the city’s electronic sign ordinance were proposed late last year, but they were pulled from a December meeting of the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission agenda after a backlash from business owners.

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Guest column: City needs a return on public spending on Chamber, ORCVB

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By Leslie Agron and Pat Fain

This coming Monday evening, the Oak Ridge City Council and the city manager will hold a work session that has the potential to become the seminal discussion on the future growth and success of Oak Ridge. This discussion will probably begin with the question of the city contracts with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce ($250,000) and the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau ($400,000) and, unfortunately, it may just end there. If this happens it could be another significant opportunity fumbled.

There are very legitimate reasons to question the continued expenditure of public dollars for the type and quality of results delivered by these two entities. The need for growth of revenue is real. Several years ago, without even a minimal public discussion of what kind of city we want to be in the future, the city and the Chamber entered into a series of open-ended contracts. That produced amorphous and inadequate results. The Chamber can well blame a lack of direction and vision on the city. The city can point to lots of sound and fury and fast food restaurants as being an inadequate answer to long-term financial woes and economic growth needs.

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