Oak Ridge Today

Construction work starts on Centrifuge Way interchange

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Centrifuge Way Interchange Improvements

Construction work has started on a $1 million state project to improve the interchange at South Illinois Avenue and Centrifuge Way in Oak Ridge.

Construction work has started on a $1.2 million state project to improve the interchange at Centrifuge Way and South Illinois Avenue, or State Route 62.

The work started Nov. 14 and could be complete by June 15, said Mark Nagi, Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesman.

The work is being done by J&M Grading Division LLC of Friendsville under a $1.165 million contract, Nagi said.

The work includes building three detention ponds that will be used as sediment basins during construction, reconfiguring the interchange, and extending Centrifuge Way, which was formerly known as Boeing Road.

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Letter: Micromanagement or good government?

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To the Editor:

I am very saddened by the loss of Ellen Smith from the Oak Ridge City Council. I have told her that she will have my support for running again in two years. We will be greatly impoverished by her absence until then.

There are those who blame long meetings on Ellen’s dedication to detail and asking many clarifying questions. The devil is always in the details, and it has been Ellen’s interest, talent, incisive mind, and dedication to the details that has made her so vital to the maintenance of good government and to ensuring the people’s right to accountability of how their money is being spent. It has been her dedication to scientific principles of actual verifiable proof of bald assertions that has made her the guardian of the people’s best interests.

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Work begins to move Oak Ridge homes for Kroger Marketplace

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Iris Circle Home Relocation

An Iris Circle home is held up by steel beams and wooden piers Monday, one of several homes that could be moved to make way for a 25-acre Kroger Marketplace shopping center.

Work has started to move homes on Iris Circle and Robin Lane to make way for a 25-acre Kroger Marketplace shopping center at Oak Ridge Turnpike and North Illinois Avenue.

Five homes were off their foundations in the small neighborhood in central Oak Ridge on Monday, raised on steel beams and stacked wooden piers. Work had started on a few others.

Among those relocating their homes is George Royster, a five-year neighborhood resident who helped lead the crusade against the $30 million development.

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Letter: School board campaign educational, financial default remains

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To the Editor:

I would like to personally thank each of you, the nearly 4,300 citizens that supported me in my campaign to change how our Board of Education deals with its major problems.

Many of you may have noticed that from the beginning of this campaign I elected to run a very unconventional political campaign that was intended to inform rather than just win votes. My campaign was designed to inform the general public about a little known financial default. A default that the BOE has not wanted to even admit exists and explains as a simple misunderstanding.

But this default is as real as the daily sunrise. In spite of that, it has received little public press and no open discussion by either the BOE or the current City Council members.

When I began this campaign, I understood full well the major difficulties that I faced in operating a political campaign based on informing the public. In August, less than 10 people knew a default had occurred. By Nov. 6, about 18 percent of the voters knew about the default. Political campaigns are rarely based on informing anyone or on any real facts. Even fewer campaigns are won based on real facts or principles.

Today, the same disagreement and financial problem exists following the election that was created by the BOE over a year ago. A problem that has resulted in a $766,470 reduction in the 2013 school budget, reducing the Oak Ridge city transfer from $14.6 million to $13.86 million.

This major 2013 reduction has yet to be dealt with by the BOE, and the school budget remains unbalanced. This reduction will also reduce all future city school transfer funds because it establishes a new base from which all future increases grow.

Now, the same people that created the problem and poor relationship must correct it. Members of the BOE have threatened both state and legal action to retain the previous budget, but none of these threats have yet taken place. Also, nothing has been done to improve the situation.

I wish both the BOE members and the school staff well in dealing with the reality of this unaddressed significant budget reduction and their self-created poor relationship. Should this situation remain uncorrected, both will impact staffing and program content in our fine school system.

Citizens, thank you again for your support and your committed concern to both our quality of life and everyone’s’ efforts to improve Oak Ridges’ competitiveness as we move to the future.

Leonard Abbatiello

Oak Ridge

Council to hear updates on animal shelter, railway museum

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The Oak Ridge City Council will hear updates tonight on the animal shelter, where two of three employees recently resigned, and the proposed Southern Appalachia Railway Museum, which has been in danger of losing a $480,000 state grant.

Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi is scheduled to give an overview of the animal shelter during a City Council work session at 7 p.m. today at the Central Services Complex on Woodbury Lane. This morning, Akagi said the city has hired two new animal control officers.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson and City Attorney Ken Krushenski are scheduled to give the updates on the railway museum.

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Oak Ridge mayor, mayor pro tem seek re-appointment

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The city’s mayor and vice mayor are both seeking to be re-appointed to two-year terms when the new City Council meets on Dec. 10.

Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller have both written to their fellow City Council members, asking to be re-appointed. (Beehan’s letter is here, and Miller’s is here.)

The mayor and mayor pro tem are not elected by voters in Oak Ridge. Instead, they are appointed by the seven-member council after each regular municipal election.

A new council was elected Nov. 6. One on the incumbents, Ellen Smith, lost in her re-election run, and two other incumbents, Charlie Hensley and Chuck Hope, were re-elected. They will be joined by new council member Trina Baughn.

The mayor leads council meetings, serves as the ceremonial head of the city, and signs ordinances, resolutions, bonds, and contracts, among other things. The mayor votes at council meetings but has no veto power.

The mayor pro tem fills in for the mayor when the mayor is absent or disabled.

Beehan has been mayor since July 2007. Before that, he was mayor pro tem for six years.

Miller has been mayor pro tem since July 2007.

Beehan has been a council member since 2001, and Miller has served since 2003.

The other two council members are Anne Garcia Garland and David Mosby. Council members serve staggered four-year terms, so three are elected in one municipal election, and then, two years later, four more are elected.

The Dec. 10 council meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom.

Letter: Mayor seeks re-appointment

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(Note: The following is a letter that Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan sent to his fellow City Council members.)

Congratulations to the winners of Tuesday’s Oak Ridge City Council election. You worked hard, and now you will work even harder as we come together on City Council to continue to move Oak Ridge in a positive direction.

It has been an honor and privilege to serve as the mayor of Oak Ridge for the last five years.

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Letter: Mayor pro tem seeks re-appointment

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Jane Miller

Jane Miller

(Note: This is a copy of a letter that Oak Ridge Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller sent to her fellow City Council members.)

Dear Members of City Council:

By submission of this letter, I am formally announcing that I intend to seek re‐election to the position of mayor pro tem on Dec. 10.

First, I welcome and congratulate Ms. Baughn on her election. She will bring new and different ideas to the Council. I also congratulate Mr. Hensley and Mr. Hope on their successful re‐elections. Although we are diverse and have a variety of opinions on various issues, I believe we will collectively continue to make good decisions to move our City forward.

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Guest column: Oak Ridge has growth potential in sales tax revenue

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Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of a statement Oak Ridge City Council member Chuck Hope made during a candidates forum before the Nov. 6 election.

Why do I want to be on City Council? Because Oak Ridge has given me so many opportunities and provided for my family for over 30 years, I want to make sure that the next generation has those same opportunities.

How do we make sure those opportunities are available for the next “Oak Ridgers”?

We start by making sure we keep a close watch on our revenue and expenditures. We need to understand that we really only have two main sources of revenue that come into the city. They are our property taxes and our sales tax revenue.

As most of you know, our property tax rate is higher than our surrounding cities and towns. However, compared to other “full service cities,” ours is comparable. There are only a handful of these “full service cities” all across Tennessee.

But before we can start to really change the rate, we must first find revenue from other sources. Where we have the most potential for growth in revenue is in the sales tax revenue we generate. For a city our size and with the economic drivers that we provide to the region, we should be bringing in a substantially larger portion of sales tax revenue.

We must find ways to increase our sales tax revenue before we can start to reduce our property tax rate. This is where I will focus my energy. To do that, we must continue to find ways to bring in more retail options (both restaurants and shopping choices), continue to work closely with the Industrial Development Board, Chamber of Commerce, and Economic Partnership to bring additional private investment capital and jobs, then make sure the Economic Diversification Fund is working for us.

Once we get the sales tax revenue growth improving, we can then start to look at ways to reduce our property tax rate so we can be competitive within our region. All the while making sure we are diligent and remember our expenditures and stay within our annual budget. We are always looking for ways to streamline our costs while maintaining our quality-of-life services.

But one of our biggest attributes the city needs to pay close attention to is our school system. It is still the biggest reason young families come to Oak Ridge, and it is the benchmark all other education systems set the bar to. But if we don’t continue to work with the school board and find solutions to some real issues before us, other communities will close the gap, and we may never be able to set the bar high enough again.

As you can see, City Council has many challenges before them, and I believe I can contribute to finding solutions to these issues. With your support and input, I will bring my business sense to council.

Chuck Hope

Oak Ridge

Letter: New City Council member gives thanks

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To the Editor:

I would like to thank the citizens of Oak Ridge for allowing me to represent them on City Council. I am both honored and excited to go to work for you. I am eager to work with my fellow council members, the city manager and the city staff to make Oak Ridge more affordable for residents and businesses.

I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Ellen Smith for her five years of service on council. She dedicated a tremendous amount of herself to the betterment of Oak Ridge without expectations of praise or notoriety. She is a woman of absolute integrity for whom I have the utmost respect, and I wish her nothing but the best.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, friends, and other supporters (some of whom I’ve never even met) for their hard work and dedication over these last eight months. I had the most amazing people backing me and am absolutely humbled at how much time and effort you sacrificed to help me win. I thank you all for believing in me and am ready to make you proud!

Trina Baughn

Oak Ridge

City allows ‘brown bagging’ of beer, wine in some restaurants

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A city ordinance change approved Monday allows diners to bring their own beer or wine into certain restaurants when they have the owner’s permission. The practice is known as “brown bagging.”

The new ordinance was unanimously approved by Oak Ridge City Council on Monday, and it takes effect Thursday.

It applies to restaurants that have a beer permit or managers with Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission server permits, a city press release said. The ordinance does not allow “brown bagging” in other public places.

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Except for Smith, incumbents re-elected in Oak Ridge, state House

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John and Liz Ragan

Tennessee Rep. John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican, pictured at right, and Liz Ragan, his wife, celebrate the legislator’s re-election to the Tennessee House at the Buffalo Mountain Grille on Tuesday night.

It was a good night for incumbents in five local races in Oak Ridge and the Tennessee House and Senate. With one exception, they were all re-elected.

Chuck Hope and Charlie Hensley had hundreds of votes to spare as they easily won re-election to Oak Ridge City Council. Keys Fillauer and Angi Agle, the two incumbents on the Oak Ridge Board of Education, also coasted to victory.

Tennessee Rep. John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican, won a narrower victory over former Rep. Jim Hackworth, a Clinton Democrat. Ragan received 699 more votes than Hackworth, according to unofficial results. He finished ahead by 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent.

The one newcomer elected Tuesday was Trina Baughn. She will join Hope and Hensley to serve on Council.

Gone will be incumbent Ellen Smith, who was soundly defeated. Hope and Baughn each finished ahead of Smith by more than 2,000 votes, according to unofficial results in Anderson and Roane counties.

Baughn first campaigned for a City Council seat in an August special election, when she lost to Hope. Hope was appointed to Council last summer after former member Tom Hayes resigned.

Baughn and Hope both said the August special election helped prepare them for Tuesday’s municipal election.

Midtown Polling Station

Andrew McCulloch, right, signs in at the Midtown Community Center polling station on Tuesday. Also pictured are poll workers Margaret Terrell, left, and Jim Young.

The training paid off. Hope finished first Tuesday with 6,887 votes, and Baughn was second with 6,739, according to the unofficial results.

Baughn, a communications professional, credited hard work and the efforts of some 20 to 50 volunteers making phone calls and visiting voters.

“We knocked on doors, and we went to the voters,” said Baughn, who is perhaps best known for her newspaper columns and work challenging city and school system spending. “The supporters that I have are elated that I won.”

Top priorities for the new council member are controlling spending, lowering the property tax rate, and reducing the city’s debt.

Hope, owner of Chuck’s Car Care, was not available for comment late Tuesday night.

It was a disappointing night for Smith, who served one term on City Council. She collected 4,624 votes.

“The results are surprising, and I don’t understand them,” said Smith, a research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “I was pretty roundly defeated.”

A fifth candidate, business executive and Oak Ridge planning commissioner Kelly Callison, finished fourth in the City Council race, with 5,450 votes.

Campaign Signs at Midtown Community Center

David Hughes, left, supports presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Sherry Bath supports Oak Ridge Board of Education candidate Keys Fillauer at Midtown Community Center on Tuesday.

In the school board race, Agle and Fillauer both trounced Leonard Abbatiello, a former Oak Ridge City Council member, by more than 2,000 votes.

“I’m thankful that the people of Oak Ridge put the priority on students because that was the focus of my campaign and the focus of Keys’ campaign,” said Agle, who was battling for a third term.

Like Baughn, Agle credited door-to-door campaigning for her win, as well as her daily work during early voting and the newspaper articles she’s written during the past few years.

Now, she said, the first priority of the school board is to select a new superintendent, possibly on Dec. 8. Tom Bailey, the current superintendent, is retiring at the end of the year.

Agle said she also wants to continue making improvements in school curricula and student performance.

It was the second time Ragan and Hackworth ran against each other in the state’s 33rd District, which includes most of Anderson County. Ragan beat Hackworth in the 2010 election.

Midtown Community Center

Jake Phillips supports Tennessee Rep. John Ragan at the Midtown Community Center polling station on Tuesday.

This year’s contest between the two men was one of a half-dozen key races in the Tennessee House of Representatives, and it was expected to help Republicans gain a supermajority.

“I knew it was a close race,” Ragan said in a Tuesday night celebration at Buffalo Mountain Grille in Oak Ridge. “It was a hard-fought race.”

Ragan, a retired Air Force pilot, said Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly have cut spending and taxes, and created a more job-friendly environment. Jobs and education will remain top priorities for him in the upcoming legislative session, Ragan said.

Another local incumbent who was re-elected was Oak Ridge City Judge Robert A. McNees III. He had no opposition.

Neither did Tennessee Sen. Ken Yager, who was re-elected in the 12th Senatorial District. Yager’s district includes Roane, Morgan, Rhea, Scott, Campbell, and Fentress counties.

In other elections, the vote on a liquor referendum to allow package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in Oliver Springs appeared to have been rejected, with 486 voting yes and 519 voting “no” in Anderson and Roane counties.

Three-quarters of Clinton voters agreed to move the city’s general elections from December of odd-numbered years to November of even-numbered years, when they will coincide with state and federal elections.

Republican Kent Calfee defeated Democrat Jack W. McNew by a 68.6 percent to 26.7 margin in Roane County for a chance to represent the 32nd District in the Tennessee House, according to unofficial Roane County results. The district includes Roane County and part of Loudon County.

Unofficial results showed Calfee, who beat the incumbent, Julia Hurley, in the August primary, had an even higher victory margin in Loudon County: 72.4 percent to 20.8.

Here are highlights of Tuesday’s unofficial results in Anderson and Roane counties:

 

Oak Ridge City Council

Hope—6,887

Baughn—6,739

Hensley—6,301

Callison—5,450

Smith—4,624

 

Oak Ridge Board of Education

Agle—7,738

Fillauer—7,495

Abbatiello—4,988

 

Tennessee House of Representatives, 33rd District:

Ragan, Oak Ridge Republican—12,825 (51.4 percent)

Hackworth, Clinton Democrat—12,126 (48.6 percent)

 

Oliver Springs liquor referendum (To allow retail package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in the city of Oliver Springs):

Yes—486

No—519

 

Clinton charter question (To move Clinton general elections from December of odd-numbered years to November of even-numbered years):

For—2,556 (75.7 percent)

Against—819 (24.3 percent)

 

Note: This story has been corrected to show new vote totals for Ragan and Hackworth.