Mark Watson
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson is being considered for a job in Texas, three council members confirmed Thursday evening.
Watson is a finalist for a city manager position, and a decision could be made in January, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan said.
The mayor said he hopes Watson, who started here in August 2010, stays in Oak Ridge.
“Mark Watson has been an outstanding city manager,” Beehan said. “He was a great hire.” [Read more…]
The Rick Springfield concert at the Secret City Festival in June was the largest ever for the annual festival, an organizer said.
Debate over the costs of the Secret City Festival—and whether the city can afford a $160,000 “party” every year—was briefly renewed again on Monday.
The sometimes-rancorous debate came up as the Oak Ridge City Council considered whether to approve two resolutions laying the financial foundation for the June 2014 festival.
Early in the debate, Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn moved to reallocate the Secret City Festival money and use it instead for a school resource officer in each middle school, or two SROs total.
But Council member Charlie Hensley said Baughn was essentially asking the city to take money it would collect from festival sponsors and use it instead for SROs.
“I think that’s fraudulent,” Hensley said. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council has approved the purchase of Mullins Performance Car Wash in south Oak Ridge to allow the city to build a sewer system holding tank.
A car wash in south Oak Ridge could soon be replaced by a sewer system holding tank.
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday voted 5-1 to buy the car wash, owned by businessman Terry Mulllins, for $125,000.
The land is at the southern gateway to Oak Ridge, near the intersection of Scarboro Road and South Illinois Avenue. The city agreed to buy the property so workers can place the proposed tank, officially called an equalization basin, farther away from the busy intersection and make it less visible. The intersection is used by thousands of drivers every day, including workers at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The tank is one of three equalization basins that the city plans to build in order to comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires Oak Ridge to repair all sewer system overflows by September 2015. [Read more…]
The Ridge City Ramblers will have a CD release party in Oak Ridge on Wednesday. Members of the band are, from left, Gary Coleman, Mary Tuskan, Scott Linn, Abbie Hoerner, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Steve Reddick. (Submitted photo)
The Ridge City Ramblers will have a CD release party to celebrate their first CD from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Kitchen in Jackson Square.
“Ramblin’ on my mind” is the title of the band’s CD. The Ramblers draw their inspiration from bluegrass, blues, traditional, and Americana music, and the band’s musicians bring experience with a host of musical styles and performing groups.
An Oak Ridge band, the Ramblers will entertain the Razzleberry’s audience with songs from the CD and other selections. [Read more…]
Local, state, and federal officials join volunteers and nonprofit and business executives for a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic Alexander Inn on Thursday.
Top military leaders and scientists once stayed at this historic two-story hotel in the heart of Oak Ridge, and now it’s being converted into an assisted living center.
The $5.5 million renovation of the Alexander Inn at Jackson Square started in July, the culmination of a years-long preservation effort. It could be complete by mid-2014, said Rick Dover, manager of Family Pride Corp., the company converting the hotel.
The Guest House Senior Living at the Alexander Inn will have 62 rooms, including a 17-room memory care wing.
The hotel was built during the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. Guests who once stayed there included Gen. Leslie Groves, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. [Read more…]
A pedestrian safety improvement project at Jackson Square is almost complete, but on Monday, the City Council balked at a second project to improve intersections on the nearby Oak Ridge Turnpike.
They had already authorized the spending, but on Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council balked at awarding a $365,000 construction contract that would use red light camera money for pedestrian safety projects.
The contract would have been awarded to Ronald Franks Construction Co. LLC of Savannah, Tenn. The project would have made traffic safety and pedestrian crosswalk improvements at eight Oak Ridge Turnpike intersections and three residential intersections.
The Oak Ridge Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan had said the intersections needed improvements, and the Council authorized the spending during a special meeting in August. [Read more…]
Mark Watson
Note: This story was updated at 10:10 a.m. Nov. 12.
After two attempts to give him smaller raises failed, the Oak Ridge City Council voted 4-3 on Monday to award City Manager Mark Watson a 10 percent salary increase.
Council rejected two separate proposals to lower the pay raise to 4 percent and 1 percent, the same salary hike given to other city employees this year.
The 10 percent increase raises Watson’s pay from just under $137,000 to $150,321.60, and it is effective Aug. 8, 2013.
The salary boost, which has generated much opposition online, had been recommended by a three-member City Manager Evaluation Committee. The committee had compared Watson’s pay to other city managers across Tennessee and in other U.S. Department of Energy cities. The recommended raise would keep Watson’s pay competitive, and it was based on his performance during his three years in Oak Ridge and evaluations by the seven City Council members, committee chair Chuck Hope said. [Read more…]
Dean Russell, co-owner of Dean’s Restaurant and Bakery in Jackson Square, has put up a sign expressing frustration with Congress over the government shutdown. Pictured above are restaurant servers Cassandra Prater, right, and Andy Tatum.
The end of the government shutdown last week brought relief to Oak Ridge, especially at the Y-12 National Security Complex, where up to about 3,600 workers were expected to be furloughed starting last Thursday unless a deal was reached.
Chuck Spencer, general manager of B&W Y-12, which manages and operates Y-12, told workers on Thursday that a shutdown to minimum staffing had been averted and the furloughs would no longer be necessary. There had been reports that only about 900 workers might have remained starting today.
Spencer said the nuclear weapons plant, which started an orderly shutdown two weeks ago on Monday, Oct. 7, will begin planning to resume normal operations.
Normal operations resumed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Thursday, Director Thom Mason said in a message to staff. ORNL had enough funding to continue operating through October and into November, but officials had started preparing for a possible temporary shutdown and unpaid furloughs in case the shutdown continued.
Oak Ridge residents remained frustrated even after Congress and the White House reached a last-minute, short-term spending agreement late Wednesday night that averted the shutdowns and furloughs, just hours before a deadline to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and after some local businesses had already reported that the shutdown had affected their operations. [Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge has achieved platinum status in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s new “Valley Sustainable Communities” program. This designation will enhance the city’s competitiveness for new investments and jobs when companies are looking to grow in new or expanded locations.
The program is sponsored by TVA and developed and administered by consultant Boyette Strategic Advisors.
“The platinum designation recognizes that the Oak Ridge community has made a significant and comprehensive commitment to sustainability and also has thoroughly integrated economic development into its sustainability efforts,” said Del Boyette, BSA president and chief executive officer. [Read more…]
The site plan for the redevelopment of the Oak Ridge Mall shows a multi-use, town center development with retail, office, hotel, and residential properties. (Submitted image)
The project could include retail, hotel, office, and residential properties, and generate more than $2 million per year in new city and county sales tax revenues, consultant says
Note: This story was last updated at 2 p.m.
The North Carolina company that wants to redevelop the Oak Ridge Mall has unveiled its site plan for the 60-acre property.
The $80 million redevelopment could include new retail, hotel, office, and residential properties. It would create almost 1,000 new jobs and increase annual city and county sales tax revenues by more than $2 million, according to an estimate by a city consultant.
The two remaining anchor stores at the 500,000-square-foot mall, JCPenney and Belk, would stay. So would Walmart and the Cinemark Tinseltown theater.
Meanwhile, the existing interior space between the anchor stores would be demolished. Previous mall redevelopment plans had also called for demolishing that interior retail space. [Read more…]
During a special meeting Tuesday, Oak Ridge municipal officials agreed to give the city school system an extra $250,000 to avoid a potential loss of millions of dollars in state funding and avert a possible Oct. 1 school shutdown. Pictured above are Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, left, and City Manager Mark Watson, who recommended the extra funding on Tuesday. (File photo)
In a short special meeting Tuesday, the Oak Ridge City Council agreed to give the city’s schools $250,000 to allow the system to avoid a potential loss of millions of dollars in state funding and avert a possible Oct. 1 shutdown.
The one-time transfer will come from higher-than-expected sales tax revenues in Roane County.
The vote was 4-1-1. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller, and Council members Chuck Hope and Charlie Hensley voted in favor of the extra funding, which had been recommended by City Manager Mark Watson. [Read more…]
An earlier draft image of what a sewer system holding tank could look like on Emory Valley Road. (Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
CLINTON—The Oak Ridge City Council had already taken steps to move the planned sewer system holding tanks farther back from major roads or make them less visible, and on Monday, the Anderson County Commission agreed to donate a small parcel on Emory Valley Road for one of the tanks.
Oak Ridge officials have said the tanks are needed to help comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires the city to end all sewer system overflows by September 2015. [Read more…]
