An agreement signed Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Energy and City of Oak Ridge calls for the American Museum of Science and Energy missions to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in a two-story building that once housed a Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. It’s not yet clear if the National Park Service, which has shared space with AMSE, will also move into this building. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
It’s not clear yet where the National Park Service will go when the American Museum of Science and Energy building closes at the end of the year, but a federal official said the Park Service will stay in Oak Ridge.
It could relocate to a two-story building that once housed Sears Roebuck at Main Street Oak Ridge, the former Oak Ridge Mall. That’s where the U.S. Department of Energy’s public education and outreach missions, now housed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, are moving.
But the National Park Service hadn’t committed to moving there as of April 17, said Niki Nicholas, site manager of the Oak Ridge unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The NPS needs more information, Nicholas said in response to questions after a Monday afternoon presentation to AAUW, or American Association of University Women. (A reader had told Oak Ridge Today of an April 17 letter reportedly sent from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park to federal officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE.)
Nicholas said the National Park Service has several options in Oak Ridge, including Main Street Oak Ridge. But she declined to elaborate on the precise number of options, where they might be, or what organizations or businesses might be co-located in those buildings.
“We have several spaces,” Nicholas said. “We will have a place.”
The Park Service doesn’t have a large staff in Oak Ridge and would have to be co-located with someone else, Nicholas said. The National Park Service now shares space with AMSE, which is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.
It’s not clear what specific information the National Park Service needs before deciding whether to move to Main Street Oak Ridge. But there are some things that aren’t clear about that new space, including its operating hours and staffing.
Also unclear is how funding for the U.S. Department of Energy might change under the Trump administration and what impact that might have on the public outreach and education missions now conducted at AMSE. President Donald Trump’s preliminary budget blueprint for 2018—the so-called “skinny budget”—has proposed a 5.6 percent decrease for DOE, including a roughly $900 million reduction for the Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE, is an Office of Science lab.
Federal officials in Oak Ridge seem to be taking somewhat of a “wait and see” approach with regard to the skinny budget, although they do plan for various budget scenarios. More budget details are expected later. Federal legislators and national political reporters have pointed out that what the president proposes in a budget is never the same as what passes Congress.
On Sunday, U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, an Ooltewah Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge, said he and Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, are working to increase funding for the Office of Science.
In a phone interview last week, Claire Sinclair of the ORNL Site Office said officials remain committed to partnering with the National Park Service and to having a “really nice” information center in Oak Ridge.
“We want the facility to be a good experience for the Oak Ridge community and for visitors,” Sinclair said.
DOE always expected that it would partner with the Park Service like it has at AMSE, Sinclair said. DOE will be the tenant at the former Sears Roebuck space, and the goal has been to jointly co-locate with the National Park Service, she said.
The details of the move of the museum’s missions are still being worked out, but DOE has to be out of the AMSE building by the end of December, Sinclair said.
It’s not clear if the AMSE name will change. The AMSE missions may no longer be referred to as AMSE. For now, they are being referred to as the DOE Public Education and Outreach Center.
Nicholas said the National Park Service, which doesn’t know AMSE’s closing date, is fully committed to Oak Ridge. The Park Service wants to be in the best space possible and wants to work with the community, Nicholas said.
“It’s a brand-new park,” she said. “Parks take time.”
She pointed out that the Obed Wild and Scenic River initially started with a card table and folding chairs in a corner of the Oak Ridge post office.
DOE and the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of Interior, have a partnership on the Manhattan Project National Historical Park for a few reasons. One of the primary reasons is that some of the facilities included in the park are on DOE property, including at the former K-25 site (now known as Heritage Center), ORNL, and Y-12 National Security Complex.
DOE will maintain ownership of the facilities, but the National Park Service will tell the story of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Besides Oak Ridge, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which was formally established in November 2015, includes Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
National Park Service employees are pictured above at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge in this file photo from January 2016. (Submitted photo)
Under a property transfer agreement signed December 30, new businesses could be built on the 17 acres that now house AMSE, the museum is to be relocated, and the AMSE building could be demolished. The December 30 agreement calls for transferring the 17-acre AMSE site from the U.S. Department of Energy to the City of Oak Ridge. The city will then transfer the property in two phases to a company set up by RealtyLink, the developer of Main Street Oak Ridge at the former Oak Ridge Mall. That new company, called TN Oak Ridge Illinois LLC, will then be able to use the AMSE site for economic development, although no specific development plans have been announced yet.
Under the December 30 agreement, the AMSE missions, now in a 54,000-square-foot building, are to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in the two-story building that once housed the Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. That space, once it’s finished, will be provided by TN Oak Ridge Illinois LLC to the city at no cost for 15 years. That means no rent, utilities, or maintenance.
The city will, in turn, sublease that former Sears Roebuck space to DOE at no charge for 15 years, and it can be used for the federal government’s public outreach and education missions now conducted at AMSE—as well as for a temporary visitor center for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. It’s not clear what the long-term plans for the National Park Service visitor center might be.
Oak Ridge was the main production site for the Manhattan Project, and uranium enriched at the Y-12 National Security Complex fueled the first atomic bomb used in wartime. That bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, shortly before the war ended.
You can learn more about the AMSE property transfer agreement and planned relocation here.
You can learn more about the Manhattan Project National Historical Park here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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Mark Caldwell says
My initial guess is that the National Park Service has the self-respect to NOT move next door to a JCPenny. My hope is that one day many of the important displays regarding the history of Oak Ridge will be obtained by the Park Service and displayed with the dignity they deserve.
Philip W Nipper says
I agree. Seems a national park concerning the Manhattan Project should make its headquarters in a Manhattan Project WWII era building vice a former A&P / Sears store. Two come to mind right off the bat. The Mid Town Center (Wildcat Den) or the former Red Cross building. One apparently has space for rent and the other is not occupied at the moment. Both original Oak Ridge war time buildings. Can I get an amen brothers and sisters?
johnhuotari says
As far as I know, it’s still possible that the Manhattan Project Park staff and volunteers in Oak Ridge could locate in the former Sears Roebuck along with DOE. But if not, the Wildcat Den was the first space that came to my mind. It seems like two other potential spaces besides the Wildcat Den and the former Red Cross building could be the Tunnell Building and maybe the NOAA building. (I’ve got to follow up with NOAA on the current plans for that building.) I have no idea, though, if the NPS is looking at any of these buildings. They want to be co-located with another organization, although I don’t know the precise criteria.
Susan Gawarecki says
The power brokers behind the city’s decision-making have given lip service only to heritage tourism. This is the best and most reliable long-term option for stabilizing Oak Ridge’s economy. It’s time for the Chamber and its minions to support the NPS, a Manhattan Project Museum, and effective historic preservation before the real golden goose is dead. Putting such attractions into otherwise unwanted, inappropriate, and shoddy facilities will only hasten its demise.