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.
SARM volunteers had faced a Nov. 1 deadline on the Tennessee Department of Transportation grant, which was to be used on a decade-old proposal to build the railway museum at the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. But during a City Council meeting last month, they said the project was still on track.
SARM board members said the museum’s size has been reduced to 3,600 square feet and its estimated cost has been lowered to less than $900,000. They said they were working on a plan for interior displays at the museum, had completed basic environmental permitting, and expected to meet the Nov. 1 deadline.
SARM President Scott Lindsey said funding for the museum would include the $480,000 state grant, $120,000 raised by the museum, and $300,000 from the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, or CROET.
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