Oak Ridge Today

Workers demolish contaminated building at ETTP

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Crews began tearing down Building K-633 at the East Tennessee Technology Park in May 2018 and completed the project in June. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)

Crews began tearing down Building K-633 at the East Tennessee Technology Park in May 2018 and completed the project in June. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)

 

One of the most contaminated buildings left at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site, has been demolished, federal officials said.

Demolition crews began tearing down Building K-633, which was once used to evaluate uranium enrichment equipment, in May and completed the project in June, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.

The work was done by the Oak Ridge environmental management, or EM, program and its cleanup contractor URS|CH2M Oak Ridge, or UCOR.

“This project eliminates one of the most contaminated remaining buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park,” DOE said.

Building K-633—the K-633 Test Loop Facility—is the fourth building Oak Ridge’s EM program has removed from ETTP’s Poplar Creek area since last year, DOE said. [Read more…]

Register to vote in August election by Tuesday

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The deadline to register to vote in the August 2 election is Tuesday, July 3.

WYSH Radio in Clinton reported that the rest of the Anderson County Courthouse will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday (July 3 and 4) for the Independence Day holiday, but the Anderson County Election Commission office will be open for its regular business hours on Tuesday, July 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. so that you can register to vote.

The August 2 election includes the Anderson County general election and state and federal primary elections.

See the Anderson County Election Commission website here.

Exclusive: Cromwell, co-defendants sentenced to 20-50 years for fraudulent liens

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Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a hearing in Nashville criminal court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a criminal court hearing in Nashville on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a hearing in criminal court in Nashville on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a criminal court hearing in Nashville on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

NASHVILLE—Five East Tennessee men who have been identified as “sovereign citizens,” including one from Oak Ridge and another from Clinton, were sentenced to 20-50 years in prison on Wednesday after filing fraudulent liens worth hundreds of millions of dollars against public officials, law enforcement officers, and others.

The five defendants—who included Austin Gary Cooper, 69, of Clinton, and Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, of Oak Ridge—had earlier been convicted of more than 200 counts of forgery and filing unlawful liens. That was at the end of a six-day trial in Davidson County Criminal Court in Nashville in late April.

Their sentencing hearing was Wednesday. It lasted more than three hours.

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Carjacking suspect arrested after hospital release

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Bradley Allen Thomas

Bradley Allen Thomas

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:30 p.m.

The suspect in the carjacking of a van occupied by a woman in a wheelchair on Saturday, followed by a police chase and crash, was arrested after he was released from a hospital on Thursday, authorities said.

Bradley Allan Thomas, 30, of Knoxville, was arrested by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies when he was released from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said. Thomas, who was seriously injured, had been taken to UT Medical Center after the Saturday afternoon crash at Clinton Highway and Powell Drive in Knox County.

Thomas is the suspect charged in the carjacking in the parking lot of the Red Lobster restaurant on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon, Lucas said.

“Oak Ridge Police officers served their warrants related to the carjacking, and Thomas was also served with warrants on the pursuit by deputies,” Lucas said after Thursday’s arrest. [Read more…]

More charges pending after carjacking, chase, crash

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The driver of a vehicle allegedly stolen from a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday, June 23, 2018, fled from law enforcement officers, running red lights and passing vehicles in the turn lane at high speed, before crashing into a car and a traffic light pole on Clinton Highway at Powell Drive in Knox County, an incident report said. (Submitted photo)

The driver of a vehicle allegedly stolen from a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday, June 23, 2018, fled from law enforcement officers, running red lights and passing vehicles in the turn lane at high speed, before crashing into a car and a traffic light pole on Clinton Highway at Powell Drive in Knox County, an incident report said. (Submitted photo)

 

More charges are pending after a carjacking of a van occupied by a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday led to a police chase and crash on Clinton Highway in Knox County.

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department has already said it would seek warrants against the suspect, Bradley Allan Thomas, 30, of Knoxville, and the Oak Ridge Police Department said criminal charges are pending.

Now, in a preliminary crash report, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said it is filing its own charges. They include reckless endangerment, reckless driving, obedience to traffic control signal, failure to maintain lane, improper passing, and driving on a suspended license.

“These are all THP charges and do not include outside agencies’ pending charges,” the crash report said.

An Anderson County Sheriff’s Department incident report said deputies would seek warrants against Thomas for evading arrest and reckless endangerment. [Read more…]

About 11,500 customers lose power due to lightning strike at substation

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About 11,500 homes and businesses lost power due to a lightning strike at one of the city’s main substations on Thursday morning, officials said.

The widespread power outage was reported at 6:18 a.m. Thursday. Power lost due to the lightning strike was restored before 7:15 a.m., the Oak Ridge Electric Department said.

The Electric Department said there were widespread electric outages as storms moved through the area Thursday morning. The storms included high winds, heavy rains, and intense lightning. [Read more…]

Driver of van stolen from woman in wheelchair fled, crashed

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The driver of a vehicle allegedly stolen from a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday, June 23, 2018, fled from law enforcement officers, running red lights and passing vehicles in the turn lane at high speed, before crashing into a car and a traffic light pole on Clinton Highway at Powell Drive in Knox County, an incident report said. (Submitted photo)

The driver of a van allegedly stolen from a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday, June 23, 2018, fled from law enforcement officers, running red lights and passing vehicles in the turn lane at high speed, before crashing into a car and a traffic light pole on Clinton Highway at Powell Drive in Knox County, an incident report said. (Submitted photo)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:15 a.m. June 28.

The driver of a van allegedly stolen from a woman in a wheelchair in Oak Ridge on Saturday fled from law enforcement officers, running red lights and passing vehicles in the turn lane at high speed, before crashing into a car and a traffic light pole on Clinton Highway in Knox County, an incident report said.

The carjacking was reported in the parking lot of the Red Lobster restaurant on South Illinois Avenue at about 1:50 p.m. Saturday, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. During the carjacking, a female passenger, who was not injured, was forced from her wheelchair and the van, a 2003 Chevy Venture.

Alerted to the carjacking, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Corporal Jonathan Acker went to Oak Ridge Turnpike and Melton Lake Drive to watch for the vehicle. After a few minutes, he saw it traveling east on Oak Ridge Turnpike, and he turned to get behind it.

The driver, later identified as Bradley Allan Thomas, 30, of Knoxville, began speeding up and passing cars on the shoulder, Acker said in the incident report. [Read more…]

For first time since 2012, US has top supercomputer in world

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer was named number one on the TOP500 List, a semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest computing systems on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Photo credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

 

For the first time since 2012, the United States has the most powerful supercomputer in the world, and it’s again located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The new supercomputer, called Summit, is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second. Equipment delivery for Summit was completed in March, and officials celebrated the launch of the supercomputer in a ceremony attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on June 8.

The last time the United States had the top supercomputer was in November 2012. That machine, which is still in use, is named Titan, and it’s also at ORNL. It’s now number seven on the semiannual TOP500 list, which was released Monday.

China had held the top spot since June 2013, and the country had held the top two spots since June 2016. That ended with Monday’s TOP500 announcement. Previously at number one and number two, the top two Chinese supercomputers have fallen to number two and number four.

ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, now has two of the top seven systems on the list. They are Summit at number one and Titan at number seven. The United States now has six of the top 10 machines, according to the TOP500 list. [Read more…]

Photos: Lavender Festival 2018

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The Lavender Festival is pictured above in Jackson Square on Saturday, June 16, 2018. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

The Lavender Festival is pictured above in Jackson Square on Saturday, June 16, 2018. (Photo by Julio Culiat)

 

Here are photos by Julio Culiat of the Lavender Festival in Jackson Square on Saturday. [Read more…]

Council expected to appoint new member on July 9

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The Oak Ridge City Council is expected to appoint a new member on July 9 to fill the seat being vacated by Hans Vogel, who is resigning and moving to take a new job at Idaho National Laboratory.

Vogel, who was elected to a four-year term in November 2016, is serving through June 30. Currently employed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vogel will become director of strategic irradiation capability for the Advanced Test Reactor at INL, which is in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The new City Council member appointed Monday, July 9, will serve until a special municipal election on November 6. The person elected in the special election will then serve the final two years of Vogel’s four-year term.

The City of Oak Ridge is currently accepting applications to fill the pending City Council vacancy. Those who are interested must submit application materials to the City Clerk’s Office by 5 p.m. Thursday, July 5.

“Any qualified voter is eligible to serve on City Council if he or she has been a resident of the city for one year preceding the day of appointment and provided that, before taking office, he or she resign any state, county, or other municipal office which is filled by public election or position of employment with the City of Oak Ridge,” a press release said. [Read more…]

Updated: Council approves $800,000 contract for synthetic turf at Blankenship

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Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium are pictured above on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium are pictured above on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was published at 4:15 p.m. June 19 and updated at 6 p.m. June 20.

The Oak Ridge City Council on Tuesday approved a $800,000 contract to buy and install synthetic turf at Blankenship Field.

Council approved the contract in 5-0 vote during a special meeting Tuesday evening in the Multipurpose Room in the Central Services Complex in central Oak Ridge.

The contract was awarded to Field Turf USA Inc. of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The company has a regional office in Calhoun, Georgia.

The contract says the purchase and installation of the synthetic turf are not to exceed $800,000. [Read more…]

McNeilly retiring after 19 years as library director

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Oak Ridge City Council members Jim Dodson, left, and Kelly Callison, second from left, read a proclamation for Kathy McNeilly, right, during her retirement celebration at Oak Ridge Public Library on Friday, June 15, 2018. Also pictured is Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

Oak Ridge City Council members Jim Dodson, left, and Kelly Callison, second from left, read a proclamation for Kathy McNeilly, right, during her retirement celebration at Oak Ridge Public Library on Friday, June 15, 2018. Also pictured is Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

Kathy McNeilly is retiring after serving as director of the Oak Ridge Public Library for 19 years—and working for the City of Oak Ridge for more than 47 years.

Friends, family, and City of Oak Ridge staff celebrated McNeilly’s “amazing career” in a ceremony in the library auditorium on Friday, June 15, a city press release said.

McNeilly received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Tennessee. She was hired by the City of Oak Ridge in 1971 as a reference assistant, just a few months after the library’s new location opened its doors in the Oak Ridge Civic Center, the press release said. Since then, she has served as head of the Reference Department, head of Technical Services, and as assistant library director before taking on her role as director nearly 20 years ago.

“In her time with the library, McNeilly has watched services change from print-based to computer, and she was instrumental in guiding the library through many technological changes,” the press release said. “Most recently, she helmed the library’s inclusion of e-books and streaming video. McNeilly is perhaps most proud, however, of the library’s work with COROH (Center for Oak Ridge Oral History). Under her guidance, the library has been able to collect, bind, and make available online the oral histories of more than 800 Oak Ridgers whose lives and work helped create the Oak Ridge of today.” [Read more…]