Oak Ridge Today

County taking steps to move General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Anderson-County-General-Sessions-Court-Exterior-Nov-19-2015

Anderson County officials are taking steps to move General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge from a privately owned building on Bus Terminal Road, pictured above, to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m.

Anderson County officials are taking steps to move General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge from a privately owned building on Bus Terminal Road to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road.

An 18-month lease on the current privately owned building, where the court has been since 2009, expires in June, officials said Wednesday.

Renovations are planned at the county-owned building on Emory Valley Road before the court moves there. Bid packages for the renovation work could go out to contractors this week, and the bid could be awarded in mid-April, said Anderson County Commissioner Phil Yager, one of two commissioners who represent District 8 in Oak Ridge.

The renovation work could take two to three months, Yager said. Michael Brady Inc., a Knoxville architectural firm helping Anderson County, has estimated the renovations could cost around $300,000. [Read more…]

Reminder: Community meeting Thursday to discuss site for new preschool

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The new preschool could be located at Elm Grove Park in east Oak Ridge or Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, and the city's school board expects to recommend one of the two sites on Monday, Feb. 27, a school official said Friday. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The new preschool could be located at Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017. The Oak Ridge Board of Education selected the site on Monday, Feb. 27, but after hearing from a few residents in March, the Oak Ridge City Council delayed a vote in order to allow a community meeting at the Scarboro Community Center on Thursday, March 23. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

This is a reminder: There is a community meeting on Thursday to discuss the new site for the Oak Ridge Preschool.

Oak Ridge City Council delayed the vote on a new preschool location at its regular meeting on Monday, March 13. Council members wanted to allow time for more community discussion and input. They delayed the vote on the preschool site after hearing from a few residents who had questions about using Scarboro Park.

As part of the effort to allow more community input, a public meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Scarboro Community Center.

The City of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools have been working to choose a site for the new preschool for about two years, a press release said. The preschool would relocate from the School Administration Building on New York Avenue. Members of a committee formed to recommend possible sites looked at city-owned properties and many factors that would affect future students, their families, and the community as a whole, the press release said.

Two locations were ultimately identified as possible sites for the new preschool: Scarboro Park and Elm Grove Park. [Read more…]

Attempted murder charge dismissed, woman pleads guilty to aggravated assault

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Treasure Sheitel Threat

Treasure Sheitel Threat

An attempted murder charge was dismissed, and an Oak Ridge woman pleaded guilty to aggravated assault this month.

Treasure Sheitel Threat, 30, had been indicted on charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in October 2013. She was accused of stabbing Kingston resident Stanley Wallace in the stomach in his car at the intersection of Robin Lane and Raleigh Road on July 27, 2012, after an argument in Grove Center.

Arrest warrants filed in 2012 said another woman had summoned Threat to Grove Center, but she forgot that Wallace and Threat didn’t like each other. [Read more…]

Learn more about Oak Ridge, bike with a park ranger on Saturday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

You can join a park ranger for a bike ride down Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, will present a free program on Saturday, March 25, at 10 a.m. The program will begin at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the Secret City, and continue down Melton Lake Greenway. Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.

Elza Gate Park is located at 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in east Oak Ridge. If you need directions, maps are available at the National Park desk in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, or you can call (865) 576-6767. [Read more…]

With WIPP re-opening, DOE Oak Ridge plans to start shipping transuranic waste again

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that has been shut down for more than three years after a salt truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (Photo by DOE Oak Ridge Office)

 

An underground waste facility in southeastern New Mexico that was shut down for about three years after a salt haul truck fire and radiological release will start accepting transuranic waste again in April from places like Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge expects to send 24 shipments of the transuranic, or TRU, waste by January 2018 to the U.S Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, according to the DOE Oak Ridge Office.

The shipments to be accepted starting in April will be the first received at the facility since the fire and radiological release in February 2014, WIPP said. There was an official re-opening event on Monday, January 9, with remarks by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and members of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

Since the closure three years ago, Oak Ridge workers have continued processing waste and developed innovative storage solutions until shipping can resume to WIPP, said Ben Williams, spokesperson for the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Oak Ridge Today last reported on TRU waste in December 2015, when North Wind Solutions took over the operation of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, which is south of Bethel Valley Road on Highway 95 in southwest Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

DOE addresses high-risk facilities in Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Excess facilities at Oak Ridge's Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

Excess facilities at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security Complex are marked in red. (Image by DOE)

 

A new initiative by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management is improving safety and preparing two of the federal sites—Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex—for cleanup and modernization, officials said. The initiative is an excess contaminated facilities initiative.

The congressionally funded cleanup initiative was stimulated by a report to Congress by the Governmental Accountability Office. The report noted that the U.S. Department of Energy designated more than 2,300 of its facilities as “excess,” meaning they’re not operating and no longer serve the department’s missions.

“Many of these facilities pose high risk from contamination and deteriorating structural integrities due to their age and the limited resources to maintain them,” the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in a story published January 31.

The Office of Environmental Management said more than a quarter of all DOE’s high-risk excess facilities are in Oak Ridge at either ORNL or Y-12. Y-12 has 90 excess facilities to address while ORNL has more than 200, DOE EM reported. [Read more…]

Man allegedly armed with rifle when police respond pleads to simple assault

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Robert Eugene Foreman

Robert Eugene Foreman

The man allegedly armed with a rifle when the Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a family disturbance on Norton Road in January has pleaded guilty to simple assault.

Robert E. Foreman III, 37, had initially been charged with aggravated assault.

A warrant filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Chris Luethge said police responded to the family disturbance at a home on Norton Road at about 6:19 p.m. Thursday, January 12. Luethge and the victim, ORPD Officer Daniel Freytag, were approaching the front door of the home when Freytag said, “He’s got a rifle,” according to the warrants.

“Officer Freytag stated, through the front door, he saw the defendant, Robert E. Foreman III, who shouted at him angrily and ran into the bedroom and returned with a rifle,” the warrant said. “He stated that the defendant stood in the front door, armed with the rifle, and racked the bolt of the rifle and demanded: ‘Get off my property.'”

Fearing for his life, Freytag began retreating from the front door, seeking cover, “believing he was in immediate danger from the defendant,” the warrant said. [Read more…]

CNS announces employee-directed community grants

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund has been awarded to Oak Ridge Schools to provide additional opportunities for at-risk students to engage in reading instruction. (Photo by Y-12)

A grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund has been awarded to Oak Ridge Schools to provide additional opportunities for at-risk students to engage in reading instruction. (Photo by Y-12)

 

$125,000 invested in local nonprofits across East Tennessee

Twenty-nine nonprofits from across East Tennessee have received a total of $125,000 in grants from the Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, Y-12 Community Investment Fund. The recipients were announced this month at a reception at the New Hope Center at Y-12 National Security Complex.

The CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund is managed by the East Tennessee Foundation, and it was created in 2014 by CNS. CNS manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where a similar fund is managed by the Amarillo Area Foundation, a press release said.

At Y-12, a committee made up of CNS employees reviewed dozens of grant proposals, conducted staff interviews, and made site visits before recommending funding based on the committee’s four focus areas:  education, senior citizens, veterans, and youth. [Read more…]

See the 2017 ORHS track and field schedule

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Here is the 2017 Oak Ridge High School track and field schedule. The first meet is Saturday at Hardin Valley. [Read more…]

Boys basketball photos: Oak Ridge in state semifinal

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge senior Tajion Jones (3), a Mr. Basketball finalist, scored 12 points during a 63-60 loss for the Wildcats in a Class AAA boys' state semifinal game at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro on Friday, March 17, 2017. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

Oak Ridge senior Tajion Jones (3), a Mr. Basketball finalist, scored 12 points during a 63-60 loss for the Wildcats in a Class AAA boys’ state semifinal game at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro on Friday, March 17, 2017. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

 

MURFREESBORO—Oak Ridge kept it close, but Memphis East prevailed 63-60 in a state semifinal basketball game in Murfreesboro on Friday. Here are photos by Kindell Moore.

It was one of two semifinal games in the Division I Class AAA BlueCross Basketball Championships at Middle Tennessee State University.

[Read more…]

Oak Ridge keeps it close, but Memphis East prevails in state semifinal

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge junior point guard Levert Smith (10), who is 5-foot-9, drives around Memphis East sophomore center Malcolm Dandridge (35), who is 6-foot-8, during a 63-60 loss for the Wildcats during a Class AAA boys' state semifinal game at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro on Friday, March 17, 2017. Smith led Oak Ridge with 14 points and eight assists. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

Oak Ridge junior point guard Levert Smith (10), who is 5-foot-9, drives around Memphis East sophomore center Malcolm Dandridge (35), who is 6-foot-8, during a 63-60 loss for the Wildcats during a Class AAA boys’ state semifinal game at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro on Friday, March 17, 2017. Smith led Oak Ridge with 14 points and eight assists. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4 p.m. March 18.

MURFREESBORO—Oak Ridge kept it close, but Memphis East prevailed 63-60 in a state semifinal basketball game in Murfreesboro on Friday.

The season is over for the Wildcats (31-3). The Mustangs, last year’s Class AAA champion, move on to this year’s BlueCross Basketball Championship game against Southwind in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University on Saturday afternoon.

Oak Ridge, which started four seniors, led most of the first half against Memphis East (32-3), which is ranked number two in the nation, according to Wildcats Coach Aaron Green. The Mustangs, a tall team that started two sophomores and two juniors, took their first lead late in the second quarter on a three-point shot by senior Jayden Hardaway with 1:40 remaining in the half.

The two teams traded leads in the third quarter, and Oak Ridge led 44-43 at the end of three.

But Memphis East outscored Oak Ridge 20-16 in the fourth quarter to seal the win. [Read more…]

Some JCPenney stores closing, but not Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

jcpenney-main-street-oak-ridge-oct-14-2016

The JCPenney in Oak Ridge is not among the 138 stores closing across the country, the company said Friday, March 17, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:30 p.m.

The JCPenney in Oak Ridge is not among the 138 stores closing across the country, the company said.

Three Tennessee stores are closing. One is at Knoxville Center, another is at Greeneville Commons, and the third is at County Market Place in Union City.

JCPenney said the closures are “part of a continuing effort to advance sustainable growth and long-term profitability.”

Parker Hardy, president of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, said JCPenney is a “linchpin” store for the new Main Street Oak Ridge, the 58-acre project to redevelop the former Oak Ridge Mall.

“JCPenney has been a very important part of our retail mix—particularly for apparel—ever since Mr. Penney participated in the original grand opening,” Hardy said Friday. “Penney always has been a draw for Oak Ridgers and for customers who live outside the city but inside our broader retail trade area…The fact that Penney is staying with Oak Ridge while closing stores in nearby cities says something strong about their confidence in Main Street, their confidence in our market, and their confidence in our business climate.” [Read more…]