Oak Ridge Today

More development possible on South Illinois Avenue

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South Purdue Land Use Plan

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday will consider amending the Land Use Plan to change the designation on parcels 39 and 40 above from residential to business. The parcels are next to Aldi grocery (Parcel 43 at right) and between South Purdue Avenue (white road center right) and South Illinois Avenue (yellow road at bottom). The Planning Commission could consider rezoning the property in July. The new Weigels gas station and convenience store is off the map to the left on Parcel 41. Potomac Circle is at top left. (Image courtesy State of Tennessee)

 

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday will consider amending the city’s Land Use Plan to change the designation of more than two acres on busy South Illinois Avenue from residential to business, possibly to allow a small multi-tenant building to be constructed.

The two parcels being considered are sandwiched between two other recent developments—Weigels gas station and convenience store on one side and Aldi grocery on the other—and also near the new Aubrey’s restaurant, Panera Bread, Ole Ben Franklin Motors, and Bojangles’ restaurant.

A Nashville development group has a contract on the property, Oak Ridge Community Development Director Kathryn Baldwin said Monday. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Reservation Communities Alliance meets at TDEC office

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The Oak Ridge Reservation Communities Alliance will meet on Thursday, June 26, at 1:30 p.m. at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s DOE-Oversight Office in Oak Ridge.

Boy flown to Children’s Hospital after near-drowning at Clark Center Park

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After family members and emergency responders started CPR, a boy who had gone missing while swimming at Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon was flown by medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, authorities said.

On Sunday afternoon, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said he didn’t know the current condition of the boy, who might be about eight years old.

The boy had been moved to Intensive Care at Children’s Hospital, Kerley said.

“That’s all we know at the moment,” he said.

The chief said the family had been swimming about 150 feet away from the beach at a picnic area at Clark Center Park when relatives noticed the boy was gone. They started CPR when they found him and called 911. The Oak Ridge police and fire departments responded and continued CPR. Anderson County Emergency Medical Services transported the boy to the Lifestar medical helicopter, which picked up the child at a softball field at the park. [Read more…]

School board to consider revised budget proposal on Monday

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Oak Ridge Board of Education

The Oak Ridge Board of Education and school administrators are pictured above during a meeting earlier this year. (File photo)

The Oak Ridge City Council did not want to raise the property tax rate, so the Oak Ridge Board of Education could consider cuts to next year’s school budget during a Monday evening meeting

The school board passed a budget in May that requested a 37-cent property tax rate increase to start rolling out a technology initiative known as 1:1, hire technology personnel and other staff, comply with the reporting requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act, and give employees a 2 percent pay raise, among other things.

But in two meetings this month, the Oak Ridge City Council rejected any change to the tax rate, and it will remain unchanged for the seventh year in a row. [Read more…]

Battling cancer but planning to help build 59th home for Habitat

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Tim and Teresa Myrick Home Build

Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County is building a new home on Valley View Lane in Heiskell in honor of longtime volunteers Tim and Teresa Myrick, pictured at right. A family of five will live in the four-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home. From left, they are Alexia, Amanda Cook, Edward Brown (back), Eddie (front), and Ethan.

 

HEISKELL—He’s worked on all 58 homes built by Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County during the past two decades. If his health allows, he’ll work on No. 59.

Tim Myrick, 60, is known for his community involvement, charitable contributions, and key role in the renovation of the Oak Ridge High School and modernization work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. But now he’s battling prostate cancer. His doctor said it’s the fastest-growing he’s seen. Myrick said it spread to his bones and elsewhere within three months. In December, he was given a year to live.

“I told them that’s not going to happen,” Myrick said during a Habitat for Humanity groundbreaking ceremony this month. “I told them I have too much work to do.”

Habitat is honoring Myrick and his wife Teresa by building a home in their honor on about 1.5 acres on Valley View Lane near East Wolf Valley Road in Heiskell.

“We can’t think of anyone who has worked harder for us for a longer period of time,” said Pat Fain, HFHAC board president. [Read more…]

Fleischmann urges caution on U.S. response to Iraq

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U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann on Friday urged caution in responding to the rapid advance of militants who have taken control of a wide swath of Iraq and are pressing on toward Baghdad.

Fleischmann was in Oak Ridge during the annual two-day Secret City Festival.

The militants are known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The Sunni organization was once part of Al Qaeda, and it has effectively gained control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria during the past year, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. There have been battles in Baquba, less than 40 miles north of Baghdad.

Now, the United States and other countries are struggling with how to respond. Among the options that have been proposed are airstrikes and working with Iran to repel the rebels. [Read more…]

Video: ‘The Secret City Ditty’

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A song about Oak Ridge’s role in the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. It was written by Alison Beatty and Christina May on June 13, 2014, and performed at the Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge.

In final vote, City Council again rejects tax increase for schools

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Oak Ridge City Council Budget Meeting

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday again said “no” to a property tax rate increase to give more money to Oak Ridge Schools. Council is pictured above during a June 9 budget meeting.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 11:15 a.m. June 17.

Two last-minute attempts to pass smaller-than-requested tax increases for the Oak Ridge Schools failed on Monday, and the City Council voted 4-2 to approve a budget that does not raise taxes in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The decision to not raise taxes for the seventh year in a row came after a parade of residents in two meetings this month asked Council to fully fund the schools. Many said they moved here because of the schools, and they said the educational system is Oak Ridge’s primary asset. School teachers, administrators, and school board members also said they support a greater investment in the schools.

“Flatline budgets will eventually produce flatline results,” said Steve Reddick, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Jefferson Middle School and co-president of the Oak Ridge Education Association.

The schools had requested $17.9 million from the city, but the no-tax-increase budget lowered that amount to $14.6 million. School officials had previously said they will have to “go back to the drawing board” and make cuts if Council did not approve the tax rate increase. It’s not clear yet what cuts might be made. The Oak Ridge Board of Education could discuss changes to the school system’s budget, which was approved in May, during a Monday evening meeting.

[Read more…]

Secret City Festival started Friday morning, continues through Saturday evening

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Secret City Festival Opening Ceremony

B&W Y-12, which will no longer manage the Y-12 National Security Complex after June 30, has been a major sponsor of the Secret City Festival for 10 years and has contributed more than $250,000 total in the past decade. The federal contractor was recognized for its community contributions during the opening ceremony at the Secret City Festival on Friday morning. From left to right are Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan; Dave Richardson, B&W Y-12 president and general manager; Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller; and Bill Reis, B&W Y-12 vice president of public and governmental affairs.

 

The annual Secret City Festival, Oak Ridge’s largest festival, kicked off Friday morning and continues through Saturday evening.

Highlights of the two-day festival include concerts—Eddie Money and Kix Brooks are this year’s headliners—children’s activities, Manhattan Project site tours, arts, antiques, crafts, food, and fun. There are also World War II Living History activities and demonstrations, Oak Ridge history exhibits, and regional exhibitors and vendors.

Oak Ridge was a “secret city” during World War II, when it was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons. The festival helps honor that heritage and also includes a range of entertainment, community information, and family fun, among other things.

You can check updates on this year’s Secret City Festival on Twitter here.

See the Secret City Festival website for more information, including on how to purchase concert tickets for Eddie Money and Kix Brooks. [Read more…]

More red-light, speeding violations since cameras disabled, Redflex says

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Red-light Camera at Oak Ridge Turnpike and New York Avenue

Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. said an eastbound traffic camera at Oak Ridge Turnpike and New York Avenue/Lafayette Drive had the third-highest rise in detected speeding violations, a 243 percent increase in the number of drivers traveling at 46 mph or more, after the cameras were disabled April 21. Pictured above is the westbound camera.

 

The Arizona company that operated traffic cameras in Oak Ridge for five years said reckless driving has increased significantly, average speeds have risen, and there has been an increase in red-light running and speeding violations since the systems were disabled April 21.

The two biggest increases in speeding violations were in school zones on eastbound and westbound Robertsville Road near Willow Brook Elementary School, camera vendor Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. said in a report that could be discussed during a Traffic Safety Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday. The average number of school zone violations jumped from a little more than two per day in the 14 days before the cameras were disabled to 10 or 11 per day afterward.

A school zone violation occurs when a driver is detected traveling at 21 mph or more in a 15 mph school zone.

Meanwhile, detections of red-light violations, which can lead to the most serious accidents, increased from an average of 20 per day at four locations in the three weeks before the cameras were disabled to up to 28 per day in the fourth week afterward, Redflex said. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Fire Department teams with MDA this weekend

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Oak Ridge Bicycle Center

Oak Ridge Fire Department Muscular Dystrophy Chairperson Duane Chase announced Thursday that the Oak Ridge Firefighters Association will conduct its annual MDA Boot Drive this Friday and Saturday, June 13 and 14, at the Secret City Festival at A.K. Bissell Park.

An MDA booth will be located at the fire department youth area and Zipline landing to make your contribution. Each contribution of $5 will enter the contributor in a drawing for a youth bicycle from Oak Ridge Bicycle Center on Jefferson Avenue. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge: 4,000 lose power, 70 homes damaged

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Wadsworth Circle Home Tree

One of two trees that fell on a home on West Wadsworth Circle. The second tree, visible on the ground in the background, punched a hole in the roof and displaced a mother, grandmother, and two children.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:40 p.m.

Roughly 4,000 customers lost power in the Tuesday evening storm, and about 70 damaged homes will require repairs by an electrician before power can be restored, an Oak Ridge official said Wednesday morning.

Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs said he doesn’t recall ever having 70 homes damaged in one storm, although the Electric Department has experienced worse storms when many utility poles were broken. But the brief, fierce Tuesday storm, which brought severe winds and driving rain, was significant in terms of its damage to homes and its far-reaching nature, from Blair Road on the west end of town to east Oak Ridge and beyond—into Clinton and Anderson County, Suggs said.

“It was pretty widespread,” Suggs said.

Janet Bowker on Plymouth Circle and Storm Debris

Janet Bowker, left, walks through debris on Plymouth Circle in front of her home, where a tree fell into her bedroom during the Tuesday evening storm. Her home is at right but not visible in this picture. There were no injuries, but Bowker does not have power now.

 

The storm, which ripped through Oak Ridge at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, left a trail of debris: scattered branches and limbs, broken trees, fallen power lines, and damaged buildings and homes. It also triggered a flood of calls to the city’s 911 call dispatch center.

About 500 customers remained without power around noon Wednesday, including the 70 damaged homes. [Read more…]