Oak Ridge Today

Sponsored: Music Arts studios move to Robertsville Baptist, lessons make great gifts

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Music Arts Michael Johnston and Warren Clark

Trumpet teacher Warren Clark, left, and student Michael Johnston, a junior at Oak Ridge High School, practice at Music Arts’ new studio space at Robertsville Baptist Church.

Music Arts, a longtime Oak Ridge music school, has moved across town to a larger space at Robertsville Baptist Church.

Its two dozen professional instructors continue to offer top-quality instruction at competitive prices. They offer private lessons on all instruments and also teach voice lessons, jazz improvisation, and music theory and composition.

Music Arts moved to Robertsville Baptist Church in October. The school had been at Oak Ridge Alliance Church. Lessons are offered Monday through Saturday.

“We offer instruction in a wide variety of instruments,” Music Arts says. “Our faculty have been educated at such schools as the University of Tennessee, Peabody, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Hartt School of Music.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridge’s first dog park now open

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PetSafe Big Turtle Park Dog Park

The city’s first dog park is now open at Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge. Officials and pet owners celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on Monday.

The city’s first dog park is now open at Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge. Officials and pet owners celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on Monday.

The dog park has been planned for five years. It was made possible by a $100,000 donation by Radio Systems Corp.

The PetSafe Dog Park features include separate fenced areas for small dogs and large dogs, benches, water fountains, and a shade structure.

Community members and their dogs joined city officials and representatives from Radio Systems Corp. and PetSafe at a dedication ceremony on Monday morning to mark completion of the new park.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Mayor, sheriff reach agreement on salary suit, but war of words follows

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Anderson County Detention Facility Expansion

The salary dispute between the Anderson County mayor and sheriff focused on the spending to hire up to 36 new jailers to staff a 212-bed expansion that is still under construction at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton.

CLINTON—The Anderson County mayor and sheriff reached an agreement Friday that could end their five-month-old legal dispute over an annual salary agreement, possibly closing one expensive and contentious chapter in local government even as it opened a new war of words between top officials.

Knox County Circuit Court Judge Dale C. Workman could sign the agreement Monday morning.

Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Sheriff Paul White said the agreement allows the sheriff to hire 15 full-time permanent deputies and additional temporary deputies when the sheriff deems appropriate as he prepares to open a 212-bed jail expansion. But the hiring must stay within the spending limit approved by the Anderson County Commission this year, and the temporary employees cannot work more than six months.

Terry Frank

Terry Frank

Frank and White announced the agreement in a one-page press release distributed Friday. The case had been scheduled to be heard in Knox County Circuit Court on Monday morning. [Read more…]

TDEC provides violation notices, timeline on pet crematory where remains excavated

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Elliott Pet Service Excavation

Dump trucks remove pet remains on Wednesday that had been excavated from Elliott Pet Services in Morgan County. (Photo courtesy WATE-TV)

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation on Wednesday provided copies of the violation notices sent to the Morgan County crematory where animal remains were excavated last week after a state investigation.

TDEC also provided the media with an event timeline for September and October at Elliott Pet Services on Grouse Ridge Road, copies of annual inspection reports, and a state response to complainants Dana and Fegan Kenny.

You can read the documents here: [Read more…]

A note about comments on Oak Ridge Today

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During the past few months, we’ve tried to be fairly consistent about moderating reader comments that do not follow our first posting guideline: Use your real name, including last name.

But we may not have been quite as consistent in moderating some of the other guidelines, including those that ask readers who comment to stick to the issues and not make their comments personal.

And during the past few months, readers have let us know they want us to keep the comment section civil, and not allow personal attacks or off-topic posts.

So, we pledge to work harder to ensure that those who comment follow the other guidelines as well. In general, this will probably mean that we simply remove comments that we don’t think follow the other guidelines (be civil, stick to the issues, etc.). In some cases, we may send a short e-mail explaining why the comment was removed. [Read more…]

Police ID woman who died in Clinton crash

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Hon. William Everette Lewallen Memorial Bridge

A Clinton woman died in a three-car crash Friday evening on the Hon. William Everette Lewallen Memorial Bridge on Clinch Avenue near downtown Clinton.

The Clinton Police Department has identified the woman who died in a crash on Lewallen Bridge on Friday evening.

Angela Duncan Richardson, 40, of Clinton, died after she was thrown from a pickup truck driven by Kyle H. Anthony, 21, of Knoxville, the CPD said. Richardson was reportedly sitting behind the front seat of Anthony’s Chevy Silverado.

One other passenger in Anthony’s truck, Sean Richardson of Clinton, was taken to the hospital for treatment of possible injuries, and a fourth person in the truck was not injured despite being partially ejected from Anthony’s vehicle, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton. [Read more…]

Impossible to identify animal remains excavated at pet crematory, state says

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Elliott Pet Service Excavation

Dump trucks remove pet remains on Wednesday that had been excavated from Elliott Pet Services in Morgan County. (Photo courtesy WATE-TV)

It will not be possible to identify animals buried at a pet crematory in Morgan County where remains were excavated this week after a state investigation, officials said Wednesday.

News of the investigation and excavations this week has left many pet owners, including in Anderson County, wondering whether animals they paid to have cremated might be among those buried at the rural wooded site near the Roane County line.

The crematory site on Grouse Ridge Road is operated by Elliott Pet Services. It was the subject of a citizen’s complaint in September that alleged animals were being dumped on the site.

In September, the business also received an open dumping violation notice from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. And in October, the company was cited for not maintaining logs.

Business owner Cameo Farr and her attorney, Kevin Angel of Oak Ridge, told several Knoxville television stations that burying animals is part of her business, and she has always cremated animals that were supposed to be cremated. [Read more…]

BB pistol found in student’s backpack at Robertsville

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Robertsville Middle School

A BB pistol was found in a student’s backpack in a locker at Robertsville Middle School on Thursday morning, authorities said.

A BB pistol was found in a student’s backpack in a locker at Robertsville Middle School on Thursday morning, authorities said.

The 13-year-old student was arrested and charged with carrying a weapon on school property and aggravated assault, the Oak Ridge Police Department said in a press release.

At least five officers responded to the school after receiving a report about a student armed with a handgun at about 8:53 a.m. Thursday, the press release said. Officers located the student at 9:05 a.m. and detained him. [Read more…]

No injuries, but barn fire causes estimated $100,000 in damage

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Tuskegee Drive Barn Fire

A Thursday evening fire destroyed a barn off Tuskegee Drive and caused an estimated $100,000 in damage, including to supplies and equipment inside. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A fire that destroyed a barn off Tuskegee Drive on Thursday evening caused an estimated $100,000 in damage, authorities said Friday morning.

The blaze was first reported as a fire in the woods at about 5:09 p.m. Thursday. But crews who hiked through the woods found a barn totally engulfed with fire, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said.

Access to the structure near the intersection of Tuskegee and TeeJay drives was limited, so the Oak Ridge Fire Department requested forestry mini pumpers from Oliver Springs and Marlow volunteer fire departments to help control wooded areas around the barn. [Read more…]

Fire destroys barn off Tuskegee Drive

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A fire that was reported at about 5:09 p.m. Thursday destroyed a barn off Tuskegee Drive, authorities said.

Owned by Wayne Clark, the barn contained tools, supplies, and equipment, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said.

A small road off Tuskegee Drive that leads to the barn was blocked by tree limbs—preventing even a small rescue truck from using it—but firefighters and police officers were able to get to the scene using a gravel road near Teller Village Apartments. The fire was originally reported as a brush fire. But firefighters who parked a truck on the road and hiked in soon realized it was a barn fire, Kerley said. [Read more…]

Dog park ribbon cutting is Monday

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Oak Ridge Dog Park Entrance

The city will have a ribbon-cutting for the new dog park at Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge on Monday. Above, the park is pictured under construction in October.

The city will have a ribbon-cutting for the new dog park at Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge on Monday.

The ribbon-cutting is at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Construction has been under way since this summer at the city’s first dog park, which is being built with help from a $100,000 donation from Radio Systems Corp. through Legacy Parks.

The park is roughly one acre, and it includes one fenced-in field for small dogs and another for all dogs, said Jon Hetrick, Oak Ridge Parks Division supervisor. [Read more…]

B&W Y-12 donates $75,000 for new Emory Valley Center building

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Emory Valley Center Early Learning Center

B&W Y-12 donated $75,000 to Emory Valley Center on Wednesday as part of a capital campaign to help build a new facility to replace the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center on Emory Valley Road by 2015.

Fundraisers at 75 percent of goal

B&W Y-12 donated $75,000 on Wednesday to help the Emory Valley Center build a new facility by early 2015, when a county-owned building that houses some of its programs is expected to be torn down.

B&W Y-12 has now donated $175,000 of a $250,000 pledge, and EVC volunteers have raised $2.5 million of their $3.3 million goal, said former state representative and pediatrician Gene Caldwell, who is co-chair of the EVC capital campaign. That’s 75 percent of the fundraising goal.

Emory Valley Center now has two facilities across the street from each other on Emory Valley Road. The new 30,000-square-foot building west of the current administrative and workshop areas on the south side side of Emory Valley Road would consolidate the nonprofit’s operations, which include an Early Learning Center, gym, offices, kitchen, and work training center.

“This is a huge, huge help,” EVC President Jennifer Enderson of the B&W Y-12 donation. “The clock is ticking on when we must vacate an existing facility, and we can’t start construction of the new one until we have raised enough money.” [Read more…]