Information from WYSH Radio
The man accused in the fatal shooting of a Clinton pawn shop employee in November of 2011 has been ruled competent to stand trial.
James Allen Green, 65, is accused of shooting 59-year-old Larry Snellings after asking to see a gun at the South Clinton Pawn Shop. When Snellings handed him the gun, Green allegedly loaded it and shot him. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
A Tuesday night fire that destroyed a barn in Anderson County is being investigated as suspicious. The fire occurred at a barn on Miller Hollow Lane shortly after 11 p.m., according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, which said the property owner heard a loud noise outside his house, and when he went to investigate saw the barn engulfed by flames.
The property owner told deputies he had recently been involved with a legal dispute and that he believed that the fire had been deliberately set. The investigation is ongoing. No injuries were reported.
The Anderson County Commission on Monday approved three new sets of fees for inmates, including charges for supplies ranging for pants and shirts to toothpaste and toilet paper. (Photo courtesy Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
CLINTON—Anderson County inmates could soon pay for items such as pants and shirts, bras and underwear, and toothpaste and toilet paper, with costs ranging from three cents for soap to $24.65 for a coat.
The new fees were approved with no opposition by the Anderson County Commission on Monday. The money would be deducted from the inmate’s jail trust account or any other account or fund set up for the prisoner. The fees would not be added to court costs.
The supply fees were one of three new sets of inmate fees approved by commissioners on Monday. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce will host its “Buy Local Cash Mob” on Friday at Clinch River Yarn Co. in Clinton.
Refreshments will be served, and there will be a 20 percent discount on everything in the shop, excluding looms, wheels, and equipment accessories. “Buy Local” Cards are available at the Chamber office and at the cash mob, which is from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Clinch River Yarn Co. at 725 N. Charles Seivers Blvd. in Clinton.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Sheriff Paul White are engaged in a legal fight over a two-page salary agreement that includes, among other things, six months’ worth of funding for 36 new employees at a new jail pod at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton. (Photo courtesy Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
CLINTON—The legal fees might already exceed $20,000, and they could continue to mount in a bitter dispute between the mayor and sheriff over a $7.7 million salary agreement for the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.
Efforts to “stop the bleeding”—and avoid extra expenses for Anderson County residents—were unsuccessful after a lengthy, heated debate on Monday night. During that debate, Anderson County commissioners rejected several proposals to cover some legal fees of Mayor Terry Frank in her response to a salary suit filed in July by Sheriff Paul White. Among the rejected options were proposals to pay Frank’s fees so far but no more, capping them at $40,000, or covering all expenses until the matter is resolved.
Frank has refused to sign the salary agreement, saying it includes about $1 million more for salaries and overtime than was approved by commission in June. But the Sheriff’s Department has said the salary agreement is routine and was drafted according to state law, and actual spending will be closer to the $6.6 million approved by the commission as part of this year’s budget. [Read more…]
Three more Oak Ridge Police Department officers are stationed at Oak Ridge High School and Alternative School this year. The ORPD now has a school resource officer, a sergeant, and two non-patrol officers at the two schools.
Three more Oak Ridge Police Department officers are stationed at Oak Ridge High School and Alternative School this year. However, they are not school resource officers, or SROs.
For the past few years, the ORPD has had an SRO who works mostly at the high school. This year, though, a sergeant and two non-patrol officers are also stationed there and at the Alternative School next door, ORPD Chief Jim Akagi said Monday.
School officials had requested more SROs this year, following the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., but funding has been an obstacle. While the new arrangement doesn’t add SROs, it will increase the police presence and visibility, Akagi said.
A new nonprofit organization that helps homeless families in Anderson County will show a documentary on Friday that features families struggling after the Great Recession, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The 7 p.m. screening of “American Winter,” an HBO documentary, has been organized by TORCH (Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope). The film was produced during one winter in one American city, and it presents an “intimate snapshot of the state of the nation’s economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream,” a press release said. [Read more…]
One-way tickets on the Oak Ridge Transit System will increase from $1.50 to $2 on Nov. 1, and additional stops during a trip will cost an extra $1. (Submitted photo)
One-way tickets on the Oak Ridge Transit System will increase from $1.50 to $2 on Nov. 1, officials said.
Additional stops during a trip will cost an extra $1, and extra stops must be scheduled when reservations are made, a city press release said.
The Oak Ridge Transit System is a fixed-route transportation service for the city, and it is operated by East Tennessee Human Resource Agency, or ETHRA. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
This past weekend, someone threw eggs at the statues of the 12 students who desegregated Clinton High School in 1956 that stand in front of the Green McAdoo Museum.
On Saturday afternoon, the Clinton Police Department was called at about 5 p.m. to the museum that pays tribute to those students—and tells the story of the South’s first desegregated public high school. Officers made contact with a woman who said she had come to visit the museum, not realizing it closed at 4 p.m., and had noticed the vandalism to the statues. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Commission has agreed to buy this former Bank of America building in Lake City for a Coal Mining Museum, storage space, and satellite county offices.
CLINTON— The Anderson County Commission agreed in a 13-1 vote on Monday to buy the former Bank of America building in Lake City for a Coal Mining Museum.
The two-story brick building will be purchased using $100,000 from the sale of property in the David Jones Industrial Park. Lake City will own the former bank, and it could also be used to store excess county supplies and as a satellite office for county departments. Organizers hope to open the museum eight months after Lake City receives the building.
Most of the initial revenue for museum operations would come from Lake City’s lodging tax. The Lake City Council has agreed to use one-third of that hotel and motel tax for the museum for at least the next three years, said Stephanie Wells, director of the Anderson County Tourism Council. [Read more…]
Anderson County commissioners have endorsed donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for an Oak Ridge sewer system holding tank.
CLINTON—Despite a few concerns about whether the tank would be an eyesore, Anderson County officials on Monday endorsed a request to give up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road in Oak Ridge for a sewer system holding tank.
The tank would be east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center, and it would be used to help Oak Ridge stop all sewer system overflows by 2015, as required by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order.
The Anderson County Commission endorsed the land donation in a voice vote Monday night. [Read more…]
Norris Middle School in Anderson County was among the top 5 percent of schools in Tennessee for annual growth and academic achievement in 2012-13, state officials said Monday.
Note: This story was updated at 8:45 a.m. Aug. 21 to add Clinton Elementary School.
Four Anderson County schools were among the top 5 percent of schools in Tennessee for annual growth and academic achievement in 2012-13, state officials said Monday.
They were Clinton Elementary School, Grand Oaks Elementary School, Norris Middle School, and Norwood Elementary School.
The four were among 169 schools in 52 districts recognized as Reward Schools in the past year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said in a press release. The list includes 70 schools that serve mostly economically disadvantaged populations. [Read more…]
