Emergency workers were unable to save a man found with two apparent gunshot wounds in his chest on Tuesday in the rear parking lot of a mental health center in Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge Police Department has not released the man’s name or age, and a report said the shooting remains under investigation. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
A fire that destroyed a vacant home on Back Vowell Road early Wednesday morning is being investigated as arson.
The fire was reported at around 4:15 a.m. Wednesday and extinguished by the Briceville Volunteer Fire Department. A neighbor told an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputy the house had been foreclosed upon and had been vacant for about two years. Investigators reported that the house had an electric meter, but that the fire started at the other end of the building. The cause of Wednesday’s fire is under investigation. No injuries were reported.
Construction work at the new Briceville Public Library in July. (Photo courtesy Coal Creek Watershed Foundation)
After years of work, it’s almost moving day at the new Briceville Public Library.
Supporters are looking for about 150-175 people to form a “human chain” at 10 a.m. Aug. 24 to move about 1,100 books from the old library to the new one. The library is now housed in a 20-foot by 22-foot room at the Briceville Friendship Center. It will move into a new 2,000-square-foot building at 111 Slate Stone Road, next to Briceville School.
Now that the project has received final approval, crews are working quickly to finish demolishing and cleaning up hotels and homes, remove trees, and clear land at the 25-acre site of a Kroger Marketplace shopping center northeast of the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue. The former Robin Lane is in the center of the picture.
Now that the project has received final approval, crews are working quickly to finish demolishing hotels and homes, clean up debris, remove trees, and clear land for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center at one of the city’s busiest intersections.
Building construction could start in early October, and there could be some blasting at the 25-acre site starting at 2 p.m. Friday.
The $30 million shopping center will be named the Westcott Center in honor of renowned photographer James Edward Westcott, and it is scheduled to open in August 2014. [Read more…]
A duplex at this lot at 114-116 Lawton Road was demolished after an October fire, and the property could be turned over to a new Oak Ridge land bank.
A new Oak Ridge land bank could be started with $100,000, one donated lot, and eleven parcels where homes have been demolished or are being demolished.
Oak Ridge officials said the land bank program is a tool that can help the city return vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties to productive use, one of several initiatives to improve local housing.
The Oak Ridge City Council agreed in a 6-1 vote on Monday to set up the Oak Ridge Land Bank Corp., appropriate the funds and staff support required to create and start running the program, and transfer the available city-acquired properties. Council still has to approve the program on second and final reading in September. [Read more…]
Rental properties in the Manhattan District Overlay could be registered and regularly inspected under a proposal unanimously approved in the first of two readings by the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday. The rental properties are pictured in red above. (Image courtesy of Oak Ridge city staff)
The ordinance was already on the books, and on Monday, city officials agreed to expand the area where inspections of rental homes are allowed to include most of the center of the city.
The expanded residential inspection district, which had originally applied to the Highland View Redevelopment Area, could include about 1,700 rental units.
The Oak Ridge City Council unanimously endorsed the expansion during a Monday night meeting. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
As the Anderson County Commission continues to try and find ways to generate sufficient revenue to staff the jail expansion scheduled to open early next year, commissioners on Monday will consider several resolutions drafted by the county law director assessing new fees for inmates incarcerated at the county jail. Law Director Jay Yeager says the new fees are in line with state law and would help take the onus of housing the inmates off of the taxpayers and place it on the offenders themselves.
Some of the proposed fees include charging prisoners for their jail-issued clothing and toiletries as well as instituting medical and dental co-pays and fees for having a jailer escort an inmate to the hospital to visit a sick relative or to the funeral of someone in their immediate family. [Read more…]
H. Tyler Mayes
Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk Tyler Mayes announced on Monday that revenues in his office exceeded projections by nearly $400,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
The total revenues budgeted for all revenue codes within the Circuit Court Clerk’s office was about $1.46 million, while the office brought in revenues of $1.86 million, Mayes said in a press release.
“The bulk of these excess revenues has been returned to the General Fund and will have a positive impact on the undesignated fund balance,” Mayes said. “Some revenues have designated uses by state law and are assigned to those specific expenditures.” [Read more…]
The electronic sign at Oak Ridge High School is pictured above. (Photos courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
The public debate gained notoriety in December with a dispute over an electronic sign featuring an animated Santa. After months of meetings and hours of discussions, it could be close to being resolved, although the community appears to remain divided.
On Monday night, the Oak Ridge City Council voted 4-3 to approve, in the first of two monthly votes, ordinance changes that would, among other things, prohibit videos or continuously scrolling messages on electronic signs, revisions that would presumably prevent an animated Santa.
The revised ordinance would require messages on the increasingly popular signs to be static and remain displayed for five seconds. The changes, which still have to be approved on second and final reading in September, would also govern signs used for sporting events, set maximum brightness levels, and require the displays to automatically dim through photo cell technology. [Read more…]
Note: This story was updated at 6:40 a.m. Aug. 14.
The restaurant has already been punished by the state and lost thousands of dollars because of a five-day suspension of its liquor license after it sold beer to a minor in March, company representatives said.
Adding a municipal penalty would amount to double jeopardy for Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill, said Bobby Prince, the restaurant’s regional manager. [Read more…]
Phillip “Phil” W. Schuetz
Phil Schuetz, a former project manager for the multi-billion dollar Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, died Saturday, officials said.
No formal funeral service will be held, but at Schuetz’s request, a celebration of life is being planned for September, Y-12 officials said.
“I was saddened to hear of the passing of Phil Schuetz,” UPF Federal Project Director John Eschenberg said in a Monday statement. “I was honored to work with him for many years at three different sites. He set the example of professionalism for us all with an incredible work ethic and his infectious spirit. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.” [Read more…]
Note: This is a copy of a letter sent to Anderson County Commissioner Robin Biloski, who chairs the Operations Committee. During a Monday, Aug. 12, meeting, the committee will consider a request to buy the former Bank of America building in Lake City for services on the north end of the county and to house a coal mining museum.
The Board of Directors of the Coal Mining Museum in Lake City would like to encourage the Anderson County Commission’s Operation Committee to approve the purchase of the building formerly occupied by the Bank of America in Lake City in order to provide county services to the residents of north Anderson County and a home for the Coal Mining Museum.
The Coal Mining Museum has been looking for a home for several years. It is currently housed in the Lake City Community Center, which does not provide adequate space to display all of the artifacts. [Read more…]
