Oak Ridge Today

Clinton car dealership hit by thieves

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Clinton Police Department is investigating the theft of some $570 worth of auto parts from Worthington Motors on South Seivers Boulevard.

Owner David Worthington called police shortly before noon Thursday after discovering that someone had broken into a locked, fenced-in area on the lot and stolen several items. Worthington reported that the suspect or suspects stole four black SHO wheels with a honeycomb pattern, 20 old radiators, and two old batteries being saved for scrap metal and two aluminum wheels. [Read more…]

TBI seeks public’s help in Morgan man’s murder

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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public’s help in finding out who killed an elderly Morgan County man whose body was found inside his house last weekend.

Morgan County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to the home of Harold Dean Reed, 76, on White Oak Creek Lane last weekend and found the man’s body with what were described as obvious signs of trauma. [Read more…]

Chancellor Lantrip announces retirement

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Note: This story was updated at 1:51 p.m.

William E. Lantrip, longtime chancellor in Anderson County’s Seventh Judicial District, has announced he will not seek re-election in 2014.

“I have shared this decision with my fellow judges and members of the bar for some time and now believe it appropriate to make this decision known publicly,” Lantrip said in a Friday morning press release. “I have encouraged those interested in this office to consider pursuing election during next year’s election. I look forward to completing my service as I contemplate my retirement.” [Read more…]

Federal decision on new protest of Y-12, Pantex contract due Sept. 25

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Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)

Federal officials have a Sept. 25 deadline to rule on a new protest filed last week by one of the two teams that lost a contract competition earlier this year to manage two nuclear weapons plants in Tennessee and Texas.

The new bid protest was filed on June 17 by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2, a team led by Babcock and Wilcox Co. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has 100 days to respond to the latest protest but could issue a decision earlier.

The bid protest is related to the consolidated management and operating contract at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. [Read more…]

State releases information on weekend crashes that ended high-speed chase

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The Tennessee Highway Patrol has released information on the Saturday night crashes in Oak Ridge that ended a high-speed chase, caused one vehicle to overturn, and sent two people to a hospital.

The chase started in Kingston late Saturday night after the suspect, Austin Cody Burns, 21, of Tellico Plains, nearly collided head-on with a vehicle driven by a deputy, the Roane County Sheriff’s Office reported. Burns allegedly fled from Roane County and Kingston Police Department officers at speeds that exceeded 90 mph. [Read more…]

IMPACT Services cleanup coming to end with one million pounds shipped

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IMPACT Services Waste

The last of more than one million pounds of low-level radioactive waste at the former IMPACT Services site at Heritage Center in west Oak Ridge will be shipped out next Thursday.

Considered a success story, the one-year, $1.2 million state project to ship out more than one million pounds of low-level radioactive waste from the west Oak Ridge site of a company that declared bankruptcy about one year ago will end next week.

Already, about 1.1 million pounds of waste in about 1,200 containers have been shipped off the Heritage Center site, including to other processors and sites in Oak Ridge, Florida, and an EnergySolutions landfill in Clive, Utah, officials said during a Thursday morning tour.

A half-dozen shipments remain between now and Friday, June 28, said Judy Hardt, project manager for SAIC, which is performing the on-site work under a contract with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. [Read more…]

State certification means 110-acre Horizon Center site is ready for development

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Tennessee Certified Site at Horizon Center

The Select Tennessee Certified Site at Horizon Center is pictured at center above. A 28-acre portion of the parcel at left has been identified as a primary data center site. (Submitted photo)

Tennessee officials have identified 110 cleared acres in Horizon Center as one of the first sites in the state to be named a certified site, meaning the property has met certain rigorous standards and is ready for development.

It’s now the second certified site in Horizon Center, a business park on State Route 95 in west Oak Ridge.

The 110-acre site has been designated as a Select Tennessee Certified Site by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. [Read more…]

RSI named regional small business subcontractor of the year

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Tom Beehan and Rick Ferguson at RSI Solar Ceremony

Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, left, and RSI Vice President Rick Ferguson at a May 2012 ceremony for an RSI solar farm at Heritage Center. (Photo courtesy Lynn Freeny/U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office)

The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Restoration Services Inc. of Oak Ridge as Subcontractor of the Year in Region IV, which includes eight southeastern states.

RSI was recognized for its hard work, innovative ideas, and dedication to the community, a press release said.

“The SBA is pleased to recognize your achievements and your role in driving our nation’s economic growth,” said John Shoraka of the SBA Office of Government Contracting and Business Development. The SBA announced regional awards as they prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week from June 17-21. [Read more…]

WYSH: Nephew allegedly assaults uncle, steals pills

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Information from WYSH Radio

A Clinton man reported that he had been assaulted and robbed by his nephew late Saturday night, according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.

An ACSD deputy was sent to Tennova North Medical Center in Knoxville early Monday morning, where he spoke with the victim, William Scarbrough, 53. Scarbrough told the deputy that at around midnight Saturday, his 30-year-old nephew Joseph Allen Huskey—who lives with him—had come in to his bedroom and hit him several times with a baseball bat before stealing his prescription oxycodone and Xanax pills and fleeing the scene. [Read more…]

NNSA declines to comment on new protest over Y-12, Pantex contract

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Y-12 National Security Complex

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex at Scarboro and Bear Creek roads.

Federal officials and a contracting team declined to comment Tuesday on a new protest filed over the competition to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The Babcock and Wilcox Co. announced Monday that its contracting team, Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2, has filed a new protest with the Government Accountability Office related to the consolidated Y-12 and Pantex contract.

The new protest came about five months after earlier protests filed by NP2 and another contracting team, Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC. Those protests were filed in January, after the National Nuclear Security Administration announced it had awarded a contract valued at about $23 billion to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, to manage and operate Y-12 and Pantex. [Read more…]

IDB endorses project to add power at Horizon Center, subject to TVA grant

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With a pre-application deadline this Wednesday, the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board agreed last week to commit $750,000 to a project to increase the electrical capacity at Horizon Center Business Park if the city gets a matching grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The project, which would add 14 megawatts to the park’s electrical capacity with the potential to add more later, would extend power from a substation on Blair Road in west Oak Ridge to the edge of Lot 5 on the back side of Horizon Center. It would install 13 kilovolt lines on poles that could hold 69 kilovolt lines later. [Read more…]

Protomet Corp. breaks ground on $6.25 million expansion

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Protomet Expansion Groundbreaking

Protomet breaks ground Friday on a $6.25 million expansion in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park. Pictured above from left are Operations Director Andrew Jenkins and Engineering Director Matt Reid of Protomet; LeRoy Thompson, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development regional director; Protomet President Jeff Bohanan; Sherry Browder, Oak Ridge Economic Partnership chair; Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan; and David Wilson, Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board chair.

Protomet Corp. broke ground on Friday on a $6.25 million expansion of its manufacturing facility in Bethel Valley Industrial Park, allowing the company to more than double its space, consolidate operations with a Blount County facility, and expand production.

The expanded facility, which could be complete by the end of the year, will have more  than 40,000 square feet, and it will bring more than 30 jobs to Oak Ridge, a press release said. It is the second multi-million dollar investment at the company’s Oak Ridge site. [Read more…]