Oak Ridge Today

Norris budget approved with no tax hike

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

On Monday, the Norris City Council voted on second and final reading to adopt its budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The budget approved this week contains no property tax rate increase, but it does provide 2 percent cost-of-living raises for city workers.

The Council did approve rate increases in water and sewer service that should cause customers’ bills to go up by anywhere from $5 to $10 a month. The increased rates are needed to pay for sewer improvements mandated by the state that will be undertaken during the next three years.

Anderson budget cuts tax rate; officials assure sheriff new jailers are covered

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

CLINTON—The Anderson County Commission endorsed a budget Thursday that lowers the property tax rate, gives employees a day off, and is supposed to provide enough money to pay for jailers hired in the past year while allowing the sheriff to hire new ones for a jail addition that could open later this year.

The budget would also restore some funding for the relatively new Alternatives to Incarceration program, which Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank had proposed cutting by 80 percent, and add money to cover the cost of increased health insurance premiums for county employees.

The budget was endorsed in a 12-1-1 vote during a special meeting Thursday, the second this week. It could officially be adopted during the County Commission’s regular meeting on Monday. [Read more…]

Price Florist won’t be demolished yet, but declared a nuisance, unfit

Posted at
By 3 Comments

Price Florist

A city board has declared Price Florist on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation and use.

Price Florist won’t be demolished yet.

On Thursday, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals declared the longtime business on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation or use. It’s already been vacated, and the property owner is cleaning it up.

But the six board members at Thursday’s meeting stopped short of issuing a demolition order. [Read more…]

Young boy hit by car, taken to UT hospital

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A 20-month-old boy ran out in front of a car on New Clear Branch Road south of Lake City on Thursday morning and was hit by a car, authorities said.

The boy, who had run out from his home on New Clear Branch Road, had no broken bones, but he was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Joseph Lindsay said. [Read more…]

ORUD ‘near miss’: Light fails, fixture overheats, insulation paper ignites

Posted at
By 1 Comment

Oak Ridge Utility District Fire

Oak Ridge firefighters investigate a report of smoke at Oak Ridge Utility District on Thursday morning. They found a hot ceiling tile and determined a light ballast had apparently failed, causing a fixture to overheat and igniting insulation paper. (Submitted photos)

The Oak Ridge Fire Department called it a “near miss.”

Firefighters responded at about 6:40 a.m. Thursday to a report of smoke at the Oak Ridge Utility District office building on South Jefferson Circle. The source of the smoke was initially believed to be a motor on a heat and air unit that had failed, but fire crews using a thermal imaging camera located a hot ceiling tile in an office, an ORFD press release said.

“It appears that a light ballast had failed, causing the fixture to overheat, which ignited the paper backing on the insulation lying directly on top of the recessed light,” the release said. “The paper burned along the insulation for approximately five feet until the insulation came into contact with a sprinkler pipe, where it self-extinguished. There was no damage, smoke or water, to the building, and the burned insulation was removed by the firefighters.” [Read more…]

Deck fire apparently caused by charcoal ashes discarded in trash bag

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Golfcrest Lane Fire

The Oak Ridge Fire Department responds to a trash fire apparently started by charcoal ashes on Golfcrest Lane on Wednesday. Pictured above are Oak Ridge Fire Department Capt. Kerry Osborne on top of ladder, and firefighters Joe Brackins, left, and Seth Burnett.
(Photo by Tom Scott)

Charcoal ashes discarded in a trash bag on a deck apparently started a Wednesday afternoon fire on Golfcrest Lane, the Oak Ridge Fire Department said Thursday.

Firefighters responded to a report of smoke at 119 Golfcrest Lane at 12:49 p.m. Wednesday. A neighbor threw water on the flames before the Fire Department arrived and the small fire was out, an ORFD press release said.

The only damage to the home was a small hole in two boards in the deck. [Read more…]

Storm knocked trees onto homes, woman reports possible lightning strike

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Tree on Delaware Avenue Home

A tree fell on a vacant Delaware Avenue home during a severe Monday night storm. (Photo by Brad Jones)

A strong storm that blew through Oak Ridge on Monday knocked two trees down onto homes. One fell onto a firefighter’s house and caused several thousand dollars worth of damage, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said.

Firefighters also responded to a call from a woman who called 911 and said she thought she had been struck by lightning during the 7 p.m. storm.

“Upon arrival, the fire department found her in the living room of her home complaining of chest pain,” Kerley said. “She stated she was standing looking out the window when lighting hit in front of her, and she began experiencing chest pain. She was transported to Methodist Medical Center for evaluation.” [Read more…]

Charity dog walk on Saturday receives $2,000 donation

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Radio Systems Corp.—home of the PetSafe and SportDOG brands—recently awarded $2,000 to the Mutt Strutt, a charity dog walk created by the Young Professionals of Oak Ridge Community Outreach Committee in partnership with SARG (Shelter Animal Rescue Group).

The Mutt Strutt was created to support the improvement of the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, and this year’s event will be held at A.K. Bissell Park at 10 a.m. Saturday. [Read more…]

U.S. Postal Service can ask for mailbox move, but can’t require it, spokesman says

Posted at
By 7 Comments

The letter that told some postal customers in Oak Ridge that they would have to move their mailboxes should not have been sent out, a spokesman said Tuesday.

WYSH Radio in Clinton reported last week that the letters were sent to some postal customers in Oak Ridge who still use house boxes to receive their mail. It said customers had 10 days to switch to a curbside mailbox before “mail received at the box will be returned to sender,” the radio station reported.

But on Tuesday, David Walton, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in the Tennessee District, said the federal agency can’t force a customer to move his or her mailbox. [Read more…]

ORHS Principal Jody Goins leaving for Central High in Knox

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Jody Goins

Jody Goins

Oak Ridge High School Principal Jody Goins has been appointed principal at Central High School in Knoxville, Knox County school officials said.

Goins has been ORHS principal since 2009. He joined Oak Ridge Schools in 2004 and served as a social studies teacher, coach, and assistant principal prior to his appointment as a principal, according to a Tuesday memo from Knox County Superintendent James P. McIntyre Jr. [Read more…]

Water line rupture at Y-12 kills small fish, salamanders

Posted at
By 1 Comment

East Fork Poplar Creek

East Fork Poplar Creek starts at a spring at the Y-12 National Security Complex and flows through Oak Ridge. It has been listed on a state list of impaired waterways due to mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, among other things.

About six million gallons of chlorinated water spilled into East Fork Poplar Creek from a ruptured drinking water line at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and an estimated 8,500 minnow-sized fish and almost 30 salamanders were killed in the area of the incoming chlorinated water, a media advisory said.

It said the rupture in the potable water line was found Saturday. The numbers of dead fish and salamanders were determined by workers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program. [Read more…]

Now ex-ACHS teacher nabbed in Knox prostitution sting

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

An Anderson County High School teacher was arrested this past weekend in an online prostitution sting.

Brian Dean Justice, 40, also a former assistant principal at Clinton Middle School, was arrested by Knox County Sheriff’s Department deputies Friday after he allegedly contacted a person he thought was a prostitute after answering an online ad on a website called backpage.com and arranging to meet the person at a motel in Knox County. That person turned out to be an undercover deputy, and Justice was arrested and charged with patronizing prostitution. [Read more…]