The day after President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann announced his opposition.
“I could not disagree more with the president’s support for gay marriage,” said Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. “Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, period. This principle has been the bedrock of our Judeo-Christian family values, and stable families remain the key to a healthy society.”
A vertical crack has formed between two walls in the Woodland Elementary School library, where the soil has settled and part of the building has dropped.
Brick walls are bulging and cracking, and concrete slabs are shifting and sinking.
During one weekend in August, a vertical crack as wide as about two inches opened between two walls in the library. Entire walls had shifted and the building had dropped after soil underneath it settled, said Allen Thacker, Oak Ridge Schools supervisor of maintenance and operations.
A structural engineer was called immediately, and already-planned repairs at Woodland Elementary School have now become a high priority.
Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian, has a passion for explaining the plant's history and has been named Anderson County United Way Volunteer of the Year. (Photo submitted by B&W Y-12)
Historian D. Ray Smith has been named 2011 Volunteer of the Year by the United Way of Anderson County.
Oak Ridge High School has been ranked sixth best high school in Tennessee in the most recent rankings by U.S. News.
The rankings were announced today.
An Oak Ridge man was arrested Friday after a short police chase and a search that allegedly found seven ounces of cocaine on West Pasadena Lane, close to the city’s high school.
Christopher S. Black, 24, has been charged with possession of drugs in a school zone.
Starting next month, Oak Ridge police officers will begin ticketing motorists who violate new parking ordinances that prohibit parking on curbs and sidewalks.
Police officers will begin issuing the citations on Monday, June 18, and ticketed motorists could face fines and court costs as high as about $159.
The new ordinances, approved by Oak Ridge City Council in March and April, also prohibit vehicles and objects placed inside of them from protruding outside marked parking spaces and clarify that vehicles must be parked in the same direction as the traffic flow.
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson, center, presents budget highlights to City Council during a Monday night meeting. Also pictured, from left, are Oak Ridge City Clerk Diana Stanley, City Attorney Ken Krushenski (partially obscured), and Finance Director Janice McGinnis.
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson has proposed a budget for the next fiscal year that does not include a property tax rate increase.
However, the budget, which is similar to last year’s, does include a 1.5 percent “pay adjustment” for municipal employees.
“This is not a rocket science budget,” Watson said. “This is just a matter of what we can afford.”
The property tax rate would stay at $2.39 per $100 of assessed value in the fiscal year that begins July 1 if City Council approves the budget on first and second reading later this month.
A nonprofit organization will have its monthly meeting at the Freels Bend Cabin on Thursday, a rare opportunity to see the oldest structure in Oak Ridge.
The regular monthly meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association is not unusual, but the location this week is.
The ORHPA will meet Thursday at Freels Bend Cabin, providing a rare opportunity to see the oldest structure in Oak Ridge.
Built in 1844, the cabin is on U.S. Department of Energy land, and access to it is normally restricted.
We have changed the content categories on Oak Ridge Today to better organize our information. The only obvious difference is in the navigation bar.
The News button is still there, but we have added a drop-down menu that includes subcategories such as Government and U.S. Department of Energy.
The proposed picnic pavilion at Melton Lake Park is similar to the one pictured above, although some amenities have been added.
The Oak Ridge City Council will consider awarding a $159,000 contract tonight for the construction of a pavilion that could be used for rowing and community events at Melton Lake Park.
The pavilion would be the second major step in a waterfront development plan approved by Oak Ridge City Council in December 2009. The first was the paving of the parking lot at Elza Gate Park.
Oak Ridge firefighters battle a blaze allegedly started by arsonists on Saturday afternoon at the former Paragon Athletic Club on Emory Valley Road. (Photos by Tom Scott)
Arsonists started a Saturday afternoon fire at the former Paragon Athletic Club in Oak Ridge, Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.
The fire started in a bathroom area in the rear of the building on Emory Valley Road about 5 p.m. Saturday, and it warped steel beams in the ceiling.
Firefighters near the front door of Paragon Athletic Club in Oak Ridge during a Saturday afternoon blaze.
Witnesses reported seeing “some kids hanging out there just before the fire,” Kerley said.
“It was an arson fire,” he said.
A fiberglass spa tub had caught on fire and filled the empty, unused building with thick, black smoke. Kerley said it took firefighters eight to 10 minutes to find the fire inside the Paragon and another five to 10 minutes to put it out.
Led by music teacher Erica Hixson, third-graders from Linden Elementary School sing at a Saturday tribute to Selma Shapiro, former longtime executive director of the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge.
Glenwood Elementary School students also perform at Saturday's first annual tribute, which about 150 people attended, including Shapiro's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Shapiro led the museum for almost 32 years and died in May 2011.
