Oak Ridge Today

Neighborhood cleanup focuses on Highland View on May 2

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Keep Anderson County Beautiful T-shirt

Photo submitted by Mare Martell

Help put the unity back in commUNITY at this year’s neighborhood cleanup hosted by the Oak Ridge Police Department Community Resource Office, the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program, Keep Anderson County Beautiful, and Central Baptist Church.

All participants will rally in the big parking lot of Central Baptist Church at the Hillside Road side. Sign-in and equipment pickup starts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 2. The event will run from 9 a.m.-12  p.m. This happens rain or shine.

If you have a particular area on which you prefer to focus your attention, please call one of the contact numbers to arrange for the pickup of the trash-filled bags. (The sign-in and equipment pickup applies even for the people who have special requested a particular area before May 2 by contacting Officer Brandan Sharp or Sharon Crane). [Read more…]

TORCH will count homeless in January, will train volunteers who want to help

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Each year in January, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, coordinating with county mayors in conjunction with the Tennessee Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, do what is called a Point in Time Count of the homeless. This is an unduplicated count on a single night of the people in a specific county who are experiencing homelessness.

The Point in Time Count of 2011 showed 28 homeless individuals. The PIT count of Jan. 24, 2013, found a total of 86 people were homeless (sheltered and unsheltered) and 68 people were precariously housed (almost homeless).

Unsheltered means that the people sleep outside without a roof over their heads or in places not fit for human habitation like a car or an abandoned building. Sheltered means that they were either in transitional housing such as half-way houses or they were actually living in a homeless shelter. Precariously housed are more commonly called “couch surfers.” They live at the homes of friends or family but do not have an address of their own. [Read more…]

Virginia bicyclist pedals to St. Louis for son, health clinic

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Andre Block

Andre Block stops in Oak Ridge as he pedals from Lynchburg, Va., to St. Louis to see his son and raise money for the Free Clinic of Central Virginia. (Photo by Mare Martell)

Andre Block, 32, parked his bike with a trailer outside the Kroger grocery on Illinois Avenue. A duct-taped sign on the back of the trailer said, “Lynchburg to St. Louis for my son.” Dressed in biking shorts, a camel pack for water, a helmet, and a gleaming smile, Block laughed easily as he explained the sign.

He hadn’t been on a bike since he was 13 years old, he said, but took up the activity on May 8. The bike he had was in very poor shape, but he started training with a passion. During his training, he flipped his bike and trailer over once and nearly ran over Steve Bartholomew.

“I was going down a steep hill and saw Steve coming up it,” Block said. “That’s when I realized I didn’t have any brakes, so I yelled down ‘On your right!’ I should have said ‘On your left!” but it all worked out. I missed him, and I finally got the bike stopped.”

[Read more…]