A forum in Oak Ridge on Tuesday will feature candidates for Oak Ridge City Council, Oak Ridge Board of Education, and city judge.
The forum will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 4, in the Oak Ridge High School Amphitheater at 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike. It’s been organized by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
Candidates for Oak Ridge City Council [Read more…]
Reminder: The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce has a forum for candidates for Oak Ridge Board of Education on Thursday morning.
It’s the second of three candidate forums for the November 8 election.
The Board of Education candidate forum will start at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, September 29, in the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Joyce Conference Room. It’s free and open to the public.
There are three candidates for two seats on the school board: the incumbents, Angi Agle and Keys Fillauer, and challenger Myra Mansfield. [Read more…]
The Hobby Lobby at the former Kroger store on South Illinois Avenue has a grand opening on Monday morning, Oct. 3, 2016. The store is pictured above on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 30.
Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. will open in Oak Ridge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and official grand opening celebration on Monday morning. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. October 3. It’s open to the public.
Hobby Lobby is a privately held national retail chain of craft and home decor stores.
The Oak Ridge store, which will be managed by Michael Ramsey, is Hobby Lobby’s 23rd location in Tennessee. The 63,000-square-foot store is in the former Kroger store in a shopping center near the intersection of South Illinois and South Rutgers avenues.
“We feel blessed for the fantastic opportunity to be a part of the Oak Ridge community,” said John Schumacher, Hobby Lobby assistant vice president of advertising. “Our goal is for customers to experience the exceptional service, selection, and value Hobby Lobby offers.”
Local dignitaries, ambassadors from the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, and other business leaders will attend the Monday morning celebration, a press release said. [Read more…]
Pam Williams and her Westie Jessica at the 2014 Pet Fest. (Submitted photo)
Grace Lutheran Church will celebrate its 15th Annual Pet Fest and Blessing on Saturday, October 1.
This year’s event will provide a chance to spend a productive day with your pet while you gather important information about the services and associations available to pets and their owners, a press release said. The Blessing of the Animals is held in the pavilion behind the church at 3 p.m. The church will also hold a Bake Sale, Rummage Sale, and Silent Auction to raise funds for all the participating rescue groups. Boy Scouts and other volunteers will walk your pet while you shop.
Activities will take place from 1-5 p.m. and parking will be available for the mobility-impaired at the church or in the Woodland Elementary School parking lot behind the church. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board holds its annual planning meeting in August 2016 with U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. (Submitted photo)
In August, members of a citizen’s advisory board met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to consider key issues for Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup in fiscal year 2017, which begins in October.
The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board held its 2016 Annual Planning Meeting in Townsend, Tennessee, on August 6. The Saturday meeting brought together members of the Oak Ridge board, leadership from DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, and liaisons from federal and state regulatory agencies to review cleanup accomplishments in FY 2016 and discuss priorities for FY 2017.
ORSSAB is a federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to OREM on its environmental management activities at DOE sites locally. OREM encourages public participation in federal projects and meets regularly with the Oak Ridge board, as well as with other citizen and stakeholder groups within the community to gather public perspectives regarding a diverse cleanup mission that addresses legacy nuclear waste at sites across the Oak Ridge Reservation through numerous activities, including waste disposition, long-term stewardship, and site restoration. [Read more…]
Bob Smallridge
Bob Smallridge is running for Anderson County Charter Commission in District 8, which includes the Emory Valley, Hendrix Creek, and Woodland voting precincts.
The eight-member Charter Commission will be elected in November with the purpose of considering and voting on possible changes to Anderson County government, a press release said.
Once elected and certified, the Commission will have nine months to come up with a recommended document for voter approval or rejection through a countywide referendum.
As pointed out in a recent newspaper editorial, a home rule charter provides, “numerous options for improving county government, but also ample opportunity to make government worse,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Keys Fillauer
Keys Fillauer is seeking to be re-elected to the Oak Ridge Board of Education.
Fillauer has served on the school board for 15 years and has served as chair for the last four years. He also serves as East director for the Tennessee School Board Association Board of Directors.
Fillauer is a retired Oak Ridge teacher and coach. He taught and coached at Robertsville Junior High for 27 years and at Oak Ridge High School for four years, a press release said. Fillauer has been recognized as a member of the All Tennessee School Board, Tennessee Teacher of the Year, and Freedom Foundation Award winner, and he received the Governor’s Outstanding Tennessean Award.
Fillauer has also received the Service Above Self award from the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, the press release said. He is a member of the Oak Ridge Sports Hall of Fame and the Anderson County Hall of Fame.
Fillauer serves as president of a property management business in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is involved in many fundraising efforts, especially for the Ronald McDonald House, the press release said. [Read more…]
The Green McAdoo Cultural Organization will be hosting its final concert of the Jazz on the Hill series on Saturday, October 1. The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra will perform.
The event is open to the public. You are can bring your families, blankets, lawn chairs, etc.
Performance times will be 6:30-9:30 p.m., a press release said. It’s a free event, but vendors will be available for food and drink purchases. The event will be held outside of the Green McAdoo Cultural Center at 101 School Street in Clinton. [Read more…]
Six deputies from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department have been sworn as special deputy U.S. marshals and form an Aggressive Criminal Enforcement (ACE) Unit. The ACE Unit is made up of Sergeant Wally Braden, Corporal Rick Coley, and deputies Charles Relford, Jason Leach, Shawn Williams, and Matt Forsyth. They will work part-time as needed with the Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force and the U.S. Marshals Service. Also pictured above at left is Chief Deputy Mark Lucas. (Photo courtesy Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
Six officers from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department have been sworn in as task force officers with the United States Marshals Service’s Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force, or SMFTF.
The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is the latest local law enforcement agency to become part of the specialized fugitive apprehension team, which is made up of the East Tennessee agencies listed at the end of this press release.
Task force officers are state and local police officers who receive special deputations with the Marshals Service, the press release said. While assigned to the SMFTF, these officers can exercise U.S. Marshals’ authorities, such as crossing jurisdictional lines.
Jimmy Fowler, U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, administered the oath of office to the deputies at the Marshals Service office in Knoxville.
“We are very excited about our new partnership with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department,” Fowler said in the press release. “Our communities are safer when local, state, and federal officers get to work together, and that is what the Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force is all about. The Task Force is made up of great officers from throughout East Tennessee. From Chattanooga to Bristol, these officers work together to ensure the safety of everyone by apprehending dangerous fugitives and reducing violent crime.” [Read more…]
The iconic “War Ends” photo is recreated in part on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, with a “Park Opens” photo that celebrates the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge. (U.S. Department of Energy photo by Lynn Freeny)
The National Park Service and U.S. Department of Energy are asking the public to review and comment on a draft foundation document for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park includes Oak Ridge, and it was established in November 2015.
The foundation document is designed to affirm the park’s core mission and significance, its key resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell its stories, a press release said.
Formally established last November at DOE locations in three states, the park marks the history of the mid-20th Century people, science, and events that led to creation of the atomic bomb in the top-secret effort known as the Manhattan Project.
Foundation documents are guidance tools individualized for each of the National Park Service’s 413 units to direct basic park planning and management, the press release said. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s United Way campaign’s $900,000 “big check” with, from left, Ann Weaver, whose Facilities Management Division was the top special fundraiser; 2016 chair Sharon Kohler; co-chair Ken Tobin; Facilities and Operations Director Jimmy Stone, directorate challenge winner for large directorates; and David Keim, representing the Office of the Laboratory Director, the challenge winner for smaller directorates. (ORNL photo by Genevieve Martin)
The 2016 United Way campaign at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory raised $900,000—an increase of $30,000 over the 2015 campaign.
“This is a fantastic and generous offer of support from our employees, management, volunteers, and everyone who has been associated in one way or another with this year’s United Way effort,” said campaign chair Sharon Kohler.
The $900,000 total included a corporate contribution from UT-Battelle. Kohler credited the lab’s Leadership Givers, who contribute a certain percentage of their salary per pay period, for providing 65 percent of the total designated by staff through payroll deduction. There were 22 new Leadership Givers joining this year. [Read more…]
