Oak Ridge Today

Teresa Robbins named NNSA Production Office field office manager

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Teresa Robbins

NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant and Y-12 National Security Complex

The National Nuclear Security Administration has named Teresa M. Robbins as field office manager for the NNSA Production Office, or NPO. NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

Robbins served as NPO deputy manager for the past six years, and she has more than 29 years of experience in nuclear facility operations, engineering, safety analysis, maintenance, and risk analysis at U.S. Department of Energy sites.

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Education Foundation awards more than $100,000 in grants to Oak Ridge educators

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Pictured above is a 2020 grant ceremony for Oak Ridge High School Spanish teacher Abigail Hoshall, “Improving Language Reading Comprehension Skills Through Engagement.” (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation awarded more than $101,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers on Wednesday, during teacher appreciation week.

“Regrettably, due to COVID-19 concerns, there will not be an awards ceremony again this year,” a press release said.

However, the Education Foundation partnered with Oak Ridge Utility District and Millborne Bakery to deliver cookies for all staff in each school during Teacher Appreciation Week. The Foundation said it wants to honor and recognize the 2021 grant recipients in Oak Ridge Schools as follows: [Read more…]

Little Free Art Museum in Oak Ridge encourages visitors to take art home

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Nancy Starr with her Little Free Art Museum in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (Photo courtesy Explore Oak Ridge)

The diorama has small visitors, and the museum is making a call to area artists for submissions to display to passers-by.

With Mother’s Day coming, the tiny visitors of the Little Free Art Museum are viewing art photos of primate mothers with their babies. Below the hand-made gallery is a sign that reads “See a Little Art … Take a Little Art … Share a Little Art.”

Nancy Starr created the museum in April at the end of her driveway on Cascade Lane in Oak Ridge. She said that the museum is her adaptation of a similar little art museum in Seattle, which was inspired by little free libraries that dot neighborhoods across the country, a press release said.

“Light bulbs flashed in my mind,” Starr said, recalling when she heard about the little art museum. “I just loved it. I had this perfect spot where people were walking by.”

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Roane State radiology lab named in tribute, memory of donors

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The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated. (Submitted photo)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated.

The Casnelli’s estate included a $250,000 endowment for the lab administered through a partnership of The Trust Company of Tennessee and Roane State Foundation, and it’s been “put to excellent use,” according to Dr. Julie Hall, director of the community college’s radiologic technology program.

The gift “made it possible for us to buy equipment for the lab that normally would be outside of our reach,” Hall said. It also will fund professional development options for radiologic technology staff, she said.

Each year, four students in the program are also awarded scholarships from the endowment.

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Roger Miller will seek re-election as general sessions judge

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Roger Miller

Judge Roger A. Miller will seek re-election to a second eight-year term as General Sessions Court Judge, Division II, in Oak Ridge.

Miller was elected to be one of the two general sessions judges in Anderson County in 2014 after practicing law for 16 years in Clinton, a press release said.

A lifetime resident of Anderson County, Miller graduated from Clinton High School in 1980. Prior to practicing law, he served as an EMS paramedic for 13 years with the Anderson County Ambulance Service and Methodist Medical Center. Miller was the first full-time paramedic employed in the Methodist Medical Center Emergency Room in the mid-1990s, the press release said.

Miller obtained an associate degree in applied science from Roane State Community College before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences. He obtained his law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 1998, the press release said.

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Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce names Sassy Pants small business of the month

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Sassy Pants Sweets and Treats, located in Security Square in Oak Ridge, was recently named the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month. The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union. Pictured from right to left are Christine Michaels, Naomi Asher, Katy Watt, Sassy Pants owner Sheri Hartzog, Craig Peters, and Whitley Myers. (Submitted photo)

Sassy Pants Sweet & Treats is the inaugural winner of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for May 2021.

The award, sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union, is awarded every month to a member of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees are eligible to receive this designation. To be considered, the establishment must have been in business for three or more years and show active involvement in the community and/or the chamber.

According to the nominator, “Sassy Pants moved and expanded operations at the beginning of the pandemic. They have done an amazing job staying engaged with the community and surviving during a time when other longer-established businesses were unable to stay open. They have fought hard to grow their business over the past year. I think this is worthy of being nominated as a small business of the month!” [Read more…]

Tim Shelton seeks re-election as AC register of deeds

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Tim Shelton

Anderson County Register of Deeds Tim Shelton will seek re-election to a four-year term in the county elections next year.

Shelton has served as register of deeds since September 2002, and he has received statewide recognition for his work. Shelton was recognized as Tennessee’s register of the year in 2004 and 2009, and he was elected as president of the Tennessee Register of Deeds Association in 2005, a press release said.

He was elected as president of the County Officials Association of Tennessee in 2013.

“In 2017, Shelton received the ultimate award for a county elected official by being selected as the county official of the year for the State of Tennessee,” the press release said.

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History of death penalty in Tennessee to be discussed today

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Hemant Sharma

The history of the death penalty in Tennessee will be discussed in a lunchtime meeting today (Tuesday, May 4).

The meeting is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. It will be virtual (online). The speaker will be University of Tennessee Lecturer Hemant Sharma.

Along with John M. Scheb, head of the Political Science Department at the University of Tennessee/Knoxville, and others, Sharma authored the 2013 study “Race and the Death Penalty: An Empirical Assessment of First Degree Murder Convictions in Tennessee after Gregg v. Georgia,” a press release said. Published in the Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice, the study analyzed 1,068 first-degree murder convictions in the state following the 1976 Supreme Court decision that ended the four-year court moratorium on the death penalty across the nation.

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Roane State men’s basketball coach, athletic director retiring

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Roane State Community College men’s basketball coach and athletic director Randy Nesbit is retiring from athletics but will continue to teach. (Photo by Roane State)

By Roane State Community College/Donnie Hall, Sports Information Writer

HARRIMAN—Since 1993, Randy Nesbit has been the face of athletics at Roane State Community College. As the men’s head basketball coach and athletic director, he has had his hand in virtually all things sports at the college for nearly three decades.

Last week, Nesbit announced to college administration and coaching staff that he would be stepping down from his role as head men’s basketball coach and—as soon as the position can be filled—as athletic director.

Nesbit, who is also a tenured business instructor at the college, said he will be moving to the classroom full time.

According to Nesbit, “Back in the fall, I was in a mindset that I thought I could just continue to coach in perpetuity; I could just never see an end in sight. But then,” the veteran coach added, “after the new year began, I felt like the Lord was showing me that I should step away and look at teaching full time and possible business opportunities to benefit my family that, otherwise, I wouldn’t have the time available to do.”

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Local attorneys remembered on memorial plaque

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Pictured above at the Memorial Plaque in the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton are, right, Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Don A. Layton and Circuit Court Clerk Rex Lynch. (Submitted photo)


Four local attorneys were added to the memorial plaque titled “In Memory of those who served Justice” at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton, a press release said. The attorneys served in multiple legal professional roles during their careers, the press release said.

Robert “Bob” Stivers had a legal career of more than 50 years. He worked with Union Carbide and Martin Marietta.

W. Clark Meredith was a partner in the firm of Joyce, Anderson, and Meredith. He later practiced with the firm of Joyce, Meredith, Flitcroft and Normand.

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New online farmers’ market in Jackson Square, with curbside pickup

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Market-To-Go, a new online farmers’ market in Oak Ridge, is now located in Jackson Square, with weekly curbside pickup at Dean’s Restaurant, across from the in-person farmers’ market. Local grass-fed beef, fresh and local produce, gourmet mushrooms, honey, and even edible pansies are just a few of the products featured in Market-To-Go. (Photo courtesy Grow Oak Ridge)

Market-To-Go, a new online farmers’ market in Oak Ridge, is now located in Jackson Square, with weekly curbside pickup at Dean’s Restaurant, across from the in-person farmers’ market. Local grass-fed beef, fresh and local produce, gourmet mushrooms, honey, and even edible pansies are just a few of the products featured in Market-To-Go, a press release said.

“We hope to attract new customers to try and love locally grown foods, people who may not have time to shop at a traditional farmers’ market,” said Rebecca Williams, director of Grow Oak Ridge, the nonprofit organization that produces Market-To-Go.

“Customers can also reserve local products ahead of time, or may enjoy the convenience of seeing all the products laid out in one easy platform,” said Williams. “Plus, Market-To-Go is an important source of income for our local farmers. Our farmers asked us to continue this program for the summer.”

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Three displaced, no injuries in house fire

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Three adults were displaced, but no one was injured in a house fire on Jonathan Place this past weekend, firefighters said.

The Oak Ridge Fire Department was called to a structure fire on the 200 block of Jonathan Place around 9:22 p.m. Friday. Crews arrived at 9:26 p.m. and found smoke coming from the residence. The fire was under control by 9:32 p.m., a press release said.

An initial investigation showed that cause of the fire was determined to be an improperly extinguished cigarette, the press release said.

ORFD, Oak Ridge Police Department, Anderson County EMS, and American Red Cross responded to the scene.

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