Oak Ridge Today

Spotlight: Local Girl Scouts excel in community service

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Girls Scouts Reforestation

Cadette Troop 20737 planted trees to reforest a managed forest land on a private farm in Andersonville. From left to right are Savannah McNair, Megan McEahern, Hannah Tobler, Kasey Smith, landowner, and Brittany Wensell. (Photos courtesy Jerry Luckmann)

 

By Jerry Luckmann

Girl Scouts in Oak Ridge contributed more than 1,860 hours of community service during the past school year. Twenty-two troops, representing all ages and levels of Girl Scouting, tackled projects benefiting kids, local service organizations, veterans, senior citizens, and the environment.

The founder of Girl Scouts in the United States, Juliette Low, believed that community service offered Girl Scouts a unique opportunity to address community needs and develop leadership in every girl. The Girl Scouts in Oak Ridge have embraced this belief and worked to make it a vital part of every member’s experience.

Girls Scouts Food 4 Kids Project

Courtney Thomas, left, Daisy Girl Scout from Troop 20438, and Christina Thomas, Cadette Girl Scout from Troop 20148, sort and pack bags at the Food 4 Kids project.

Sixty girls and family members from nine troops participated in the Food 4 Kids project, packing monthly the nearly 2,000 bags of food that are given to children in Oak Ridge schools who need food at home on the weekends. More than 80 girls, representing eight troops, participated in the Dolls for Daisy project, to clean and refurbish hundreds of dolls for Christmas distribution at the Holiday Bureau. Girl Scouts donated health and beauty “goody bags” and Christmas decorations to the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge. Environmental projects included recycling “Capri Sun” bags in a local school and planting trees to reforest land in Anderson County. [Read more…]

Pet of the Day: Tobias

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Pet of the Day: Tobias

Submitted

Tobias—what a perfect name for me! It’s the Greek translation of a Hebrew name that means “the goodness of God.”

I look like I may be an American Foxhound mix, around two, and I’m super friendly! I’m ready to be your forever friend on Tuesday, June 3. Better hurry!

The Oak Ridge Animal Shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It’s located at 395 Belgrade Road in east Oak Ridge. The phone number is (865) 425-3423.

See the Animal Shelter’s website here. You can also find more information on adoptable animals at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter on this Facebook page.

Two taken to hospital after stabbing reported on Monday night

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Two Oak Ridge men were taken by ambulance to a hospital after a stabbing was reported on Monday night, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a reported disturbance in the Scarboro neighborhood at about 11:30 p.m. Monday. Roughly 20 people were reported to be in the street on South Benedict Avenue near the intersection with South Dillard Avenue, and some were allegedly intoxicated, the ORPD said in a press release.

When officers arrived, they found Kevin Steen, 48, of Oak Ridge, lying in the street with multiple contusions to the head and face, the press release said.

A second subject reportedly had been stabbed and left the scene. [Read more…]

Vice principal appointed at Robertsville Middle School

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Garfield Adams has been appointed vice principal at Robertsville Middle School, a school official said Tuesday.

Adams’ appointment is effective July 1, Oak Ridge Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak said in a press release.

Adams began his career as a special education teacher in Knox County Schools in 2001. He joined the Oak Ridge Schools in 2004 as an alternative program teacher and remained in that capacity until 2011. [Read more…]

Police: Suspect sets TV, computer monitor on fire in Walmart parking lot

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Walmart Parking Lot Fire

An unknown suspect set several items on fire in the Walmart parking lot in Oak Ridge on Saturday evening. The items included a 50-inch flat-screen television and a computer monitor. (Photo by Jennifer Sampson)

 

An unknown suspect set several items on fire in the Walmart parking lot in Oak Ridge on Saturday evening, authorities said.

The arson included an LG 50-inch flat-screen television, a computer monitor and modem, three computer hard drives, and two Walmart DVDs, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Sherrill L. Selby said in an incident report.

The fire was reported at about 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Walmart, which is on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. Black smoke billowed up from the center of the parking lot until the Oak Ridge Fire Department, which has a fire station nearby, arrived to extinguish the flames. The blaze didn’t appear be set near any vehicles, and there were no reports of injuries.

The police report did not include information on why the suspect might have started the fire.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Lake City-to-Rocky Top vote set for June 26

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Tim Isbel at Hearing on Lake City Name Change to Rocky Top

Tim Isbel, president of the Rocky Top Marketing and Manufacturing Co., at a federal court hearing in May on Lake City’s proposed name change to Rocky Top.

Information from WYSH Radio

Officials in what is now called Lake City have announced that the City Council will meet on Thursday, June 26, at 5 p.m. to ratify the town’s name change to Rocky Top.

The name change is considered vital for the development of several attractions aimed at turning the sleepy town into a tourist destination for travelers along I-75, and it cleared its most significant hurdle a couple of weeks ago when a federal judge refused to issue an injunction to prohibit the name change from going forward.

The request for a preliminary injunction  had been filed by the owners of the copyright to the song “Rocky Top,” who had argued that the name change amounted to a trademark violation. [Read more…]

New details revealed in search warrants in missing woman case

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Nichole Burgess

Nichole Burgess

Information from WYSH Radio

Search warrants released last week have provided new information about what led investigators from Nashville to search the Anderson County home of a man who is now a person of interest in the disappearance and possible death of a Hermitage woman.

The documents indicate that a friend reported Nichole Burgess missing from her home in Hermitage on May 25 after she was unable to reach Burgess by phone or text message. The friend said Burgess’s last text message, sent on May 23, indicated she had been in an altercation with the father of Burgess’s child, 32-year-old Andersonville resident Caleb Cannon.

The friend told detectives that they had gone to Burgess’ home in Hermitage and noticed her car was parked out front and her dogs were walking around freely instead of in their crates. A neighbor said he/she saw two people carrying something out of the home’s back door on May 24.

Cannon, who has custody of his and Burgess’s 10-year-old son every other weekend, picked the boy up from school on May 23. The warrants say a friend of the boy’s said that Cannon had been at Burgess’s home earlier in the afternoon, loading two black bags into a car parked in the driveway. The friend said he asked the 10-year-old where his mom (Burgess) was, and the boy said he was pretty sure his mom was dead and that his dad had killed him. [Read more…]

Several mailboxes vandalized, suspects facing charges

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Information from WYSH Radio

Charges are pending against two juveniles and an adult for vandalizing mailboxes in Anderson County.

Over several days last week, a number of mailboxes were vandalized on East Wolf Valley Road, Davidson Hollow Road, Chestnut Ridge Road, and Heiskell Road.

Residents on Thursday were able to provide deputies with a description of the suspect vehicle, which was pulled over later that night. Two juveniles and an adult were identified as the suspects in the vandalism, and charges against all three are pending. [Read more…]

Keep Anderson County Beautiful announces Earth Day collection numbers

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Keep Anderson County Beautiful Check Presentation

Pat Imperato, left, vice chair of Keep Anderson County Beautiful, presents a check for $150 to Sister Marie Blanchette and some seventh-grade students from St. Mary’s School for contributing the most number of shoes per student as part of the recent community shoe drive. (Submitted photo)

Keep Anderson County Beautiful has announced the total amount of materials collected, including electronics and shoes, during the recent 2014 Earth Day Festival in Oak Ridge.

“This is one of the best Earth Days that we have had in terms of materials collected and diverted from our landfill through recycling,” said Pam Turner, KACB president. “The community really embraced the meaning of Earth Day while enjoying a beautiful day in the outdoors playing old-fashioned neighborhood games.”

More than 36 volunteers helped to put on the event, which collected 7,531 pounds of electronics, 5,400 pounds of personal documents for shredding, 3,100 pairs of shoes, 540 pounds of books, 108 pairs of eye glasses, and 56 pounds of blankets and towels for the animal shelter. [Read more…]

CONTACT Care Line to offer emotional support through chat, text

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CONTACT Care Line will launch chat and text-based emotional support, the first of its kind in East Tennessee with funding from the Trinity Health Foundation. This summer, CONTACT will pilot the Chat/Text Line in collaboration with community and educational partners in Knox and surrounding counties.

In a similar pilot program, Nevada’s TextToday program found that young people preferred text communication, believing it afforded more privacy and confidentiality than phone conversations. Young people were more likely to seek emotional support from strangers, who they believed would be less judgmental than people they knew, including family and friends.

In our fragmented modern world, the need for online emotional support is critical. Over half of people with mental, emotional, or behavioral health issues suffer their first symptoms in childhood or adolescence, and roughly 14-20 percent of young people experience these problems, according to a 2009 study. [Read more…]

Vacation Bible School at First Presbyterian on June 12-13

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“Abundant Life” is the theme of the free Vacation Bible School at First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge. The VBS will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday and Friday, June 12-13, in the Activities building.

“Learning to care about God’s creation will be our emphasis,” said Karissa Stewart, director of youth and children’s ministries at First Presbyterian.

Parents may drop off their children ranging in age from pre-K to fourth grade between 8 and 9 a.m. and pick them up between 4 and 5 p.m.

The children will learn about creation through crafts, music, games, and storytelling. Volunteers are needed to assist with the crafts and games. Call (865) 483-1318 to register your child for the VBS.

Nikon Small World opens at AMSE June 13

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AMSE Nikon Small World Marine Worm

Third place: Alvaro Esteves Migotto, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha, Sao Paulo, Brazil. “Marine worm,” (Stereomicroscopy, darkfield, 20X) (Submitted photo)

 

Submitted

Glimpse into a remarkable world that most have never seen. It is a window into the universe that can only be seen through the lens of a microscope, when Nikon Small World’s award winning photomicrographs exhibition opens June 13 at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

Combining the skills in microscopy and photography, a photomicrograph is able to capture an image of the world that the naked eye cannot see. A freelance photographer and artist with a passion for aquatic microorganisms, Wim van Egmond of The Netherlands, sought to blend art and science to capture the complexity and stunning detail of this fragile helical chain.

“I approach micrographs as if they are portraits. The same way you look at a person and try to capture their personality, I observe an organism and try to capture it as honestly and realistically as possible,” said Egmond of his winning image of a marine diatom, a colonial plankton organism. “At the same time, this image is about form, rhythm and composition. The positioning of the helix, the directions of the bristles, the subdued colors, and contrast all bring together a balance that is both dynamic and tranquil.” [Read more…]