Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Schools opens new Data Center

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Oak Ridge Schools Data Center

Oak Ridge Schools recently opened a new Data Center at Oak Ridge High School, a press release said.

The Data Center will house all of the critical systems used to operate Oak Ridge Schools, including phones, e-mail, Internet access, and file storage, the release said. It will also serve as a connection point for the new, joint schools and city fiber project that will provide high-speed access to both the schools’ and the city’s operations.

The new facility will also allow for the consolidation of equipment previously stored at individual school buildings, the release said. [Read more…]

House passes Manhattan Project national park bill that would include Oak Ridge

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X-10 Graphite Reactor

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park would include the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Submitted photo)

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday took an essential step toward establishing a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that could include Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash., a nonprofit organization said.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act was included as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the House passed Friday, the Atomic Heritage Foundation said in an e-mail.

“The new national park will be the first to recognize the top-secret project in World War II that changed the course of world history, science, and society,” the foundation said. [Read more…]

Secret City to glow with color at Neon Vibe 5K in September

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Neon Vibe 5K Oak Ridge

A Neon Vibe 5K will be held at A.K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge on Sept. 21. (Photo courtesy Neon Vibe 5K)

The “Atomic City” will “light up the night” this fall when a brand new event, the Neon Vibe 5K, comes to town.

The 5K is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21, at A.K. Bissell Park. The Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the race this week.

The Neon Vibe 5K is an after-dark, fluorescent glow light fun run that will have participants “glowing crazy with color and dancing all night long,” a press release said. Starting with the 5K, participants will run a traditional, non-competitive 3.1-mile course with four UV black light “glow zone” color stations and upbeat dance music set up throughout the route. [Read more…]

USRowing: A day for hope and championships

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Hope Quad

The Narrangansett Boat Club stenciled “Hope” on their quad in honor of Hope Wilhelm, who died Saturday and was the mother of junior coach Peter Wilhelm. (Images courtesy Ed Moran/USRowing)

By Ed Moran/USRowing

Late Saturday, with the finals in the youth national championships on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge only hours away, the athletes from Narragansett Boat Club learned they had lost a member of their small family back home in Rhode Island.

Hope Wilhelm, Narragansett junior coach Peter Wilhelm’s 89-year-old mother, had died. [Read more…]

USRowing Youth National Championships began today, end Sunday

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USRowing Youth National Championships

Photo courtesy of USRowing

By Ed Moran/USRowing

Starting earlier this week, trailers loaded with boats and equipment pulled out of the parking lots of junior and high school crew boathouses across the country and headed to Oak Ridge for the 2013 USRowing Youth National Championships, June 7-9.

Some 369 crews from 153 clubs representing 30 states began arriving at the Melton Hill Lake race venue Wednesday to compete for three days with the hopes of winning a national championship in one of the 18 events featured in both sweep and sculling boats.

Racing begins each morning at 8 a.m. and will continue through 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday with heats, reps, and semifinals leading up to the Sunday finals.

[Read more…]

B&W Y-12 again a premier sponsor of the Secret City Festival

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B&W Y-12 Secret City Festival Check Presentation

Chuck Spencer, center, B&W Y-12 president and general manager, presents a $25,000 sponsorship check for the Secret City Festival to Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, left, and Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller. (Submitted photo)

B&W Y-12 is returning to the Secret City Festival once again as the premier festival sponsor, a press release said.

“B&W has led the way in Secret City Festival sponsorships both financially and in kind for the past eight years,” the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau said in a Wednesday press release. B&W Y-12 operates the Y-12 National Security Complex for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Chuck Spencer, B&W Y-12 president and general manager, presented a $25,000 festival sponsorship check during a May 28 meeting. [Read more…]

B&W Y-12 donates $25,000 to Secret City Festival

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B&W Y-12 Donates to Secret City Festival

B&W Y-12 General Manager Chuck Spencer, center, presents a $25,000 check to Oak Ridge officials for the Secret City Festival this month during a City Council meeting last week. (Submitted photo)

B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer presented a check for $25,000 to Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Vice Mayor Jane Miller during a City Council meeting last week.

B&W Y-12 has been a premier sponsor of the Secret City Festival for the past eight years, a press release said.
 [Read more…]

‘Classical June’ at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church starts Sunday

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Always seeking to further the art and appreciation of classical music, Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church Director of Music Wendel Werner has announced that during the month of June various classical pieces will be the featured music during the 10 a.m. Sunday worship services. Everyone is invited to attend. ORUUC is located at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.

Featured on June 2 will be a performance of “The Flower Duet” from Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé sung by Saffron Mills and Anne Scott. On June 19, featured pieces by Schubert and Mozart will be sung by Saffron Mills. Services on June 16 and 23 will feature classical pieces played by Charlotte Bowers and will include some four-hands music played by Charlotte and her mother. On June 30, the feature pieces will be by Bach, Schumann, and Copland sung by Marti Messer. [Read more…]

Hay bailer destroyed in fire

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Hay Bailer Fire

A hay bailer was destroyed in a fire on Wednesday afternoon on Oliver Springs Highway near Batley Road. (Photo by Adam Daugherty)

A hay bailer was destroyed in a Wednesday afternoon fire on Oliver Springs Highway near Batley Road.

Hay that had been cut in the field did not burn in the 1:20 p.m. fire.

Volunteer fire departments from Marlow and Oliver Springs responded. [Read more…]

Alexander unveils his four principles for clean, cheap, reliable energy

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

It’s been five years since U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander called for a new Manhattan Project for energy independence, and during a Wednesday update, the senator said four “grand principles” should guide America’s energy policy.

The senator said his principles—which include research and development, free market forces, and cheaper, clean energy—would “end an obsession with taxpayer subsidies and strategies for expensive energy.” They would instead focus on “doubling research and allowing marketplace solutions to create an abundance of clean, cheap, reliable energy,” Alexander said during a Wednesday afternoon speech at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit in Oak Ridge.

The senator called for doubling research funding and ending long-term subsidies for “big oil” and “big wind.” [Read more…]

Continuous Threads has summer sewing camps

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Continuous Threads Sewing Studio in Oak Ridge will offer summer sewing camps beginning June 10 and ending the week of July 29.

Sewing camps will meet daily from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Each week-long camp is designed for boys and girls ages nine and up who want to learn how to sew using hand sewing and machine techniques. During the course of a given camp week, students will make new friends and learn skills involving math, design, and even history, a press release said. [Read more…]

Anderson County D.A.R.E. program graduates 387 students

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The 2012-2013 Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program finished its instruction at the end of the school year, and a total of 387 fifth-graders successfully completed the curriculum, a press release said. Each student earned a certificate of completion and was awarded a special D.A.R.E. T-shirt as an award.

This was the first year the new, updated D.A.R.E. program was taught in Anderson County Schools, the release said. D.A.R.E. “keepin’ It… REAL” continues to discuss issues such as drugs and peer pressure, but emphasis is placed on the students decision-making process, the choices students make, and the consequences of bad choices. Anderson County was one of the first in the state to be trained and certified to teach the new curriculum. [Read more…]