The citywide household trash pickup program will begin Monday, April 2. Household rubbish, old appliances, and minor remodeling materials will be picked up. City collection efforts will follow the accompanying schedule as closely as possible.
Residents have always been very cooperative and we ask for their continued cooperation this year by following a few guidelines, a press release said: [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council will review the Oak Ridge Preschool and Senior Center projects, and receive a briefing on the Water Plant project, during a work session on Tuesday.
The work session is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, in the Multi-Purpose Room in the Central Services Complex on Woodbury Lane, behind the Hobby Lobby shopping center.
The reviews of the Preschool and Senior Center projects are scheduled to be presented by Jacene Phillips of Studio Four Design. [Read more…]
Clayton Perry Jones
Note: This story was last updated at 3:45 p.m. March 22.
An Anderson County man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly beating another man in the head, arms, and back with a baseball bat at a car wash in Oliver Springs in the summer of 2016, according to court records.
Clayton Perry Jones, 53, of Dutch Valley Road, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on Tuesday, March 13, on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a weapon, according to court records. He has an arraignment scheduled for March 26 in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton.
Jones is accused of beating Brett Blank in the head, back, and arms with a baseball bat as Blank was cleaning his vehicle at the Sportsman Car Wash on East Tri County Boulevard in Oliver Springs on Thursday, July 14, 2016, according to an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on July 13, 2017.
The alleged beating was stopped by a witness with a handgun who was also at the car wash cleaning his vehicle, which was parked in front of Blank’s vehicle, according to the affidavit. The armed witness, Hank Mullins, saw Jones hitting Blank with the baseball bat, and Mullins revealed his concealed-carry handgun to deter the fight and told them to “Stop! Stop! Stop!” according to the affidavit. Both Blank and Jones then ran in opposite directions, said the affidavit, which was filed by Oliver Springs Police Department Patrolman Samuel Seiber. [Read more…]
The installation of the Summit supercomputer continues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Jan. 23, 2018, with the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and IBM teams receiving and installing compute nodes. Summit will come online in late 2018 for early science, and will be available to users in January 2019. (Image credit: Jason Richards/ORNL. Used under Creative Commons license)
The supercomputer being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could change the race for supercomputing supremacy between the United States and China, U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann said during a budget hearing on Thursday.
The congressman said Summit, a 200-petaflop supercomputer at ORNL, will be commissioned this summer, and it will be the fastest supercomputer in the world, with twice the power of the top Chinese system. The Chinese machine is a 93-petaflop system known as Sunway TaihuLight.
During Thursday’s budget hearing, which featured Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Fleischmann said the United States and China are in a race for supercomputing supremacy. The race is critical to advances in science and technology that will drive economic growth, said Fleischmann, a Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge.
Citing a February 9 edition of Science magazine, Fleischmann said the U.S. dominated supercomputer rankings for decades but is now far behind. The combined power of the top two machines in China easily outpaces all 21 supercomputers operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, the country’s top funder of supercomputers, the congressman said.
But that could change with the commissioning of Summit this summer, Fleischmann said. [Read more…]
Women enriching uranium in calutrons at Y-12 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. This famous “Calutron Girls” photograph by Manhattan Project photographer Ed Westcott prompted author Denise Kiernan to write the best-seller “The Girls of Atomic City.” (Photo by Ed Westcott)
What was life like for women during the Manhattan Project? Join National Park Service staff as they discuss the social changes that occurred during World War II and how that affected women in the Manhattan Project. The free interpretive program will take place at the New Hope Center at Y-12 National Security Complex at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 29. The program will outline the life for women before, during, and after World War II.
After the program, you may see the new photography display commemorating the life of women from all walks of life in Oak Ridge during World War II.
The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Besides Oak Ridge, other sites that were involved in the Manhattan Project and included in the park are Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. [Read more…]
Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge is pictured above.
Starting Friday, March 16, construction crews will be working day and night on top of the roof of Methodist Medical Center this weekend to install new air handling units on the hospital’s West Tower. Because of the nature and non-stop timing of this project, there will be activity and lighting on the roof of West Tower around the clock until the work is completed sometime on the evening of Sunday, March 18, a press release said.
For patient comfort, patients and staff currently on 5-West will be moved to another floor to minimize exposure to noise during the project. In addition, a portion of the driveway around the back of the hospital will be closed due to equipment staging. The hospital’s helipad will also be closed to helicopter traffic; however, an alternative landing zone has been coordinated with the Oak Ridge Fire Department for any incoming or outgoing air transport needs.
Emergency services should be accessed via the east side of the hospital nearest the Emergency Department entrance. All private car discharges will occur from the Main Lobby during this period.
This press release was submitted by Crystal Jordan.
Jacob Lynn Rutherford
CLINTON—An attempted first-degree murder charge has been sent to the grand jury in a case involving an Oak Ridge man accused of shooting and injuring two men and shooting near a woman but not hitting her.
Two charges of reckless endangerment were also bound over, or sent to the grand jury. Those charges had initially been filed as attempted first-degree murder.
A preliminary hearing for Jacob Lynn Rutherford, 23, was held Wednesday, March 7, in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton.
Rutherford had originally been charged with a total of three counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of reckless endangerment. One count of reckless endangerment was dismissed during the preliminary hearing last week, meaning Rutherford faces the one attempted first-degree murder charge and the two counts of reckless endangerment that were originally attempted murder. [Read more…]
Kattie Lue Strickland
As part of Women’s History Month and the 75th Anniversary of Oak Ridge, there will be a special Manhattan Project event on Thursday, March 22. The program will start at 5:30 pm at the New Hope Visitor Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Scarboro Road in Oak Ridge.
During the event, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park will be presented with a biscuit pan secretly used by Kattie Strickland during the Manhattan Project. The biscuit pan is an important cultural artifact for the park that can help provide context of the story of a woman who worked on the Manhattan Project, a press release said.
Each person had a unique story of why they found themselves working in the Secret City, the press release said. [Read more…]
Longtime mussel researcher Steve Ahlstedt will present a program on mussels in the Clinch River on Thursday, March 22. The program will start at 7 p.m. in the Oak Ridge Civic Center Social Room.
Ahlstedt, a native New Yorker who came south to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1974, began his career as an aquatic biologist, specializing in aquatic insects. Over several years, he developed an interest in freshwater mussels and soon became the principal malacologist for the agency, a press release said. He conducted surveys on many of the streams in the Tennessee River Watershed and was instrumental in initiating a transplanting program for imperiled mussel species.
Steve worked for many years at TVA before transferring to the United States Geological Survey, where he finished his government career.
He still works in the freshwater mussel field, contracting his services over a large area of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio, and is active in mussel restoration projects. His passion has always been the Clinch and Powell Rivers. Steve is recognized as one of the foremost mussel experts in the Tennessee Valley Region and beyond, the press release said.
Einstein Simplified
Enjoy an early Mother’s Day with comedy group Einstein Simplified
The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society again presents an evening of laughter and live improvisational comedy with Einstein Simplified during a fundraiser on Sunday, May 6.
The fundraiser is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. May 6 at the UT Arboretum on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
“Come enjoy the fun as this well-known Knoxville area comedy improv group entertains us with original, unrehearsed improv,” a press release said. “If you like ‘Second City’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ this show is for you! Given today’s roller coaster political climate, we expect a very funny show. Don’t miss it!”
Due to popular demand in 2017, the group is returning to the Arboretum for the second year, the press release said. [Read more…]
Crews tear down Building 9743-2 at the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management)
By U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management
Oak Ridge is home to more higher-risk excess contaminated facilities than any other U.S. Department of Energy site in the nation, but recent demolition projects are helping change that. This month, the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, eliminated two buildings from the higher-risk list.
The projects were part of DOE’s Excess Contaminated Facilities Initiative, an effort to stabilize facilities, reduce risks, and in some cases accelerate demolition schedules. Oak Ridge is of particular interest since the site houses 297 “excess” facilities—facilities that are no longer operational or serving DOE’s missions. As of December 2016, Oak Ridge contained 60 of DOE’s inventory of 203 higher-risk excess facilities.
“These projects are highlighting EM’s value as crews are removing risks and clearing land for DOE’s important ongoing missions,” said OREM Federal Project Director Brian Henry. “Tearing down these high-risk facilities is a first step with many more planned in the years ahead.” [Read more…]
The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce will host a forum in Clinton this month for candidates in the Anderson County primary election in May.
The candidate forum will be moderated by Gene Patterson, community relations lead for Consolidated Nuclear Security, which manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The candidate forum will be hosted by the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce Government/Community Relations Committee. It is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at The Ritz Theater at 119 North Main Street in downtown Clinton. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the concession stand will be open, a press release said. [Read more…]
