Oak Ridge Today

Anderson County Higher Education Center opens

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The Anderson County Higher Education Center has opened on Frank L. Diggs Drive in Clinton. (Photo by Roane State Community College)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

The new Anderson County Higher Education Center “is an example of what should be happening” to spur workforce development, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told a large crowd on Friday, December 10.

Gesturing to students in the back who will be attending classes at the center starting in January, Lee thanked them for “pursuing the path you’re pursuing.

“The private sector drives what we’re doing here,” Lee told attendees crowded into the spacious classroom where diesel powered technology will soon be taught.

In the planning and construction stages for years, the center will soon offer several Roane State Community College and Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville classes.

It’s a 48,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility where more than 200 students will be enrolled. It cost $11 million, and SL Tennessee, an auto parts manufacturer next door, donated seven acres for the center, located on Frank L. Diggs Drive in the Clinton/I-75 Industrial Park.

[Read more…]

Community Band has Christmas Concert Sunday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Community Band performs at the recent Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in A.K. Bissell Park on Dec. 1, 2021. (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Community Band will play familiar holiday songs, and you will be able to sing along to favorite carols during a Christmas Concert on Sunday afternoon, December 12.

The family-friendly concert to ring in the holiday season will begin at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church, and there is no admission fee, a press release said.

Among the compositions on Sunday’s program will be one of Leroy Anderson’s most popular holiday tunes, “Sleigh Ride,” in which you can not only hear the bells on the horse pulling the sleigh but the crack of the whip, the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves, and the horse’s distinctive neigh, the press release said. The band will also perform Robert Buckley’s arrangement of “Let the Bells Ring!” based on “Ukrainian Bell Carol,” Alfred Reed’s “Russian Christmas Music,” and Robert Smith’s arrangement of “All is Calm.” More holiday tunes performed by the band will be Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival,” Paul Lavender’s arrangement of “A Home Alone Christmas,” and John K. Evans’s “Angels We Have Heard on High.” [Read more…]

Campbell retiring, Boatner to be new ETEC president

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Jim Campbell

Jim Campbell, president of the East Tennessee Economic Council, is retiring March 31 after serving as president for 26 years. ETEC’s vice president, Tracy Boatner, has been selected to replace him.

The leadership change was announced Friday morning by Buddy Heins, ETEC board chair.

“We thank Jim for his many years of consistent and effective guidance of ETEC,” Heins said in a press release. “The growth and influence of Jim and ETEC in Oak Ridge, East Tennessee, and beyond have been truly remarkable. I, along with the Executive Committee, look forward to Tracy’s leadership of the organization in the months and years to come.”

ETEC members met in person to celebrate the 2020 winners of the Muddy Boot Award and Postma Young Professional Medal, originally awarded virtually last December. Also announced was the date for ETEC’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Awards Celebration, which will be February 4. At this end-of-year celebration, both Campbell and Boatner spoke about the leadership change.

“This has been fun,” Campbell said. “The metamorphoses of this region over the last generation are a wonder, and there are only greater things in store for the Oak Ridge Corridor in the generation to come.”

[Read more…]

Man, two dogs displaced after battery sparks fire

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

An Oak Ridge man and his two dogs were displaced following a fire at their Cedar Lane home early Wednesday morning.

The Oak Ridge Fire Department responded to the house at 2:56 a.m. Wednesday after the homeowner said a lithium battery was on fire in his living room.

Firefighters arrived on scene within three minutes of the call and found smoke and fire in the front of the residence, a press release said. Crews were able to contain the fire within 10 minutes, but there was significant smoke and heat damage throughout the home.

The man and his dogs were able to safely evacuate before the fire department arrived, the press release said. He credited his working smoke alarms for alerting him to the fire and allowing a safe exit.

[Read more…]

Students who posted shooting threats charged with terrorism, mass violence threats

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge High School was on lockdown on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, after administrators were made aware of a shooting threat posted on social media. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Oak Ridge Police Department has charged three students with terrorism and threats of mass violence after they allegedly made school shooting threats in two separate incidents on social media on Monday and Tuesday.

The charges were filed in Anderson County Juvenile Court on Wednesday afternoon, and the court authorized the detention of the children in the Richard L. Bean Detention Facility in Knox County. The children were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said.

All three juveniles were charged with terrorism, threat of mass violence on school property, and false report. Two of the children were allegedly involved in a shooting threat posted on Snapchat on Monday, and they were also charged with conspiracy. That threat led to a lockdown at Oak Ridge High School on Monday. The third child was allegedly involved in a separate shooting threat that was posted on Snapchat on Tuesday, and that student will face the first three charges.

Clark said the children are required to have a detention hearing quickly under Tennessee law, and that hearing could occur as soon as Thursday afternoon in Anderson County Juvenile Court.

[Read more…]

Memory, hope mark Tuesday church event

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Lighting candles at a previous Service of Memory and Hope at First Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

 

A Service of Memory and Hope will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 14, in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church at 1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike. The public is invited. Face coverings will be required.

The service will feature music by local composer and pianist John Purifoy, Steve Boyce (vocal), and Anna Thomas (flute). They will present “Psalms of Comfort” using Purifoy’s musical arrangements of select Psalms for the occasion, a press release said.

Emily Anderson, pastor of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville, will share a brief meditation. [Read more…]

Register now for winter-spring 2022 ORICL courses

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

An ORICL course during the winter-spring term will explore Zentangle, a fun, easy-to-learn, relaxing method of drawing beautiful images with structured patterns. As a meditational art form, every Zentangle stroke is mindful rather than mindless (like doodling). (Submitted photo)

 

Would you like to learn about fascinating characters in Oak Ridge history and in the Old West, as well as hear the voices of those who shaped the Golden Age of Radio? Are you familiar with the story about the Oak Ridge Wildcats football team that won the national championship in 1958?

Would you like to learn the best ways to research your family’s history and identify potential ancestors? Do you know all sides of the gun issue in our country? Do you wish to hear from a former Oak Ridge mayor and his wife how to run a local political campaign?

These and other interesting topics will be addressed in courses that will be taught during the winter-spring term of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL), a press release said. Most of the smorgasbord of 65 courses will be presented in person but a few will be online via Zoom or as hybrid classes (in person and online). ORICL’s in-person and hybrid classes will be held mostly in the Coffey-McNally building on Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue.

The fall catalog is posted on ORICL’s www.roanestate.edu/oricl website. The registration form and calendar are also posted there, the press release said. Online registration opened Tuesday, December 7. Paper registrations can be brought to the office or mailed by December 14. The office will be closed from December 15 to January 3. [Read more…]

Indoor Winter Farmers’ Market opens Saturday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Farmer Tracy Monday of Enlightenment Acres is pictured at Winter Farmers Market in Oak Ridge in 2018. (Submitted photo)

More than 30 farmers, bakers, and artisan crafters are moving indoors Saturday, December 4, for the sixth season of the Winter Farmers’ Market, which will be open Saturdays through March from 9 a.m. to noon.

The market is located in the gym at St. Mary’s School at 323 Vermont Avenue in Oak Ridge. Customers may shop in person or choose curbside pickup or home delivery through the Market-To-Go program.

“The Winter Farmers’ Market brings local food and local folks together in a unique and fun way, with great food, live music, cooking demonstrations, free kids’ activities, artisan crafts, and more, indoors all winter,” said Rebecca Williams, director of Grow Oak Ridge, the local nonprofit that produces the market.

“We have two ways to shop again this year: in-person and online through Market-To-Go.”

The market offers an abundance of locally grown cool season produce like kale, spinach, lettuce, and gourmet mushrooms, and even some winter strawberries and tomatoes, a press release said. It also carries free-range eggs, pasture-raised meats, tilapia, local honey, artisan breads, pastries, unique handmade bath and body products, and handmade gifts from local artisans.

[Read more…]

Gov. Lee pardons Anderson County resident

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Bill Lee

An Anderson County man was among those pardoned by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Thursday.

Lee announced executive clemency decisions for 17 offenders “who have demonstrated a successful path to rehabilitation and established a new process for individuals seeking clemency for drug-free school zone convictions.” The power of executive clemency includes exonerations, pardons, and commutations, or a reduction in a person’s sentence.

Brandon Benson was the Anderson County man who was pardoned.

A copy of the pardon posted online said Benson was convicted of aggravated assault in Shelby County in January 2005 and sentenced to three years of probation. The conviction and other misdemeanor convictions were the result of behaviors related to substance abuse, the pardon said.

Lee said executive clemency was justified in the case because Benson has “turned his life around since 2012 and is committed to his recovery, his family, and his community.” Benson earned his bachelor’s degree in religion from Liberty University in 2019, and he mentors other people with substance abuse issues as a drug and alcohol counselor at HOPE of East Tennessee.

[Read more…]

Kern Methodist has Holiday Bake Sale on Saturday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

All proceeds go to support local and global missions having a focus on women, youth, and children. (Submitted image)

 

Kern Methodist Church in Oak Ridge will have a Holiday Bake Sale from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, December 4.

The sale is from 2-4 p.m. Saturday in the Family Life Center at the church on 451 East Tennessee Avenue. It will include cakes, cookies, candy, breads, jams, and pecans, according to a submitted image. [Read more…]

AD Mullins retires; Gaddis named interim AD

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis had his 300th football coaching win when the Wildcats beat Clinton 42-6 on Blankenship Field on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. Gaddis, center, is pictured above with former Oak Ridge High School Principal Martin McDonald, left, and ORHS Athletic Director Mike Mullins. (File photo courtesy Martin McDonald)

Oak Ridge High School Athletic Director Mike Mullins is retiring, and football coach Joe Gaddis, who announced his retirement as coach in November, will serve as interim athletic director.

Mullins’ decision to retire was announced Wednesday by ORHS Principal Garfield Adams. Gaddis’ appointment as interim athletic director was announced Thursday.

“As athletic director, Mullins was responsible for leading an athletic department that is committed to excellence both in the classroom and in competition,” Adams said in a letter to families. Mullins led several capital improvement projects, Adams said, including the multi-million-dollar revitalization of Blankenship Field and the design of Wildcat Arena, which was part of a $61 million renovation of ORHS.

“This state-of-the-art facility is home to the Wildcat basketball and volleyball teams and is one of the finest venues in the state,” Adams said.

Other facility upgrades completed during Mullins’ tenure include the Pro2Serve Soccer Complex, a renovated weight room, and many locker room enhancements.

[Read more…]

Oak Ridge Christmas Tree Lighting this evening

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

oak-ridge-christmas-tree-lighting-a-dec-2-2016
A previous Oak Ridge Christmas tree lighting in 2016 in Alvin K. Bissell Park. (File photo by City of Oak Ridge)

The City of Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department will have its annual Community Christmas Tree Lighting on Thursday, December 2, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Pavilion in A.K. Bissell Park. The tree, a Norway Spruce, was presented by the Oak Ridge Woman’s Club to the city and has become part of a growing community tradition, a press release said.

The event will kick off at the outdoor A.K. Bissell Park Pavilion with seasonal music and the Park Board Awards ceremony. There will also be light refreshments provided by Y-12 Federal Credit Union and the Park Board, the press release said.

Following the program, participants will proceed to the Secret City Commemorative Walk on the east side of the Oak Ridge Public Library parking area for a brief ceremony ending with the tree lighting.

[Read more…]