Oak Ridge Today

Officials to celebrate legislation allowing ATVs on Highway 25W in Rocky Top

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City of Rocky Top Seal

Officials in Rocky Top and Anderson County will have a ribbon-cutting on Friday, July 1, to celebrate recent legislation that allows all-terrain vehicles to ride on Highway 25W starting this summer.

The celebration will include officials from the City of Rocky Top, Rocky Top Chamber of Commerce, and Anderson County Tourism Council. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday, July 1, at the “Welcome to Rocky Top City” sign located between the southbound exit ramp of Exit 129 off of Interstate 75 and the Colonial Road in front of KFC and Cracker Barrel.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation to amend current law that would allow for all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, to ride on Highway 25W in Rocky Top from the intersection of Colonial Lane to the intersection at Jacksboro Avenue beginning July 1, a press release said.

“Current legislation allows for ATVs to be operated on State Route 116 from Beech Grove to Highway 25,” said Mike Lovely, Rocky Top mayor. “This amendment extends the riding area and allows riders from Windrock Park to access the commerce area of Rocky Top.” [Read more…]

Aug. 4 ballot: Competitive races for Congress, AC Commission in Oak Ridge

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Voter Registration Month

The ballot is set for the August 4 county general election and state and federal primary elections. The competitive elections include the Republican and Democratic primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congressional District, which includes Oak Ridge, and the race for one of two seats in Anderson County Commission’s Eighth District, which includes the Woodland, Hendrix Creek, and Emory Valley precincts in Oak Ridge.

There is also competition for two seats on the Anderson County School Board, one in the Third District and the other in the Fifth District.

U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, an Ooltewah Republican, is the incumbent in the House’s Third Congressional District. He has two opponents in the Republican primary on August 4: Allan Levene and Geoffery Suhmer Smith. (Signs for Fleischmann and Smith have both recently been posted in Oak Ridge.)

There are also three Democratic candidates on the ballot for U.S. House, Third District. They are Michael Friedman, George Ryan Love, and Melody Shekari.

The Republican winner will face the Democratic winner in the November 8 federal general election. [Read more…]

Motorcyclist injured in truck-motorcycle crash

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Edgemoor-Road-Motorcycle-and-Truck-Crash-June-23-2016

The Oak Ridge Police Department, Oak Ridge Fire Department, and other authorities and emergency medical services respond to a crash between a motorcycle and a tractor-trailer on Edgemoor Road at Haw Ridge Park on Thursday, June 23, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 1:52 p.m.

A motorcyclist was injured in a crash between a tractor-trailer and a motorcycle on Edgemoor Road on Thursday morning, authorities said.

The crash between an 18-wheeler and a motorcycle was reported at about 8:28 a.m. Thursday at Haw Ridge Park.

The name and condition of the motorcyclist and the type of motorcycle weren’t available Thursday morning. The motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Oak Ridge Police Department Chief Jim Akagi said the motorcyclist was driving east on Edgemoor Road, headed toward Clinton Highway, when the motorcyclist appears to have passed the truck on the right, apparently on the shoulder of the road, as the eastbound tractor-trailer turned right into the parking lot at Haw Ridge. The motorcycle appears to have hit the truck on its passenger side, Akagi said. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge celebrates July 4 with fireworks at A.K. Bissell Park

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July 4, 2012 Fireworks

The Independence Day fireworks show in Oak Ridge has been scheduled for 10 p.m. Monday, July 4, at A.K. Bissell Park. (File photo by Charles Samuels)

 

Oak Ridge will celebrate July 4 with fireworks at Alvin K. Bissell Park. The fireworks display, which is sponsored by the City of Oak Ridge, will start at 10 p.m. Monday, July 4.

The fireworks will be accompanied by music played live at the park by Merle 96.7 FM. Radio host Jack Ryan will be transmitting live from the park beginning at 6 p.m. and will conclude the live broadcast with a patriotic medley as the fireworks are shot, a press release said. The countdown to the fireworks begins at 9:30 p.m. Listeners can tune their radios to 96.7 Merle FM and enjoy the show.

The Oak Ridge Community Band will perform its annual Fourth of July concert at the A.K. Bissell Park Pavilion beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The best view of the show will be from the east end of Bissell Park, the press release said.

Please note: [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Senior Center hosts Classic Car Cruise In on Saturday

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2016 Cruise-In

The Oak Ridge Senior Center, in partnership with the Fast and Classy Car Club, is hosting the first Classic Car Cruise In and Open House at the Oak Ridge Senior Center. The event will be held on Saturday, June 25, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Please join us in admiring all the hard work that has been put into restoring these beautiful pieces of history,” a press release said.

Hot dogs and drinks will be available for $1 each while supplies last, the press release said. [Read more…]

DOE announces $16 million in funding to move energy technologies from labs to marketplace

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Photo by ORNL

 

The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday announced nearly $16 million in funding to help businesses move promising energy technologies from DOE’s national laboratories to the marketplace. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is among the labs receiving funding, and ORNL received funding for nine projects.

It’s the first department-wide round of funding through the Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF, a press release said. It will support 54 projects at 12 national labs involving 52 private-sector partners.

The TCF is administered by DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, or OTT, which works to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities, the press release said. In February 2016, OTT announced the first solicitation to the DOE national laboratories for TCF funding proposals. It received 104 applications from across the laboratory system, for projects in two topic areas:

  • Topic Area 1: Projects for which the technology must become more mature to attract a private partner; and
  • Topic Area 2: Cooperative development projects between a lab and industry partner(s), designed to support the commercial application of a lab-developed technology.

All projects selected for the Technology Commercialization Fund will receive an equal amount of non-federal funds to match the federal investment, the press release said.

“Deploying new clean energy technologies is an essential part of our nation’s effort to lead in the 21st century economy and in the fight against climate change,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s under secretary for science and energy. “The funds announced today will help to accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge energy technologies developed in our national labs, making them more widely available to American consumers and businesses.” [Read more…]

Secret City Festival hosts Willow Run Rosies 

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Eight of the 13 Rosie the Riveters are shown here along with Heritage Exhibit participant Tom Walker, Oak Ridge Heritage Room organizer Bobbie Martin, and Interpretive National Park Ranger Veronica Greear. The Rosies are, from left to right, Bette Kenward, Barb Matthews, Vikki Toth, Chris Brown, Patsy Kemner, Kate Weise, Susie Sweeney, and Alison Beatty (down front). (Photo by M. McBride)

Eight of the 13 Rosie the Riveters are shown here along with Heritage Exhibit participant Tom Walker, Oak Ridge Heritage Room organizer Bobbie Martin, and Interpretive National Park Ranger Veronica Greear. The Rosies are, from left to right, Bette Kenward, Barb Matthews, Vikki Toth, Chris Brown, Patsy Kemner, Kate Weise, Susie Sweeney, and Alison Beatty (down front). (Photo by M. McBride)

 

This year’s Secret City Festival hosted 13 members of the “Willow Run Rosies” from the Historic Willow Run bomber plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Wearing Rosie-The-Riveter costumes, these ladies helped re-create the spirit of the many Rosies who powered the American war effort during World War II.

The Rosies were part of a 20-person group from Michigan.

The Willow Run Rosies chatted with festival visitors in the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Room on Saturday during the city’s two-day festival. Each year, the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association sponsors a heritage room during the festival, featuring exhibits on the history of the super-secret Manhattan Project and its “Secret City” of Oak Ridge.

Tens of thousands of “Rosies” came here during World War II, as part of President Roosevelt’s massive effort to build an atomic bomb in time to end the war. [Read more…]

Roane State to host author, speaker Jeff Shiver at maintenance best practices seminar

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Jeff Shiver

Jeff Shiver

Roane State Community College will host industry recognized book author and speaker Jeff Shiver at the “Achieving the Maintenance” Best Practices Seminar in Clinton.

Shiver will focus on the five primary goals that most organizations are seeking from the maintenance function: reliability, lower costs, safety, environmental integrity, and quality, a press release said. He will provide an overview of tools and concepts that you can apply in your organization. These include RCM3, risk-based strategies, planning and scheduling, proactive tasks, how equipment fails, and defect elimination.

Shiver—a CMRP, CRL, RCM2/RCM3 practitioner—will highlight a morning session with the “big picture” from a reliability-centered maintenance perspective, the press release said. [Read more…]

Scientists seek new physics using ORNL’s intense neutrino source

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Neutrino Experiment at High Flux Isotope Reactor

The High Flux Isotope Reactor, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility that creates continuous neutron beams, is the site of a new neutrino experiment. Yale-led PROSPECT will probe neutrinos formed as a byproduct of radioactive decay processes. (Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, DOE/Photographer Genevieve Martin)

 

By Dawn Levy

Soon to be deployed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an experiment to explore new physics associated with neutrinos. The Precision Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, or PROSPECT, is led by Yale University and includes partners from 14 academic and governmental institutions. The DOE High Energy Physics program will support the experiment at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, or HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL. The neutrino, the subject of a 2015 Nobel Prize, remains a poorly understood fundamental particle of the Standard Model of particle physics.

These electrically neutral subatomic particles are made in stars and nuclear reactors as a byproduct of radioactive decay processes. They interact with other matter via the weak force, making their detection difficult. As a result of this elusiveness, neutrinos are the subject of many interesting and challenging detection experiments, including PROSPECT.

“Unique capabilities of ORNL will enable us to broaden the understanding of neutrino properties,” said David Dean, director of ORNL’s Physics Division. “The expansion of neutrino experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a win for the lab because we have a new scientific focus area, and a win for the scientific community because ORNL has unique neutrino sources that physicists will utilize to explore neutrino science.” [Read more…]

ASPCA supports lifesaving transport for animals in 13 counties, including from Oak Ridge

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Go North Animal Transport

Note: This story was updated at 11:17 a.m.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or ASPCA, has awarded a grant of $47,250 to the East Tennessee-based GoNorth Animal Transport Collaborative, an alliance of 13 animal shelters, for transportation to northern shelters with ample space and high adoption demand, a press release said. The grant will be used to reimburse shelters for pre-transport veterinary care that is required by the destination shelters.

“Affordable, easily-accessible spay/neuter programs are the solution to ending pet overpopulation,” said GoNorth project coordinator Carmen Trammell. “However, it will take ‘time on task’ to do enough spaying and neutering to dramatically reduce the birth rate. In the meantime, northern transport saves the lives of shelter animals in oversupply.”

Counties participating in the GoNorth project include Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Hamblen, Hamilton, Jefferson, Loudon, Monroe, Sevier, and Union. The primary destinations are the Michigan, Toledo, and Wisconsin Humane Societies.

Currently, the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter is the only shelter participating in Anderson County. A complete list can be found here.

[Read more…]

Str8 Up SxS Series is Saturday at Windrock Park

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STR8 UP SXS SERIES

The Str8 Up SxS Series is Saturday at Windrock Park north of Oliver Springs.

“The Str8 Up SxS Series will be tackling the crazy hills at the SuperATV Summernationals, the third stop in the series,” an event announcement said. “This adrenaline-pumping event will have you asking yourself, ‘What are these guys thinking?’”

Registration for the event is full, so there is a full house of 60 participants ready to race in the Unlimited and Production classes, along with 21 participants in the Bounty Series. [Read more…]

Palestinian Christian to speak at three area churches

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Amal Nassar at her family’s farm in the West Bank. (Submitted photo)

Amal Nassar at her family’s farm in the West Bank. (Submitted photo)

 

By Carolyn Krause

Amal Nassar, a Palestinian Christian who lives with her family on their 100-acre farm amid Israeli settlements in the West Bank, will speak in three area churches June 26 and June 28.

She will talk about her family’s dedication to making peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

On Sunday, June 26, she will speak in Oak Ridge at 9:45 a.m. in the fellowship hall at First United Methodist Church at 1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike. Then, at 11:15 a.m., she will speak in the fellowship hall at First Presbyterian Church at 1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

On June 28, she will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the parish hall at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension at 800 South Northshore Drive in Knoxville. The public is invited to attend any of Nassar’s church presentations. [Read more…]