The Secret City Festival will offer free admission to concerts this weekend after daytime activities were canceled because of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
The concerts are Jimmie Allen on Friday, September 24, and All-4-One on Saturday, September 25. Gates open at 6 p.m., and the concerts start at 7. The concerts are in Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge.
The concerts will be first-come, first-served. Capacity is limited to 50 percent, a press release said.
[Read more…]UCOR is requiring its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The requirement applies to all of its nearly 2,000 employees, and it is a condition of employment, the company said Tuesday.
The vaccination requirement was announced by UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter on August 26.
The company, an Amentum-led partnership with Jacobs, is the U.S. Department of Energy’s lead environmental cleanup contractor on the Oak Ridge Reservation, and it has an award-winning safety record, the company said. Rueter said that the decision to require the vaccine was in line with the company’s commitment to safety and its culture of caring.
[Read more…]A 61-year-old Claxton man is facing seven charges, including vehicular assault and driving under the influence, after a crash involving three vehicles on the Edgemoor Road bridge in July, according to court records.
The crash was reported July 10, according to affidavits filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Ray Faircloth in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
A bluegrass group, Songs From the Road Band, will headline a concert in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
It’s the third Summer Sessions concert this year sponsored by ORNL Federal Credit Union.
The opening group at the concert on Saturday will be Grassroots Gringos, a bluegrass band based in Knoxville, a press release said.
Songs From the Road Band is from Asheville, North Carolina. They are known for their lively and exciting shows, which are often compared to the thrill and spontaneity of a NASCAR race, the press release said. The group features Mark Schmick (mandolin), Charles Humphrey III (bass), Sam Wharton (guitar), James Schlender (fiddle), and Gabe Epstein (banjo). With six albums under their belt, their most recent single “Amarillo Blue” topped the Bluegrass Today Grassicana chart earlier this summer, the press release said.
Farm Fest in the Square is in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
The festival will be in Jackson Square from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, September 18.
“The event will be a celebration of life down on the farm,” organizers said. “We have a pie bake off, square dancers, animals from Little Ponderosa Zoo, music from Liza Jane and Curly Fiddler, an open bluegrass jam, and vendors! The Oak Ridge Farmers Market will be right across the street, so come get some great eats and learn a bit about the history of farm life.”
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An Anderson County teenager allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.
Shawn Tyler Willis, 18, of Rocky Top, has been charged with first-degree murder. He allegedly shot his mother, Sandy K. Willis, 38, in the left side of her head as she lay in bed asleep on Andy’s Ridge Road between Briceville and Rocky Top on Monday morning April 20, 2020.
Dan Alcott
Note: This press release has been updated to include information about event changes if it rains.
The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday will present the Oak Ridge premiere of “Adaptation Variations” by Japanese American composer Takuma Itoh.
It will be the featured musical selection during the United Nations International Day of Peace observance Tuesday, September 21, at the International Friendship Bell and Peace Pavilion in Oak Ridge, a press release said.
The outdoor Music for Peace performance will follow Haiku for Peace presentations and children’s activities by Oak Ridge Girl Scouts during a program focused on the Friendship Bell, Peace Pavilion, and the adjacent karesansui garden. Ziad Demian, architect who designed the Peace Pavilion dedicated in 2018, will speak about the tradition and technology in the pavilion design, the press release said. [Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge has named Patrick Berge as its new public works director.
Berge, who previously served as Oak Ridge Public Works utility manager, has served as interim public works director since former Director Shira McWaters died in June.
Berge has overseen all water and wastewater operations since 2018, a press release said. He will now assume all public works operations including streets, stormwater, and engineering.
“As the next public works director, I’m looking forward to continuing Shira’s hard work,” Berge said in the press release. “Public Works has many major projects in progress, our biggest one being the new water plant.”
Among Berge’s many certifications, he is a professional engineer of environmental engineering in both Tennessee and Nebraska, the press release said.
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Pictured above are Saad Aqqad, Allyson Neal, Brittany Moser, and Lindsey Rowland of Oak Ridge Pharmacy.
Oak Ridge Pharmacy was named the small business of the month in September by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
The pharmacy is located at 854 Main Street West.
The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union, a press release said.
“Driven by the desire to better meet the needs of customers he had served for many years at a large pharmacy, Saad Aqqad opened Oak Ridge Pharmacy in July 2019,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Note: This story was updated at 9:10 a.m. Sept. 12.
Daytime activities have been canceled at the Secret City Festival this month as the state and county experience a COVID-19 surge driven by the delta variant. However, the evening concerts, food trucks, and fireworks have not been canceled.
“Due to the ongoing resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Festival Board has been in discussions with the City of Oak Ridge, where concerns were raised about our ability to hold a viable, safe, and successful event,” Naomi Asher, marketing chair for the festival, said in response to questions Saturday. “Sadly, we must cancel all daytime festival activities, so that what we will be left with are the two evening concerts, food trucks, and fireworks.”
Asher said the Festival Board and City of Oak Ridge made the decision.
[Read more…]First Presbyterian Church will provide a free meal and bag of groceries to food-insecure guests who drive by the church between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 9.
The church’s monthly “Welcome Table” community meal program plans to supply each guest with a meal consisting of a sandwich, chips, fresh fruit and brownies or cookies. In addition, a bag of groceries will be delivered to each car.
Guests should drive through the church parking lot to the sanctuary building (1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike) at the intersection of the Turnpike and Lafayette Drive to collect the foods donated by church members or paid for by the church’s hunger fund. Church volunteers wearing masks will deliver the hot meal and groceries to guests in their cars.
By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer
This Roane State Community College graduate now works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researching what he told an interviewer is “the cat-and-mouse game that is modern cybersecurity.”
Specifically, Samuel Hollifield Jr. is looking into ways to defend vehicles’ computer systems from being hacked. He’s a cybersecurity hardware engineer. “Never in my life would I think I’d have a job defending automotive networks,” he said.
His education at Roane State played a huge role in his career path, Hollifield said. “It sounds like a cliché, but Roane State, it changed my life,” he said. “I’m a huge cheerleader.”
A Kentucky native, Hollifield initially attended a community college there but had to withdraw as his late father’s health declined. Employed in the coal-mining industry and afflicted with black lung disease, his father died at age 56.
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