Oak Ridge Today

Curran at ORNL receives SAE Foundation industry leadership award

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Scott Curran and SAE Leadership Award

Stefan Pischinger Young Industry Leadership Award winner Scott Curran, center, is congratulated by SAE Foundation Board Chairman Mazen Hammoud of Ford Motor Company and Patrick Hupperich, FEV North America Inc. president and CEO. (Photo: SAE Foundation)

 

Scott Curran, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has received the Society for Automotive Engineers Foundation’s 2015 Stefan Pischinger Young Industry Leadership Award.

The award, given this week at this year’s SAE Foundation Annual Celebration in Detroit, highlights early career individuals who demonstrate leadership potential and promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-based researched in their respective fields. The SAE Foundation is the charitable branch of the SAE International professional society.

A recipient of three engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee, Curran has been an active member of the SAE since his college days and has been involved in DOE’s Advanced Vehicle Technical Competition as both a student and an advisor. [Read more…]

Balajee named director of Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Lab at REAC/TS

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Adayabalam Balajee

Adayabalam Balajee

Research scientist brings more than 20 years of laboratory expertise to the position

Adayabalam Balajee has been named the director of the Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory, which is operated as part of the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site, or REAC/TS, at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

In his new position, Balajee will manage the operations and staff at the CBL, which is one of only two labs in the U.S. where chromosome abnormality analysis is used for ionizing radiation dose assessment, a press release said. The process for this analysis starts with a blood sample from someone who a physician thinks may have been exposed to radiation.

Prior to joining the CBL, Balajee held the position of research scientist at the Center for Radiological Research, Department of Radiation Oncology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, where he had been employed since 1999. Balajee also spent five years as a visiting fellow at the Gerontology Research Center at the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore. [Read more…]

Covenant Health hospitals earn ‘A’ grades for patient safety

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Methodist Medical Center Main Entrance

Methodist Medical Center, Fort Loudoun Medical Center, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System, and Parkwest Medical Center have been recognized for their dedication to patient safety by being awarded an “A” grade in the Spring 2015 Hospital Safety Score, a press release said.

The Safety Score rates how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, injuries, and infections within the hospital.

In addition to receiving As for the spring quarter, both Methodist Medical Center and Parkwest Medical Center received “Straight A” recognition, signifying that the hospitals have never received a grade lower than “A” from the Hospital Safety Score since the Score first launched in June 2012, the press release said. They are among 182 hospitals to receive the recognition. [Read more…]

ACSD participating in Click It or Ticket this weekend

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Click It or Ticket Day and Night

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department will take part in the Click It or Ticket—National Seat Belt Enforcement Mobilization by conducting saturation patrols during this Memorial Day holiday period, a press release said.

As part of the enforcement, a sobriety checkpoint was held Friday evening, May 22, on Tri-County Boulevard in Oliver Springs. It was to be a multi-agency effort sponsored by the Oliver Springs Police Department and the Governor’s Highway Safety Office, the press release said.

The Click It or Ticket—National Seat Belt Enforcement Mobilization runs through May 31. [Read more…]

Sewer line inspections continue in Oak Ridge

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The Oak Ridge Public Works Department continues to use state-of-the-art technology to perform inspections of the city’s sewer system, a press release said.

This technology employs a sonar machine that emits a repeating series of tones, similar to a musical scale. In open areas, it can be heard over long distances. While harmless, the tones emitted by the machine are low enough in frequency that residents nearby may be able to feel and, in some instances, hear them.

Testing is ongoing, but it will be concentrated to certain areas depending upon weather constraints and other factors. This area includes California Avenue to Florida Avenue, north of the Oak Ridge Turnpike. Residents will notice signs posted on main roads stating “Acoustic Sewer Inspection in Area” while crews are working in their neighborhoods.

Questions can be directed to the Public Works information line at (865) 425-3619 or by email to PubWorksDis@oakridgetn.gov.

More specific information may also be found on the city’s website at SewerProject.OakRidgeTN.gov/work-activities.

Roane County has public hearing, work session on budget on June 2

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Roane County will have a public hearing and work session on the budget for next year on Tuesday, June 2.

The public hearing on the budget for Fiscal Year 2016, which starts July 1, will start at 6:30 p.m. June 2 in the Qualls Commission Room at the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston.

The Roane County Budget Committee will meet after that public hearing in the Qualls Commission Room at the Courthouse.

Then, the Roane County Commission will meet in a work session to discuss the FY 2016 budget in the Qualls Commission Room at the Courthouse in Kingston.

The meeting is open to the public.

No garbage pick-up in Oak Ridge on Memorial Day

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Waste Connections Inc. will not pick up refuse or recyclables within the City of Oak Ridge on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25.

The regular Monday routes will be picked up the following day on Tuesday, and the regular Tuesday through Friday routes will be picked up the following days, Wednesday through Saturday.

Please have all refuse and recyclables out by 7 a.m. for the Tuesday through Saturday routes, a press release said.

“Thank you for your cooperation with this schedule adjustment,” the release said.

You can contact Waste Connections Inc. at (865) 482-3656 or visit www.WasteConnectionsTn.com for more information.

AC woman arrested in Knoxville assault

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Information from WYSH Radio

An Andersonville woman has been arrested and charged in an attack that critically injured another woman at a North Knoxville motel this week, according to the Knoxville Police Department.

Denise Henry, 38, was arrested Wednesday night at a home on Strawberry Plains Pike and is being held on a $30,000 bond on a charge of aggravated assault for allegedly beating a woman outside America’s Best Value Inn and Suites on Merchant Drive.

KPD officers found 36-year-old Diana Trent unresponsive with severe head trauma about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Trent was rushed to UT Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery.

Rocky Top has budget workshop, special meeting on June 2

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The City of Rocky Top will have a special-called meeting on Tuesday, June 2, at 6:30 p.m. to present the 2015-2016 budget. A budget workshop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. the same day.

The next fiscal year starts July 1.

BBB: OS water, sewer rate hike likely

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Oliver Springs Town Council met Thursday night in regular session and then held a budget workshop. Our partners at BBB-TV report that the main topic at the workshop was how much of an increase in water and sewer rates will be necessary to offset a projected shortfall of almost $248,000 in the city’s Water and Sewer Department.

The city has already borrowed some $2.5 million to pay for repairs to the city’s aging sewer plant as mandated by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and repaying that loan led to much of the projected shortfall.

During the workshop, officials seemed to indicate that a 15 percent hike will be needed this year, but that will not be enough to meet future needs. Keeping the city’s Water and Sewer department going could require 2 percent to 3 percent rate hikes each year for the next several years.

No votes were taken during Thursday’s work session. The Oliver Springs Water Board will meet again on June 4 and could take some action at that time.

Council approves $22K ORPD review, could be complete in October

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Oak Ridge Police Department Cars

Note: This story was last updated at 9:58 a.m. May 22.

The Oak Ridge City Council on Thursday approved a review of turnover and morale in the Oak Ridge Police Department that could cost close to $23,000 and not be complete until October.

The review by the Municipal Technical Advisory Service at the University of Tennessee could include interviews with about 125 people, including roughly 76 current ORPD employees as well as several dozen former workers who have left in the roughly four years since Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi started.

The review, which will also study administrative policies, was initially expected to be free, last 30 days, and use interviews with a random pool of workers. But the City Council expanded the scope of the inquiry during a special meeting in April, and MTAS said it would now have to charge $50 per hour for the work.

Each of the MTAS interviews could take about one hour, city officials said during a special Oak Ridge City Council meeting on Thursday. [Read more…]

Pilot robbery suspect arrested in Rocky Top

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Walter John Meachum

Walter John Meachum

A Caryville man suspected of robbing a Pilot Travel Center in east Knox County on Tuesday was arrested at a motel in Rocky Top in Anderson County on Wednesday, authorities said.

They said Walter John Meachum, 21, has been charged with aggravated robbery for an alleged armed robbery just before 2 a.m. Tuesday at the Pilot Travel Center at 1915 East Raccoon Valley Road in Knox County.

On Tuesday, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect was armed with a black and silver weapon, according to the initial investigation. Authorities said the suspect fled west on Raccoon Valley Road in a silver convertible with a black top after receiving an undisclosed amount of money from the business. He was described as wearing a skull mask, black hooded jacket, white shirt, and blue jeans at the time of the robbery.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office said Meachum was arrested early Wednesday morning at the Scottish Inn in Rocky Top by its Major Crimes Unit in conjunction with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, and Rocky Top Police Department. As of Wednesday, Meachum was being held at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility on a $20,000 bond. [Read more…]