Oak Ridge Today

City of Oak Ridge accepting nominations for poet laureate

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The Oak Ridge Public Library is supporting an initiative to select and name a poet laureate for the City of Oak Ridge.

The Oak Ridge Poet Laureate Committee is seeking a poet of excellence, who has lived in Oak Ridge for at least one year and is inspired to represent the city and all it strives to be, a press release said.

“Anyone can nominate someone they believe is best fit for the role and self-nominations are accepted as long as they can continue to live in the city throughout the appointment,” the press release said. “They must have significant publication history including books (excluding self-published and vanity presses), and in a variety of journals, and/or media. They must have received recognition in the field and have demonstrated literary excellence.”

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Anderson County Higher Education Center opens

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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.

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Gov. Lee pardons Anderson County resident

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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.

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Oak Ridge Christmas Tree Lighting this evening

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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.

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Granholm learns about ORNL wireless charging, seawater batteries

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U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, second from right, talks about the infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden and the Build Back Better Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives during a visit to GRID-C at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. Also pictured from right are ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia; U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, whose district includes Oak Ridge; and Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory shared their intriguing studies of wireless charging and seawater batteries, among other novel projects, with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm during a tour on Monday.

Granholm was in East Tennessee to highlight the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, and the president’s Build Back Better agenda, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week but hasn’t been approved by the Senate yet.

Fall leaf pickup starts Monday

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The annual citywide leaf pickup program will begin Monday, November 22. The program is starting a week earlier in order to “pick up the influx of leaves that have recently fallen,” a press release said.

The pickup is coordinated by Waste Connections of Tennessee. Collection efforts will follow the proposed schedule as closely as possible, the press release said.

“Please note that the proposed schedule is a general guide and can vary considerably from the actual schedule due to weather conditions, resident participation, and the amount of leaves needed to be picked up,” the release said.

The following guidelines will help make the leaf pickup process easier for Waste Connections crews and home owners, the press release said:

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Governor ends COVID emergency

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Bill Lee

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee did not renew the COVID-19 state of emergency that expired Friday night, but he reserved the right to use it again if there are future surges of the virus.

“I am not renewing the COVID-19 state of emergency that expires tonight,” Lee said in a brief statement Friday. “For almost 20 months, this tool has provided deregulation and operational flexibility for hospitals and industries most affected by COVID’s challenges. Should our state face any future surges, we will consider temporarily reinstating this tool, but in the meantime, we are evaluating opportunities for permanent deregulation.”

In the third major statewide surge, this one caused by the delta variant, COVID-19 cases peaked in Anderson County in the first half of September, with a high seven-day average of 89.6 cases on September 11 and a peak of 152 cases on September 10. New cases fell after that but plateaued at about 15-17 new cases per day in late October, and they have remained there for about three weeks. That’s still considerably higher than the summer low average of fewer than one new COVID case per day, on average, in late June and early July, before the delta variant surge started in about mid-July.

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Learn technical details of RamSat in Zoom session

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RamSat, just prior to handoff to NASA

You can learn more this evening about the technical details of the cube satellite built by students at Robertsville Middle School with help from mentors.

The Zoom session is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 17, during an ORION community meeting.

The title of the talk is “RamSat Technical Details.” The talk will be given by a panel of three technical experts from Oak Ridge—Peter Thornton, David Andrews, and Ian Goethert—and moderated by Rob Scott and David Fields, a press release said. The talk is open to the public. If you are interested in joining this talk, follow this link: [Read more…]

Updated: Mask mandate terminated at Oak Ridge Schools

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Bill Lee

Note: This story was last updated at 7 a.m. Nov. 16.

The face mask mandate at Oak Ridge Schools has been terminated in response to new state legislation signed into law by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.

Medicaid expansion forum, part 2, is Tuesday

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The second part of a forum about Medicaid expansion will be online at lunchtime Tuesday, featuring two legislators who have supported Medicaid expansion.

The legislators are Tennessee Senator Richard Briggs, a physician, and Representative Gloria Johnson, a retired educator.

The virtual forum is scheduled to start at noon Tuesday, November 16. You can register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting (learn more here).

Here is the Tuesday agenda:

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General Fusion locating U.S. headquarters in Oak Ridge

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General Fusion Corporation will locate its U.S. headquarters in Oak Ridge as the company advances plans for a commercial pilot plant, Tennessee officials and company executives announced Wednesday.

The headquarters decision was announced Wednesday by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe, and General Fusion Corporation executives.

General Fusion Corporation is based in Vancouver, Canada. The company says fusion could provide a carbon-free power source that would meet the growing global energy demand while fighting climate change.

The U.S.-based subsidiary of General Fusion Incorporated will initially invest $539,000 and create 20 new jobs in Anderson County during the next five years, a press release said. It’s the first private fusion company to establish an office in Tennessee, General Fusion said. The new headquarters in Oak Ridge will be near Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a science and energy lab that is home to the U.S. ITER program. ITER is an experimental fusion device being built in southern France through an international collaboration and planned to be the first such device to produce net energy.

In Oak Ridge, General Fusion said it will collaborate with “world-leading fusion scientists and tap into key engineering talent.”

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City receives grant for water plant landslide

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Pictured above is the landslide next to the access road to the Oak Ridge Water Treatment Plant on Pine Ridge, above the Y-12 National Security Complex, on Saturday night, February 23, 2019. (File photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

The City of Oak Ridge has received a $17,389 grant to cover some costs associated with a landslide at the access road to the water treatment plant above the Y-12 National Security Complex in 2019.

The estimated costs of the repairs are $384,444, Oak Ridge Public Works Director Patrick Berge said in a memo to City Manager Mark Watson.

The city began talking to the Federal Emergency Management Agency immediately after the landslide, and the discussions included potential future reimbursements, Berge said. The $17,389 partial reimbursement is through the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

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