Oak Ridge Today

Council to consider budget on Monday, Tuesday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

They postponed a budget vote for one week, and the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday and Tuesday will resume those discussions. So far, the debate has included calls to raise the property tax rate to fund certain programs and other recommendations to keep the rate unchanged—or even lower it.

The budget will be discussed during a non-voting work session at 5 p.m. Monday, June 15, in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Training Room. The Council could then vote on it in the first of two readings this month during a 7 p.m. meeting in the Municipal Building Courtroom.

Council will then discuss the budget in a second work session at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, in the Multipurpose Room at the Central Services Complex on Woodbury Lane. [Read more…]

Reminder: Secret City Festival this weekend

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Secret City Festival Water Slide

Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau 

 

Note: This story was last updated at 12:20 p.m.

Reminder: The Secret City Festival is this weekend. The festival kicks off with an opening ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Friday, and it continues through Saturday evening.

The Secret City Festival celebrates family fun, great entertainment, and arts and crafts, and it commemorates the incredible history that makes this town unique, organizers said.

“Join us as we honor the men and women who built this community and helped end the greatest war mankind has ever known,” they said.

The award-winning, two-day event includes the following and more: [Read more…]

City workers repair water main break near North Tulane

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

North Tulane Avenue Water Main Break

A water main break Tuesday afternoon temporarily created a stream behind St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church near Tulane Avenue. (Photo by Rob Welton)

 

Oak Ridge crews were repairing a water main break near North Tulane Avenue on Tuesday evening.

The water line break temporarily created a stream that flowed from behind St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church toward North Tulane.

City workers were able to stop the water, and they expected the line to be repaired this evening.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AC Senior Center a step closer to reality

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

On Monday night, the Anderson County Operations Committee unanimously voted to approve a five-year lease with B&B Properties on a building in Clinton that will serve as the home of a new Anderson County Senior Center.

The next step in the process will be consideration by the full Anderson County Commission on Monday of the $1,896-a-month lease for the building at 439 South Charles Seivers Boulevard. If approved by the Commission, the Anderson County Office on Aging hopes to be in the new facility by the end of July.

Supporters of a senior center have long decried the lack of adequate space to conduct activities and programs for seniors in the current home of the Office on Aging on Leinart Street. This is the same property officials thought they had an agreement to lease earlier this year that fell through due to a higher-than-expected monthly rent.

The Office on Aging will be providing WYSH with a list of needed items for the new facility in the next few days, and they will pass that information along when it becomes available.

Friends of Library to sponsor local authors at Secret City Festival

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library will sponsor local writers and authors at the Secret City Festival this weekend.

The Secret City Festival is Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13.

The authors will be in Room C of the Oak Ridge Civic Center (next door to the Oak Ridge Historical Preservation Association) autographing and selling their books at the following times: [Read more…]

Council defers budget vote to Monday, June 15

Posted at
By 1 Comment

Warren Gooch

Warren Gooch

Note: This story was updated at 8:51 a.m.

It’s still not clear how property reappraisals in Roane County will affect the Oak Ridge property tax rate, so the City Council on Monday deferred a vote on the budget until Monday, June 15.

Council had been scheduled to consider the budget in the first of two readings on Monday (June 8). Council was expected to consider the budget on second and final reading on June 15.

But the five-year property reappraisals in Roane County are not yet complete, and it’s not clear when they will be. Officials said property assessments there are likely to go down as they have in Anderson County, where they’ve fallen 4 percent.

An overall drop in property values could require an increase in the tax rate because the revenues after the reappraisals have to remain the same as they were before. [Read more…]

AC Operations Committee to consider senior center lease

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County Operations Committee will meet at 6 p.m. today (Monday, June 8) with a full agenda, including consideration of a five-year lease on a building at 439 South Charles Seivers Boulevard for use as an Anderson County Senior Center.

The cost of the $1,896-a-month lease would primarily be paid for out of the budget of the Anderson County Office on Aging, with some county assistance possible. But the remainder of the cost is expected to be paid for through donations.

Seniors and supporters of a senior center will rally before the meeting and then head upstairs to further demonstrate that support to committee members.

The Operations Committee will meet in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. See the agenda here.

Water advisory sent to wrong Clinton; city says water clean, safe to drink

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Clinton City Manager Roger Houck on Sunday said an apparent misrouting of information may be the reason at least one city resident received a “Notice of Water Advisory” this weekend.

“We have confirmed that the Web address and phone information included in the advisory is for Clinton, Utah…not Tennessee,” Houck said in a press release. “When you go to the Utah website, you will see that they, indeed, have issued an advisory for their area.”

A woman who lives on Mariner Point Drive in Clinton, Tennessee, told officials that she received an email and a phone call saying that local water samples had tested positive for E. coli, and customers should assume the water is unsafe to drink unless it is boiled. [Read more…]

Sewer line inspections using sonar machine continue in Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

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 Georgia Avenue to West Outer Drive north of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Cumberland View to Fairbanks Road south of the 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.

Public Notice: Public hearing rescheduled on Annual Action Plan

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

City of Oak Ridge

Equal Housing Opportunity Logo

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

 

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Entitlement Program

for the City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

 

CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING

For

Annual Action Plan of the Consolidated Plan

CDBG Program Year 2015-City of Oak Ridge Fiscal Year 2016

 

The Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development is a requirement of the 1990 National Affordable Housing Act and the Community Development Plan, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Such a plan is required of entitlement communities, which receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds under HUD’s housing and service programs related to the needs of low- and moderate-income persons. The development of the sixth City of Oak Ridge Consolidated Plan took place during the eight-month period of September 2013 through April 2014 and is to be utilized for the three-year period of July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017 (CDBG Program Year 2014 through Program Year 2016). [Read more…]

UT, CNS support camp that lets students study space shuttle debris

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Shuttle Debris at UT, CNS, ASM Camp

CNS Y-12’s Steve Dekanich holds up a piece of the remains of the space shuttle Columbia during a materials science camp session on Monday. (Submitted photo)

 

KNOXVILLE—An ASM International Materials Camp supported by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and scientists at CNS Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is giving local students the chance to study debris from the space shuttle Columbia, with an eye on improving materials used in space flight.

“This is a great opportunity for local kids to get involved with materials science and see how it affects a lot of different disciplines,” said Steve Dekanich, senior metallurgist at CNS Y-12 and the leader of this year’s camp. “People can tend to focus on the really specialized things that materials science studies, but the reality is that it plays a part in many things that people don’t realize, from energy to design.”

Dekanich recalled how he met NASA’s Steve McDanels at a conference in Hawaii, with the two hitting it off immediately.

McDanels, who heads up NASA’s materials science division at Kennedy Space Center, has spent years doing studies and analysis for the agency, including work related to the shuttles, the International Space Station, and various hardware. He offered Dekanich the chance to have his campers study NASA debris for the first time in 2006, with the offer being gladly accepted. [Read more…]

EPA, TVA have final public meeting today on Kingston ash spill cleanup

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Kingston Fossil Plant Ash Spill Cleanup

Ash that spilled into the brown embayment pictured above had been removed by June 2013, and workers placed a black plastic liner over an ash containment cell in the background, preparing to close it late in 2014. The ash spilled in December 2008 when a storage cell failed at the Kingston Fossil Plant, back left. (File photo)

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority have their final public meeting on the cleanup of the 2008 ash spill in Kingston during a meeting this evening (Thursday, June 4).

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is also participating in the meeting on the Kingston Recovery Project.

The meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 4, in the Roane County High School Auditorium. [Read more…]