Trina Baughn
Chuck Hope
CLINTON—Oak Ridge City Council member Chuck Hope has raised twice as much in campaign contributions since April as his opponent, Trina Baughn, according to reports filed this month.
Hope, appointed to Council last summer after Tom Hayes resigned in June 2011, raised $3,669 in campaign contributions between April 1 and July 23.
Meanwhile, Baughn raised $1,675.
Terry Frank
Warren Gooch
CLINTON—The two candidates for Anderson County mayor have raised and spent a total of about $175,000 since April, possibly making it the most expensive race ever, county officials said.
And the two candidates, Democrat Warren Gooch and Republican Terry Frank, are running to serve only two years, or half a regular term.
“I think that’s unprecedented,” Anderson County Election Commission Administrator Mark Stephens said Tuesday.
The latest financial disclosures filed by the campaigns last week show that Gooch continues to raise and spend more money than Frank. Gooch raised $19,332 in contributions from July 1 to July 23, roughly double Frank’s $9,685.
Note: This story was updated at 4:40 p.m.
The expected closure of New York Avenue between Vermont Avenue and Vance Road on Thursday has been canceled, the city announced Tuesday.
An earlier release had said a short section of New York Avenue near Oak Ridge Turnpike could be closed Thursday while a contractor repairs a sewer line.
More than twice as many Republicans as Democrats cast ballots during early voting in Anderson County this year, election officials said Monday.
Early voting ended Saturday, and as of Monday afternoon, the Anderson County Election Commission had counted a total of 6,599 votes.
Republicans cast 4,371 of those votes and Democrats 1,904, said Stephanie Gamble, Anderson County Election Commission deputy administrator.
Oak Ridge Associated Universities has renewed a five-year agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue providing technical assistance for radiological surveys and assessments.
The $5.4 million agreement will last through 2017, an ORAU press release said.
Under the agreement, ORAU will perform laboratory analyses, document reviews, inspections, and surveys related to the decommissioning of previously contaminated reactor and materials sites.
Tre Hargett
A record number of Tennessee voters cast ballots early this year, but the number of early votes appeared to be down in Anderson County and possibly Roane County.
As of Wednesday, 223,281 Tennesseans had either voted early or mailed in absentee ballots for the Aug. 2 election, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced Thursday.
That’s up from 206,174 during the entire early voting period in August 2008, Hargett said. There were 11,267 people who mailed in absentee ballots in that election.
Terry Frank
Warren Gooch
Warren Gooch, the Democratic candidate for Anderson County mayor, raised more than four times as much in campaign contributions as his Republican opponent, Terry Frank, in the three-month reporting period that ended June 30.
Gooch, an Oak Ridge attorney, reported total contributions of $64,680, while Frank, a Clinton business owner, reported $15,193.
If a $6,479 loan from Frank to her campaign is included, Frank’s total receipts were $21,672, about one-third of Gooch’s.
Gooch also spent about four times as much as Frank—or $60,147 in total disbursements, compared to $14,070 for Frank, the campaign finance reports said.
In his 77-page report, Gooch reported he received 233 donations of more than $100 each. Those donations are called itemized contributions.
In her 17-page report, Frank reported 31 itemized contributions.
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson says the lease with the New China Palace Restaurant on Melton Lake Drive will not be renewed early next year.
The New China Palace, a waterfront restaurant said to be the second-old diner in the city, could lose its lease early next year.
In a June 11 letter, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson told the restaurant’s Chung-Nan Chou and Fu-Li Chou that the city will not renew the lease when it expires in February or March 2013.
Watson said the relatively new Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Board has developed a master plan for the waterfront area that recommends the city-owned restaurant site on Melton Lake Drive be remodeled as a bathhouse facility. It would support the “growing number of rowing and public activities on the site,” Watson said.
There are also plans to build a waterfront pavilion and water park at Melton Lake Park and improve the playground, Watson said.
A previous plan to replace the New China Palace with a casual diner stirred a public uproar. That proposal was included in a waterfront plan approved by Oak Ridge City Council in December 2009.
The plan calls for improvements on riverfront property from Elza Gate Park to Rivers Run Boulevard.
But the proposal to replace the restaurant was put on hold in November 2010 after the public uproar and only three bidders showed interest in building the casual diner.
In February 2011, the Oak Ridge City Council approved a two-year lease with the New China Palace that give the city time to review its plans. The lease began March 1, 2011, and would presumably end Feb. 28, 2013, although city officials were not available to give a precise date Thursday afternoon.
In a second letter, dated June 29, Watson said the city wanted to give the New China Palace “plenty of time for transitioning to a new location.” He said city officials and the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce are willing to help the restaurant find a new site, and he suggested several alternatives: Jackson Square, Grove Center, and the west end of town.
“We do want him to continue, and he’s got a built-in clientele,” Watson said Friday.
In a letter responding to Watson, Cheng P. Ren, New China Palace manager, said the landmark restaurant, which has been at its current location for 39 years, would prefer to stay where it is.
“Aside from Big Ed’s Pizza, there are no older restaurants in the city,” Cheng said. “As you are very aware, many of the citizens of this city consider the restaurant a true asset to the city.”
He said the restaurant has been a good public citizen. While upgrades are needed at the city-owned 3,600-square-foot building, the restaurant rent could be used to help pay for those upgrades, Cheng said.
He said New China Palace executives would like to be included in the waterfront development plan, if the restaurant has to move, and would consider a smaller store, “if it fits in better with the overall scheme being considered for the waterfront.”
If that’s not an option, Cheng said, the New China Palace would work with the city and chamber to evaluate alternative locations.
“We would rather be part of the solution than make this a political situation,” Cheng said.
Myron Iwanski
Buzz Patrick
Both candidates in a special election for Anderson County Commission say economic development is the county’s top priority.
And both opposed a property tax rate increase this year to give more money to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.
But the two candidates—Myron Iwanski and Buzz Patrick—have had their disagreements, including over funding for nonprofit organizations and an expansion of the county’s overcrowded jail.
Mark Watson
A decade-old state grant to build a railroad museum in west Oak Ridge needs to be used or returned to the state, city officials said Monday.
The long-awaited 5,000-square-foot Southern Appalachia Railway Museum and railroad depot could cost $1.25 million, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson told City Council members during a work session Monday.
But the $480,000 Tennessee Department of Transportation grant and a $120,000 match from the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee would only cover half the cost, city officials said.
“It’s a big hill to climb,” Watson said.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to pay Anderson County $24,000 a year to offset the loss of property tax revenues on land recently purchased by the utility for the eventual expansion of its coal ash storage facility around the Bull Run Steam Plant in Claxton, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes will offset the loss of some 155 acres and 24 homes that TVA purchased earlier this year, WYSH said.
Chuck Hope
It’s Chuck Hope’s first campaign for an elected office, but he already has some job experience.
Hope, a 49-year-old businessman, was appointed to serve on Oak Ridge City Council after former Council member Tom Hayes resigned in June 2011. Now, he’s running for a special three-month term on the city’s seven-member legislative body.
In recent forums and interviews, Hope has advocated for more retail development in Oak Ridge, modernizing older “legacy” homes, and reviving the city’s economic development fund.
