OLIVER SPRINGS—The Oliver Springs Town Council has picked the son of the city’s former mayor to become city manager.
The Council agreed in a 4-1 vote Thursday night to have Oliver Springs Mayor Chris Hepler negotiate with Eddie Kelley Jr. for the position. Kelley is the son of former Oliver Springs Mayor Ed Kelley, and he is also the city’s part-time parks director.
Regional leaders rank community issues during a recent PlanET forum at the Flatwater Grill in Oak Ridge.
Union County Mayor Micheal Williams wants the county to withdraw from a regional planning organization that recently held a series of public forums and drew some opposition from property rights advocates, including in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.
Named PlanET, the five-county organization includes Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union counties. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan is chair of its board of mayors.
“Union County is a rural county and is much smaller, as far as demographics are concerned, than the other counties which make up PlanET,” Williams wrote in a May 1 letter to the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization. “I feel that Union County would be better served if we promote ourselves as an individual county instead of grouping with the larger ones and being left behind.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management program is hosting a Thursday morning meeting to discuss preservation plans for the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site.
This public meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the conference room of Building 2714-G, which is located across from the Federal Building in Oak Ridge. There will be an opportunity for the public to provide comments.
The Oak Ridge City Council has unanimously approved a budget that does not raise the property tax rate.
It would be the fourth year in a row without a tax rate increase if Council approves the budget on second and final reading May 29.
Passed on first reading Monday night, the budget includes a 1.5 percent pay raise for city employees in the fiscal year that starts July 1. It would keep the property tax rate at $2.39 per $100 of assessed value.
The Oak Ridge City Council and Board of Education will consider their budgets for the next fiscal year during two separate meetings tonight.
Oak Ridge Superintendent Tom Bailey will present his proposed budget to the school board during a 5:30 p.m. work session today at the School Administration Building on New York Avenue.
The City Council will consider the municipal budget in the first of two readings at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building Courtroom on South Tulane Avenue. There will also be a public hearing.
Congressmen Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., and Doc Hastings, R-Wash., talk to the media before a Friday tour of the three local U.S. Department of Energy sites.
During a brief press conference this morning, Congressmen Chuck Fleischmann and Doc Hastings said they are advocating for more money for cleanup work at U.S. Department of Energy sites and a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that could include Oak Ridge and Hanford.
The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.
“There’s so much history that was involved in what we did,” said Hastings, a Washington Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Oak Ridge officials have announced that they have temporarily closed the gravel road extension of Tuskegee Drive and plan to temporarily close the Gallaher Recreation Area boat ramp on Monday.
Activities this weekend include a Friday morning visit to Clinton by Gov. Bill Haslam, music (some of it free), nonprofit fundraisers, and a regatta at Oak Ridge Marina.
Oak Ridge is in the third week of its citywide brush pickup program. Though the schedule can change due to weather conditions or the amount of brush the city has to pick up, the following is the posted schedule for the week of May 14-18.
The day after President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann announced his opposition.
“I could not disagree more with the president’s support for gay marriage,” said Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. “Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, period. This principle has been the bedrock of our Judeo-Christian family values, and stable families remain the key to a healthy society.”
