The hunt for a new city manager in Oliver Springs is down to two candidates, and the Town Council could interview the finalists during a meeting on Thursday.
The two finalists are Tina Treece, a former city recorder and interim city manager in Spring City, and Joe Abbott, a Lake City resident who is also a sales manager for East Tennessee Equipment-Kubota of Knoxville.
A potential agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settling fines for sewer system overflows in Oak Ridge could save the city several million dollars.
The fines during a five-year period ending September 2010 could have totaled between $4 million and $5 million, city officials said this week.
But under negotiations between the city and EPA, the penalties could be lowered to approximately $170,000, Oak Ridge City Attorney Ken Krushenski said Tuesday. The city would have to pay $102,000 in cash and might get a “dollar-for-dollar” credit for spending another $68,000 on a supplemental environmental project, or SEP.
The City of Oak Ridge begins its annual brush pickup program on Monday. Brush includes tree limbs, bagged yard clippings and leaves. This schedule is a general guide, but it can vary due to weather conditions or the amount of brush to pick up.
Residents discuss their vision for a five-county region that includes Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union Counties during a Tuesday forum at Anderson County High School in Clinton.
CLINTON — Although the two sides appeared to engage in a civil discussion, a Tuesday forum again pitted planners and property rights advocates against each other.
The property rights advocates oppose the drafting of a five-county regional development plan known as PlanET.
“I am concerned more about freedom of choice and personal property rights,” said Lynn Byrge, an Anderson County resident and owner of Active Electric in Oak Ridge. He attended a PlanET forum on Tuesday at the Anderson County High School in Clinton.
Those who protest the drafting of a five-county regional development plan are concerned about losing their property rights.
Opponents of the three-year plan, funded with help from a $4.3 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development grant, draw a connection between PlanET and an international resolution passed in 1992 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas.
“It’s Agenda 21, straight out of the United Nations,” Byrge said.
That resolution has drawn greater scrutiny as activists across the country tie it to a range of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy, according to The New York Times.
But the officials helping to develop the local plan, and currently collecting public input in a week-long series of forums, say they are only asking East Tennesseans to share their vision for the future of the region.
“We have no preset goal,” planner Rob Kerns said. He works for Wallace Roberts and Todd, a planning and design firm based in Philadelphia that was hired to run the PlanET project.
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday informally rejected a high school debt repayment proposal that officials said could have cost property tax payers an extra $10 million during the next few decades.
The proposal would allow the schools to keep a portion of more than $700,000 in revenues generated by a 2006 increase in the Anderson County sales tax rate. Until recently, all the money had been used to help pay down the debt on the $66 million renovation of the Oak Ridge High School.
But, in a months-old dispute, school officials argue they ought to be able to keep that portion of the new county sales tax revenues generated outside the city of Oak Ridge.
Jim Hackworth
Former Tennessee Rep. Jim Hackworth has officially announced he wants to take back his old seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Hackworth, a Clinton Democrat, is running against Rep. John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican, in Tennessee’s 33rd District, which includes most of Anderson County.
Running for his first political office, Ragan beat Hackworth, a four-term legislator, two years ago in the November 2010 election, when Republicans gained power across the country.
Oak Ridge City Council tonight will discuss an agreement that could resolve a months-old dispute with the School Board over debt payments for the city’s $65 million high school renovation.
At issue is the amount of money the Oak Ridge school system should transfer to the city to help cover the payments. The dispute primarily centers on the use of money raised by a half-cent sales tax increase approved by Anderson County voters in 2006.
One school board member has argued that the schools have overpaid the city by $1.4 million, while others contend that the school system owes the city hundreds of thousands of dollars and must pay it.
Loyston Community before it was covered by water after Norris Dam was built in the 1930s.
The Union County Chamber Tourism Council is celebrating the 75th anniversary of Tennessee state parks at 2 p.m. today. The event will be held at the former Tea Room at Big Ridge State Park and officials will be unveiling the map of the Norris Lake area from Tennessee Valley Authority.
A digitalized copy of the 1935 TVA Norris Reservoir Land Map has been released and includes the plats and names of the families who were displaced by the creation of the lake when Norris Dam was built in the 1930s. This map includes the entire Norris Lake area, and includes the counties of Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, and Union.
An Anderson County committee this afternoon will consider a budget that doesn’t include a tax increase or an additional $2 million requested by the Sheriff’s Department.
Anderson County Mayor Myron Iwanski said the extra $2 million requested by Sheriff Paul White would increase his department’s budget by 20 percent in the fiscal year that begins July 1. The sheriff’s budget has already doubled during the past six years, Iwanski said.
The mayor said the sheriff could make minor adjustments in his $10 million budget and the assignments of his 175 authorized employees. Those adjustments would allow the dormitory at the overcrowded jail to be staffed until a new pod is built. That pod will have extra beds that can be rented to produce the revenue to hire more jailers, Iwanski said.
Oak Ridge Police Department is accepting old and unused prescription drugs on Saturday, April 28. The medications can be dropped off from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 200 S. Tulane Ave.
This event is meant to help prevent pill abuse and theft and is being done in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration. This service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann recently voted for the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012.
The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act, which is supported by the National Rifle Association and more than 35 conservation groups, removes restrictions on hunting and fishing on public lands. This act also prevents the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from barring the use of certain types of traditional ammunition.
“As a member of the NRA, I fully believe that Americans should be able to hunt and fish recreationally free from the overreach of government bureaucrats,” said Fleischmann, whose district includes Oak Ridge. “From the founding of our nation to the settling of the West, the right of citizens to hunt and fish on wild land has been a hallmark of our American identity.”
Local legislators will meet with the public on Monday morning at Breakfast with the Legislators at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
The hour-long breakfast, likely the last this year, starts at 7:30 a.m. in the Civic Center Social Room at 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
