The Clinton Public Library will be closed November 11-16 for renovations.
The closing is the first phase of a three-part effort to replace all the flooring and some furniture within the library, a press release said.
Similar closings will occur in December and January.
[Read more…]ORAU will have its annual Veterans Appreciation Day on Thursday, November 7.
The guest speaker will be Christopher J. Coyne, chief master sergeant, U.S. Air Force, retired, and founder and president of Modeof8, a press release said.
Veterans Appreciation Day honors all who have served, the press release said.
“Coyne has been a leadership educator, coach, and practitioner for nearly two decades,” the press release said. “His experience crosses organizational cultures, from corporate and military training environments to the university classroom.”
[Read more…]Tennessee officials on Friday announced a $500,000 loan for water system repairs in Oliver Springs.
The loan was announced by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner David Salyers. It’s a Clean Water State Revolving Fund, or SRF, planning and design loan. It’s meant to remediate water losses in the Oliver Springs water system in what is being described as a pilot project.
The loan consists of 100 percent principal forgiveness in the amount of $500,000 with a five-year term and a 0 percent interest rate, a press release said.
“We are pleased we can assist local communities with important infrastructure improvements,” Lee said in the press release. “This loan directly addresses a need and will improve quality of life.”
[Read more…]U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, on Friday called Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who is resigning later this year, a “very effective” energy secretary.
“Rick Perry has used his considerable executive and political skills to become a very effective energy secretary, solving some tough problems that saved taxpayers money and created more dollars that allowed record funding for national laboratories and supercomputing,” Alexander said in a brief statement. “He has served the country well.”
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The Oak Ridge Public Library will host a program by the East Valley Paranormal Society on Saturday, October 26, beginning at 1 p.m.
The program, called “Ghost Hunting 101,” will provide an overview of paranormal investigations and the types of equipment used during a case. East Valley Paranormal Society presenters will also share photos, videos and electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, they have captured, a press release said.
East Valley Paranormal Society team members will be on hand to answer any questions. The program is sponsored by Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library.
Questions can be directed to the library’s front desk by calling (865) 425-3455.
Ann Coria has been appointed public defender in the Seventh Judicial District in Anderson County.
A Republican, Coria replaces Tom Marshall, a Democrat who was re-elected to a fourth eight-year term in 2014. Marshall, who had served as Anderson County public defender since 1989, retired at the end of September.
Coria, who has been an assistant public defender and worked in the office for about 20 years, applied for the position. After an interview process and background check, she was appointed district public defender by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday, October 15.
“I believe that I have the skills to run the office and the knowledge of what’s needed,” Coria said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It is a unique set of skills.”
There will be a special election in 2020 to choose someone who will serve the last two years of Marshall’s eight-year term and a regular election for an eight-year term in 2022.
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The City of Oak Ridge closed on a $20.7 million federal loan on Thursday for a new water treatment plant in south Oak Ridge.
It’s a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or WIFIA, loan. The funds provided by the federal loan program will be used to design and build the new water plant, which will replace an aging facility on Pine Ridge that has served the community since the 1940s.
The total cost for replacement of the water treatment plant is estimated to be $42.2 million, the city said in a press release on Friday. WIFIA will provide about 49 percent of that cost, with the city using the Tennessee State Revolving Fund Loan Program to cover the balance, the press release said.
“After three years of application and planning, the City of Oak Ridge has reached a significant milestone in the funding needed for a new replacement water plant,” Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said in the press release. “WIFIA has helped Oak Ridge with a low-interest federal loan, allowing us to avoid potential failures in a system originally designed for a different Oak Ridge. The financial terms will allow Oak Ridge to afford these much-needed improvements to serve not only our residents, but the national security and U.S. Department of Energy facilities located here.”
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U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will resign sometime later this year.
The resignation was announced in a letter from Perry to President Donald Trump on Thursday. The U.S. Department of Energy provided a brief statement about Perry’s resignation in a press release on Thursday and included a copy of his resignation letter.
The Thursday letter didn’t give a specific date for Perry’s resignation, except to say that he plans to “resign at a date later this year.”
“The secretary is immensely grateful to President Trump and the American people for this opportunity to serve and looks forward to continuing to support the president’s agenda after he returns home to Texas later this year,” the DOE statement said.
During a visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in May, Perry dismissed a news story that he planned to leave DOE, and he suggested the story was the product of a “rumor factory.”
[Read more…]Note: This story was last updated at 4:50 p.m.
The Tennessee Valley Authority said Thursday that the material that caused concern in Claxton, near the Bull Run Fossil Plant, is consistent with surface soil.
The material had reportedly fallen on vehicles, houses, mailboxes, and driveways in Claxton near Bull Run, a coal-fired TVA power plant. That raised concerns that the material might be coming from Bull Run.
On Thursday, TVA said it collected 11 samples and received three samples from a home owner and sent them to an independent laboratory for testing. That was in response to the concerns about the airborne materials found on vehicles and property around Bull Run, TVA said.
“Results show the material is not coming from air emissions at Bull Run and is consistent with surface soil in the area,” TVA said. “TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) also sampled material at several locations, and their results affirm that the material is consistent with surface soil.”
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The City of Oak Ridge and its Community Development Department will present possibilities for the mixed-use redevelopment of the Wilson Street corridor at a public meeting on Wednesday, October 23.
The meeting will be held at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, located at 1400 Oak Ridge Turnpike, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., a press release said. The community is invited to view the presentation, which uses data compiled over several years of study and public engagement focused on the needs of Oak Ridge residents, business owners, and visitors, the release said.
The City of Oak Ridge secured grant funding for this project under an agreement with the State of Tennessee Department of Transportation and coordinated through the regional Transportation Planning Organization for the purposes of envisioning a new “Downtown Oak Ridge,” the press release said. The goal of the study is to explore what could be along the Wilson Street corridor, including multi-story, mixed-use development adjacent to the ongoing retail redevelopment of Main Street Oak Ridge.
[Read more…]Note: This story was last updated at 4:50 p.m.
The vast majority of the material tested in Claxton, after residents raised concerns about an unidentified substance falling around the Bull Run Fossil Plant, was soil, a state official said Thursday.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said it sampled material in the area, and TDEC Deputy Communications Director Kim Schofinski released a short statement Thursday.
“TDEC takes the concerns of citizens very seriously, and in response to their direct requests, we independently conducted sampling of the material in the area,” the statement said. “We also reviewed lab results from samples taken by TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) and citizens…All results indicated the vast majority of the material was soil. As it relates to coal ash, sampling results ranged from non-detectable amounts, amounts too low to quantify, or trace amounts.
[Read more…]The Blockhouse Valley Recycling Center, on Blockhouse Valley Road in South Clinton, has expanded the hours that it is open to the public, a press release said.
The recycling center, once open to the public only on Wednesdays and a few Saturdays each month, is now open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, the press release said.
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