Oak Ridge Today

City Blueprint project reaches midpoint

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The Oak Ridge Community Development Department is continuing the Oak Ridge City Blueprint effort in 2018 with community meetings planned through the month of March. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

The Oak Ridge Community Development Department is continuing the Oak Ridge City Blueprint effort in 2018 with community meetings planned through the month of March. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

The Oak Ridge Community Development Department is continuing the Oak Ridge City Blueprint effort in 2018 with community meetings planned through the month of March.

The first open house of the new year is scheduled for Thursday, January 25, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Scarboro Community Center. The discussion will focus on the Tuskegee and West Side Residential subareas as well as a subarea south of Oak Ridge Turnpike that includes Hermitage Boulevard and Wiltshire Drive.

In a press release, the City of Oak Ridge said the blueprint is being coordinated by the Community Development Department, under the guidance of the Oak Ridge Planning Commission, as well as other boards, commissions, and city leaders. The department recently finished a midpoint report on the Blueprint, highlighting significant findings and outlining a plan for moving forward. The report is now available online along with a public survey. [Read more…]

Road closures planned on Hillside Road for sewer line work

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Road closures are scheduled to start Monday on Hillside Road for sewer line work.

Parts of Hillside Road will be closed intermittently throughout the day on Monday, January 8, to allow crews to replace a sewer line located near Henley Road, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release. Local traffic will be allowed to drive to homes on Henley Road.

A full closure of Hillside Road will begin on Tuesday, January 9, to renew service connections to several homes in the area, the press release said. These connections are located under the driving surface of the roadway. Local traffic to the affected residences will be accommodated, the press release said. [Read more…]

Tennessee Tech junior grateful for Roane State Middle College experience

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Juliann Hopper

Juliann Hopper

 

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

As the only student in her high school class to attend Roane State’s Middle College in the fall of 2015, Juliann Hopper said her Oliver Springs High School classmates initially kidded her about it.

“They kind of gave me a hard time at first, but they got over it, and they now wish they had done Middle College too,” Hopper said.

Hopper, 19, is now a junior at Tennessee Tech, majoring in microbiology and well on her way toward a possible career as a research scientist.

She said she’d like to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which awarded her a scholarship to help pay for three of her four Middle College semesters. [Read more…]

Amateur Radio Kids Day is Saturday at Children’s Museum

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Amateur ham radio operators Jim Bogard, right, and Dan Mantooth, left, help children learn about amateur radio at an earlier Kids Day at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

Amateur ham radio operators Jim Bogard, right, and Dan Mantooth, left, help children learn about amateur radio at an earlier Kids Day at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

 

Children will have the opportunity to earn a “Certificate of Participation” for a two-way contact by amateur radio on Kids Day on Saturday, January 6, at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.

Amateur Radio Kids Day will be from 1-4 p.m. in the Museum’s Discovery Lab. Participation is free with admission, a press release said.

Kids Day is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people and foster interest in getting their own amateur radio license. It also gives licensed ham radio operators a chance to share their stations and love for amateur radio with children. [Read more…]

Take advantage of Roane State’s extended business hours

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Roane State Community College will offer extended business hours to help students get ready for the start of spring semester, a press release said.

January 2-4: The Roane and Oak Ridge campuses will be open until 6 p.m. local time. All other campuses will be on their normal Monday-Thursday schedule or Monday-Friday schedule. The Roane and Oak Ridge campuses will be open until 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, January 5.

January 8-11: The Roane and Oak Ridge campuses will be open until 6 p.m. local time. All other campuses will be on their normal schedule Monday through Thursday. [Read more…]

ORISE seeking applications for DOE Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy science, technology policy program

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The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is accepting applications for the 2018 U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Science, Technology, and Policy Program.

Opportunities are available in the areas of policy and marketing for the Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs.

The deadline to apply is January 18, a press release said. [Read more…]

Two escape, not injured in Marlow fire

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Two people escaped and did not need medical treatment during a Monday night fire in Marlow, authorities said.

The fire was reported at 8:10 p.m. Monday in an occupied mobile home at 113 Melissa Lane in Ben’s Home Center in Marlow, said Stephanie Fox, chief of the Marlow Volunteer Fire Department.

It was a fully involved structure fire, Fox said. Firefighters used defensive firefighting measures, staying outside the structure and trying to prevent the fire from spreading.

The fire spread to a vehicle at the residence, which was near other mobile homes, and firefighters kept the blaze from spreading to another nearby mobile home, Fox said. [Read more…]

Ten members of Y-12 Protective Force graduate from tactical response training

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Ten members of Y‑12’s Protective Force graduated from the Central Training Facility’s Tactical Response Force 200, or TRF‑200. This is the first course held at Y-12 in recent years. The training is intense and specific, Y-12 said on Dec. 6, 2017. (Photo by Y-12 National Security Complex)

Ten members of Y‑12’s Protective Force graduated from the Central Training Facility’s Tactical Response Force 200, or TRF‑200. This is the first course held at Y-12 in recent years. The training is intense and specific, Y-12 said on Dec. 6, 2017. (Photo by Y-12 National Security Complex)

 

Ten members of the Y-12 National Security Complex Protective Force graduated from the Central Training Facility’s Tactical Response Force 200, or TRF‑200.

This was the first course held at Y-12 in recent years, Y-12 said in December.

Y-12 said the training is intense and specific. Graduates prove they have the skills to execute operations that include recapture/recover and pursuit in order to support any interruption within the U.S. Department of Energy environment.

“Graduating from this training takes dedication,” said Eric Belcher, director of Y‑12 Protective Force. “The class members worked their way through a series of tests and evaluations to participate in the course. Training involved intense physical and mental evaluations along with a requirement to demonstrate the potential to complete a four‑week intense program. Once in the course, they endured a grueling full‑day schedule of training.” [Read more…]

Dangerous wind chills expected tonight, this week

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Wind chill advisories are in effect tonight (Monday, Jan. 1, 2018), mainly across the higher elevations. Dress appropriately for the very cold temperatures. (Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown)

Wind chill advisories are in effect tonight (Monday, Jan. 1, 2018), mainly across the higher elevations. Dress appropriately for the very cold temperatures. (Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown)

 

The low in Oak Ridge tonight (Monday, January 1) is forecast at 3 degrees Fahrenheit, and temperatures this week are expected to remain very low, mostly below freezing and dropping back down to 9 on Friday night, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

A wind chill advisory is in effect from midnight to 10 a.m. Tuesday, January 2, including in Oak Ridge and Clinton.

“An Arctic air mass remains across the region with very cold temperatures expected to occur tonight,” the National Weather Service said. “The combination of the cold air and wind will result in dangerously cold wind chills between 5 below zero to 15 below zero.”

The very cold wind chills will cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes to exposed skin, the Weather Service said. Wind chills could range from 0 degrees to 10 below zero in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. [Read more…]

Christmas tree recycling available in Oak Ridge

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Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge

The City of Oak Ridge has two drop-off locations available for residents to recycle their Christmas trees after the holidays, and employees will help with drop-offs on two Saturdays in January.

Signs are already posted in both locations. The drop-offs are:

  • Big Turtle Park, 2525 Oak Ridge Turnpike (parking lot)
  • Solway Park, 205 Edgemoor Road (parking lot adjacent to the boat launch)

Trees will be accepted any time through January 28, 2018. On Saturday, January 13, and Saturday, January 20, Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department employees will be on site to help with unloading trees at the Big Turtle Park drop-off location from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., a press release said. [Read more…]

Claxton woman indicted in alleged backpage.com robbery

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Lindsay Elaine Pressley

Lindsay Elaine Pressley

 

A Claxton woman has been indicted in an alleged robbery at gunpoint in Claxton in 2016 that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.

Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 27, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on November 7. She was arrested Thursday and remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Saturday night, with her bond set at $100,000.

The grand jury indicted Pressley on four charges: aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.

In July, the grand jury indicted a Knoxville man, Richard Norman Pressley, 31, in the case. He was also charged with aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping using a weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. The Pressleys had been identified as husband and wife in a press release from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department after the alleged robbery and kidnapping in a mobile home on Queen Street in Ben’s Mobile Home Park off Edgemoor Road in Claxton on May 21, 2016. [Read more…]

Arctic cold expected, starting Saturday night through at least mid-week

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Bitterly cold air with prolonged sub-freezing temperatures are expected early next week. From Saturday night, Dec. 30, 2017, through at least mid-week next week, temperatures will be at or below freezing across much of the area. (Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown)

Bitterly cold air with prolonged sub-freezing temperatures is expected early this week. From Saturday night, Dec. 30, 2017, through at least mid-week next week, temperatures will be at or below freezing across much of the area. (Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown)

 

Bitterly cold air with prolonged sub-freezing temperatures is expected early this week, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

From Saturday night, December 30, through at least mid-week this week, temperatures will be at or below freezing across much of the area, the National Weather Service said.

The forecast in Oak Ridge calls for a low of 18 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday night, a high of 30 on Sunday, a low of 15 on Sunday night, a high of 25 on Monday, and a low of 9 on Monday night. The high on Tuesday is forecast at 29. [Read more…]