Oak Ridge Today

Street Painting Festival on Oct. 1 seeks artists, sponsors

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

2014 Owl Chalk Painting

A winning chalk painting at the 14th annual Oak Ridge Street Painting Festival, held in October 2014 at the Oak Ridge Branch Campus of Roane State Community College. (Submitted photo)

 

Do you enjoy drawing upon your artistic skills as you sketch a face, animal, or colorful scene? Then you might like “painting” pictures in chalk on a sidewalk.

You are invited to sign up as an artist for the 16th annual Oak Ridge Street Painting Festival. The festival showcases the talents of artists of all ages and provides a fun time for the community.

This popular event will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, October 1, on the sidewalks of the Oak Ridge Branch Campus of Roane State Community College. (The rain day will be Sunday.) Artists may start their chalk paintings on Friday afternoon, September 30.

The art must be completed at 4 p.m. Saturday, October 1, so it can be judged before 6 p.m., when artist awards will be announced. If you win a first prize or the People’s Choice Award, you will receive a $50 cash award as well as recognition.

The festival is organized and hosted by the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge. Its purpose is to raise funds for scholarships for students at Roane State Community College. [Read more…]

Golf tourney on Sept. 23 to support Scarboro community garden

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

tennessee-centennial-golf-course

The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge is hosting a Golf Classic tournament at Centennial Golf Course on Friday, September 23, to raise money to build a community garden in the Scarboro community in Oak Ridge. (Photo via Rotary Club of Oak Ridge on Facebook)

 

The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge is hosting a Golf Classic tournament on Friday, September 23, to raise money to build a community garden in the Scarboro community in Oak Ridge.

The Rotary Golf Classic will have a shotgun start at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, September 23, at the Centennial Golf Course off Edgemoor Road.

Here’s the rest of the schedule:

  • Registration begins at 11:30 a.m.
  • A putting contest will be held at 12:30 p.m.
  • Awards will be announced at 6 p.m.

[Read more…]

Show appreciation for first responders Saturday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Police Lives Matter Rally Crowd

About 65 people attended a Police Lives Matter rally last year at Alvin K. Bissell Park on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Second Annual First Responders Appreciation Day is Saturday in Oak Ridge.

There are two events: an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast in the morning to raise money for the family of Maryville Police Department Officer Kenny Moats and a ceremony in the evening to honor local first responders.

The First Responders Appreciation Day is on Saturday, September 17, at Swifty’s Atomic Bar & Grill at 119 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The fundraising pancake breakfast is from 8 a.m. to noon at Swifty’s. The donation is $10. Moats was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call in late August. [Read more…]

Social media the topic of ORICL fall kickoff at Roane State in Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Joe Jarret

Joe Jarret (Submitted photo)

 

An expert on legal issues associated with social media will kick off a lecture series sponsored by Roane State Community College and the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning, or ORICL.

Joe Jarret’s lecture, titled “Social Media: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” will begin at 3:15 p.m. Thursday, September 15, in the City Room of the Coffey-McNally Building on the Oak Ridge Branch Campus of Roane State Community College. It’s free, and the public is invited. Refreshments will be available in the lobby after Jarret’s talk.

The event in Room A-111 also launches the fall series of courses offered by ORICL, a nonprofit organization that provides a wide variety of classes for area residents who love learning. Those classes start in mid-September, and registration can still be taken during the September 15 event. [Read more…]

Roane crash leads to alleged carjacking

Posted at
By 1 Comment

Information from WYSH Radio

Authorities in Roane County spent part of Tuesday searching for a man suspected of carjacking another motorist after crashing his own car earlier in the day.

Authorities responded to the scene of a one-vehicle crash on Old Harriman Highway shortly after 7:45 a.m. Tuesday and found the two passengers—Randall Rhodey of Clinton and David Russo of Oak Ridge—suffering from injuries. They were taken to Methodist Medical Center for treatment of those injuries. The driver of the car, however, was not immediately located as he had already fled the area by the time officers arrived. [Read more…]

Three seniors at ORHS, one at ACHS named National Merit semifinalists

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Three seniors at Oak Ridge High School and one at Anderson County High School have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program. The students have a chance to continue competing from some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

The semifinalists at Oak Ridge High School are Lara S. Blokland, Abigail Greenhalgh, and Logan B. Rumbaugh.

The semifinalist at Anderson County High School is Robert J. Spurling.

There are other students from 10 Knoxville-area high school who were also named semifinalists, including from Farragut High School, Grace Christian Academy, Hardin Valley Academy, and Bearden High School, Knoxville Catholic, and Webb. [Read more…]

CNS, Knoxville Building and Construction Trades Council reach new labor agreement

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC and the 16 local unions that comprise the Knoxville Building and Construction Trades Council reached terms on a new five-year labor agreement on Tuesday, September 13. The new five-year labor agreement expires September 30, 2021.

The agreement also has an option for CNS to extend the new agreement without further negotiation for an additional five years through September 30, 2026. [Read more…]

Drop off household hazardous waste in Oak Ridge on Saturday, Sept. 17

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

You can drop off household hazardous waste in Oak Ridge on Saturday, September 17.

The collection will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Oak Ridge Central Services Complex at 100 Woodbury Lane, behind the Kmart shopping center.

The Household Hazardous Waste Collection is sponsored by Anderson County Solid Waste Management and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. It’s a state-sponsored event and open to any Tennessee resident. Residents of other counties are also welcome, a press release said.

Household hazardous waste is considered to be anything generated in the home that has a hazardous property. A material is considered hazardous if it is flammable, corrosive, toxic, or reactive with heat or contact with metals.

Household hazardous waste material is considered flammable, toxic, reactive, and/or corrosive, and should not be placed with regular garbage. Typical items to dispose of include cleaning fluids, pesticides, mercury thermometers and thermostats, fluorescent lamps, lithium and button batteries, aerosols, adhesives, medications, brake fluid, swimming pool chemicals, paint thinner, and used needles in sturdy containers. [Read more…]

Council wants to roughly triple proposed water rate at ORNL, Y-12

Posted at
By 3 Comments

Oak-Ridge-Water-Treatment-Plant-2009-1

The Oak Ridge Water Treatment Plant is pictured on Pine Ridge above the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

Note: This story was updated at 6:50 p.m.

Some Oak Ridge City Council members have questioned whether the federal government is paying enough for municipal water at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, and on Monday, four of them proposed roughly tripling a potential new high-volume water rate at the two federal sites in 2017.

The new water rate would apply to water consumption over 20 million gallons per month, which would limit it to ORNL and Y-12. The two sites use a total of more than 100 million gallons of water per month.

The new rate is expected to go into effect in April 2017 only if Oak Ridge and the U.S. Department of Energy aren’t able to agree on a contract for water at ORNL and Y-12 by the end of March. Those two federal sites now pay a flat annual rate but could default to what is known as a retail rate if the contract lapses.

The city staff had proposed a new default rate of $1.08 per thousand gallons for consumption over 20 million gallons starting January 1, 2017. The following year, in 2018, the staff had proposed a $1.35 rate.

But four City Council members—Rick Chinn, Charlie Hensley, Trina Baughn, and Chuck Hope—voted to raise the $1.08 rate in 2017 to $3 per 1,000 gallons. Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Smith, and Council member Kelly Callison voted against the increase. [Read more…]

Clinton Driver Services Center closed Thursday, moved to Oak Ridge on Monday

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The Clinton Driver Services Center was scheduled to close at the end of the business day on Thursday, September 8, and re-open in Oak Ridge on Monday, September 12.

The move was announced by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

The new location is at 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.

The Clinton Driver Services Center is located at 704 North Charles G. Sievers Boulevard in Clinton. It was scheduled to stop serving customers at the close of business this past Thursday. The new Oak Ridge facility was scheduled to be open for business this Monday (September 12). [Read more…]

Martial arts academy offers free workshop to counter bullying

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A martial arts academy in Oak Ridge is offering a free workshop in October for children and their parents who want to counter bullying.

The CounterBully Seminar is from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, October 1.

It’s being offered by Progressive Martial Arts Academy at 138 Fairbanks Road in Oak Ridge.

There are many forms of bullying, including cyber bullying, verbal abuse, physical violence, and even sexual harassment, a press release said.

The CounterBully Seminar will teach children six years old and older to learn to combat bullying by using confidence as a way to prevent potential physical violence or emotional abuse, the press release said. Participants will also learn proper reporting methods and basic self-defense tactics in case the bullying becomes physical. [Read more…]

Sister City makes major contribution to Friendship Bell Pavilion, Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

masami-kinefuchi-pat-postma-alan-tatum-and-shigeki-uppuluri-at-friendship-bell-check-presentation

Masami Kinefuchi, second from right, Consul-General of Japan based in Nashville, represented Japan as the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization celebrated the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship with Naka-shi, Japan. At the celebration, Alan Tatum, left, and Pat Postma, second from left, received a check for almost $10,000 from Naka for the International Friendship Bell’s new Peace Pavilion. With them is Shigeki Uppuluri, who was instrumental in bringing the bell to Oak Ridge and serves with Tatum and Postma on the Citizens Advisory Committee raising funds for the new pavilion. (Submitted photo)

 

Naka-shi, Japan, Oak Ridge’s sister city for 25 years, recently made a major contribution for the newly designed Peace Pavilion to house the International Friendship Bell in Bissell Park.

Residents of the City of Naka contributed almost $10,000 for the new Peace Pavilion when an Oak Ridge Sister City delegation visited the Japanese city this summer. Oak Ridge City Council member Rick Chinn accepted the check on behalf of Oak Ridge.

Chinn presented the check to Pat Postma and Alan Tatum, co-chairs of the Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell Advisory Committee, at the August welcome reception for Naka-shi students and chaperones celebrating the sister cities’ 25th anniversary. The advisory committee is spearheading the fundraising campaign for the Peace Pavilion and plans to formally kick off the campaign in November.

Masami Kinefuchi, Consul-General of Japan based in Nashville, spoke at the Jefferson Middle School reception hosted by the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization, welcoming guests from Japan and representing Japan during the ceremonies. He said he hoped Oak Ridge would be the home of the international friendship between Japan and the United States. [Read more…]