Oak Ridge Today

Free guitar, banjo lessons for seniors 50 and older

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Senior Guitar Lessons Class 2014

First Row: Jack Copeland, Rosevelt Gilliland, Lu Ann Christy, Ken Carter, Wendall Cook, Instructor, Don Snouffer. Second Row: Dee Williams, Don Bourgrand, George Davis, Bobby Neal, John Dorflinger, Roe Sutherland, Charlie Orr, Billie Joe Campbell. Third Row: Ernie Blair, Jim Sells, Joe Henderson, Unidentified Visitor, Ken Newton. (Submitted photo)

 

Free guitar lessons for senior citizens will resume on Friday, January 9, at 9 a.m. at the Oak Ridge Senior Citizen Center on Emory Valley Road.

All levels of guitar players are welcome, a press release said. Beginner’s lessons start at 9 a.m. and intermediate lessons at 10 a.m. Wendall Cook, who has many years of experience playing and teaching, conducts the lessons. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge man in critical condition after crash that killed son

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Alcoa Police Department Logo

An Oak Ridge man remained in critical condition at a Knoxville hospital on Tuesday after a Monday morning crash that killed his son, authorities said.

Joseph Eatherly, 61, of Oak Ridge, was taken by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service to the University of Tennessee Medical Center after the crash on southbound Alcoa Highway at Airport Hilton. The two-vehicle crash killed Eatherly’s son, Eric Eatherly, 35, of Hixson, the Alcoa Police Department said.

The APD said the accident occurred at 6:37 a.m. Monday when Joseph Eatherly tried to make a U-turn from the right-hand lane of Alcoa Highway. [Read more…]

Photos: Downtown Shopping Center

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Crowd Outside Walgreen Drugs on December 2, 1955

A crowd outside Walgreen Drugs at the former Downtown Shopping Center on December 2, 1955. (Photos courtesy Don Hunnicutt/Ed Westcott)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 8:20 a.m. Dec. 31.

After we learned that Guilford Glazer died last week, we asked Don Hunnicutt if he or Ed Westcott, the government’s official photographer in Oak Ridge during World War II, had any pictures of the former Downtown Shopping Center that we might use on Oak Ridge Today. Don sent five pictures Tuesday morning. (Thank you, Don and Ed!)

Glazer, who was born in Knoxville, died last week in Beverly Hills, California, at 93. His company built the former Downtown Shopping Center in Oak Ridge in the 1950s, and he still owns property in Oak Ridge and Knoxville. [Read more…]

More than 80,000 Tennesseans pick Health Insurance Marketplace plan in first month

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Logo

Federal officials announced Tuesday that 87,137 people in Tennessee selected plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace leading up to the December 15 deadline for coverage beginning January 1.

It was the first month of open enrollment this year.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 83 percent of Tennesseans who selected a 2015 plan are getting financial assistance to lower monthly premiums. That compared to 75 percent who selected plans over a similar period last year.

Of the 87,137 Tennesseans who selected a plan, 51 percent re-enrolled in a Marketplace plan in 2015, and 49 percent signed up for the first time, HHS said in a press release. [Read more…]

East Tennessee man charged with rape, assault, false imprisonment

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Robert John Davis

Robert John Davis

An East Tennessee man is accused of raping his ex-girlfriend in a Claxton home, shoving her backward and causing her head to go through a sheetrock wall, pointing a pistol at her and himself, and threatening to burn down her house, authorities said.

Robert John Davis, 34, is accused of using the victim’s debit card without permission to withdraw $200, throwing objects and ransacking her house, and telling her she had to have sex with him if she wanted to have her car keys, according to warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

Davis has been charged with rape, aggravated assault, domestic assault, false imprisonment, property theft, unauthorized use of an auto/joyriding, and violation of an order of protection, the warrants said. Davis, who has addresses listed in Powell and Greenback, remains jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton, and his bail has been set at $237,500, according to court records. [Read more…]

Adjusted 911 rates to take effect Jan. 1

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911 Decal

A new state law that takes effect on Thursday, January 1, will result in changes to 911 surcharges on residential and business lines and cellular phones.

The Anderson County Emergency Communications District said the new law, the 911 Funding Modernization and IP Transition Act of 2014, passed the Tennessee General Assembly in April. It changes the way 911 surcharges are collected and paid and affects all 911 districts in Tennessee, including Anderson County.

“It updates the existing model for funding 911 to account for changes in technology and consumer choice by establishing a single, uniform 911 surcharge rate across the state,” the Anderson County Emergency Communications District said in a press release. [Read more…]

Nevada, feds agree to discuss landfill concerns, including ORNL radioactive waste

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ORNL CEUSP Waste Shipping

Workers train to remove a type of shipping cask that would be used to transport 403 canisters of uranium-tainted waste from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Nevada National Security Site northwest of Las Vegas. (Photos courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/Office of Environmental Management)

 

A new group of state and federal workers that was announced Tuesday could discuss contentious waste-related issues that include concerns over shipping low-level radioactive waste from a World War II-era building in Oak Ridge to a federal landfill in Nevada.

The new group, which will include senior-level state and federal employees, was announced in a six-page agreement, a memorandum of understanding signed last week by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval.

The talks started more than a year ago, after Sandoval sent a letter to Moniz expressing concerns over the proposed disposal of the radioactive waste at the Nevada National Security Site, a former nuclear weapons proving ground about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

CEUSP Canister

At left is an actual 24-inch steel canister. At right is a representation of the canister interior.

The waste contains radioisotopes of uranium from the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project. It originated from a 1960s research and development test of thorium and uranium reactor fuel in New York. It is stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Building 3019—the oldest continuously operating nuclear facility in the Department of Energy complex—in 403 ceramic-like uranium oxide monoliths. Each of the monoliths is bonded to the inside of a steel canister about 3.5 inches in diameter and about two feet long. [Read more…]

Two injured in Roane crash

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Information from WYSH Radio

Two people were injured in a Saturday traffic accident in Roane County.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said two vehicles were headed east on Interstate 40 around noon when they collided on the overpass near Gallaher Road. The collision caused one vehicle to fall off the overpass and land on Gallaher Road.

Troopers said the two people had to be cut from the vehicle, and that Lifestar was sent to the scene. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Two flown to hospital by Lifestar, more taken by ambulance after Friday crash in west Knox

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Multiple people were taken to the hospital on Friday night after a crash in west Knox County that resulted in at least three people being pinned in a vehicle or vehicles, authorities said.

Officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to 610 Canton Hollow Road just before 8:30 p.m. Friday after two vehicles were involved in a crash. [Read more…]

Gov. Haslam announces Insure Tennessee plan

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Governor Bill Haslam

Bill Haslam

NASHVILLE—Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam this month unveiled his Insure Tennessee plan, a two-year pilot program to provide health care coverage to Tennesseans who currently don’t have access to health insurance or have limited options. The program rewards healthy behaviors, prepares members to transition to private coverage, promotes personal responsibility, and incentivizes choosing preventative and routine care instead of unnecessary use of emergency rooms, a press release said.

The governor announced that he plans to call a special session to focus on the proposal after the 109th General Assembly convenes in January.

“We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not to expand traditional Medicaid,” Haslam said in the press release. “This is an alternative approach that forges a different path and is a unique Tennessee solution. This plan leverages federal dollars to provide health care coverage to more Tennesseans, to give people a choice in their coverage, and to address the cost of health care, better health outcomes, and personal responsibility. [Read more…]

Camera Club to feature photo exhibition, competition on Jan. 13

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Pat Postma Photo

Image by Pat Postma

 

Submitted

If you would like to learn more about photography, one of the most cost- and time-efficient ways to do so is to join a camera club and Oak Ridge has a good one!

The Camera Club of Oak Ridge has monthly meetings that alternate between presentations by some of the area most accomplished professional photographers and intra-club competitions with expert judging who teach photography during the process of evaluating the images. The public is welcome to attend an initial meeting for free, and a yearly membership cost is nominal. [Read more…]

Wanda Crowe named hospital’s MMCer of the Year

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Wanda Crowe

Wanda Crowe

Wanda Crowe, anesthesia tech in the Surgery department at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, has been named the 2014 MMCer of the Year.

Hospital employees cast their votes for MMCer of the Year among the candidates who received MMCer of the Month during 2014, and Crowe, who was named MMCer of the Month in October, received the greatest number of votes to earn this special distinction.

As an anesthesia tech, Crowe’s duties include transporting patients for surgery, maintaining a clean environment for the operating rooms and assisting her coworkers with a variety of tasks to ensure a high quality of care for all patients. Crowe has been with Methodist since 1995. [Read more…]