Hallerin Hilton Hill
Radio talk show host Hallerin Hilton Hill will moderate debates for five candidates for Anderson County mayor and sheriff on Thursday, July 10.
The debates are hosted by the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, and they are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. July 10 at The Ritz Theater at 119 N. Main St. in Clinton.
Hill has a talk show weekday mornings on NewsTalk 98.7 in Knoxville. [Read more…]
More rehabilitation work of the city’s sewer collection pipes is scheduled to continue next week, starting June 14.
The work is being done by Hurst Excavating and Morgan Contracting under contract with the City of Oak Ridge. It includes rehabilitating sewer collection pipes within city easements in yards and in roadways, a press release said.
Residents should already have received color-coded letters and door hangers (orange for Hurst Excavating and purple for Morgan Contracting) providing general information and each contractors’ contact information.
Motorists, pedestrians and cyclists are urged to use extra care and caution when traveling on the streets with sewer work areas, a press release said. Temporary road repairs will be made, and loose gravel should be expected until the patches are permanently paved. [Read more…]
The award-winning Living History program “A Salute to Soldiers” returned to the Secret City Festival this year, and it once again features members of the Five Oh First Army Airborne re-enactors.
The “Salute to Soldiers” gives festivalgoers the opportunity to experience 1940s life in an interactive way. With opportunities to try on uniforms, sample food rations, and watch weapons demonstrations, the event allows attendees to truly immerse themselves in the every day experiences of front line life.
On Saturday, demonstrations will be given by re-enactors multiple times throughout the day. [Read more…]
Dear members of City Council and fellow citizens:
We are writing this letter in response to the Fiscal Year 2015 budget decisions made during the June 9 Oak Ridge City Council meeting. The Council’s overwhelming vote to maintain property tax rates at the same rate they have held steady at since 2009 may bode well for the short-term pocketbooks of our residents, but the long-term results are disconcerting and disheartening for many.
City Council is alienating the tax base that it needs to nurture. The young professionals, business owners, and families with school-aged children who once flocked to this city but now trickle must be heard by Council. These families have the disposable income to spend in Oak Ridge stores, and will pay the property taxes for decades to come that will keep this city viable. Yet at this Council meeting, our voices were not truly heard.
The argument that we continue to hear is that “our schools have plenty of money” and that the schools “need to learn to live within their budget.” The Oak Ridge Schools have proven that they can do this, but what is the cost of this attitude? How does this foster a strong relationship with not only the schools and their employees, but the families and students? How can the Schools continue to maintain excellence without, at the very least, inflationary and cost of living increases, when really it takes much more? [Read more…]
Tim Powers, right, ORNL research reactors division director, shows Petr Gandalovič, Ambassador of The Czech Republic, a fuel assembly mock-up during a tour of the High Flux Isotope Reactor. (Photo by Jason Richards)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday hosted a visit by Petr Gandalovič, ambassador of The Czech Republic.
The ambassador toured ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and facilities for advanced reactor materials development and testing. He met with ORNL Director Thom Mason and held discussions with lab staff on topics including fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors and the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors.
Longtime Tennessee Congressional staffer Helen Hardin, right, received the Corridor Champion Award at last week’s Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit in Chattanooga. Also pictured are Gerald Boyd, chair of the TVC board, center, and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge. (Submitted photos)
CHATTANOOGA—Longtime Tennessee congressional staffer Helen Hardin and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center received the top awards given by the Tennessee Valley Corridor during the organization’s annual national summit held last week on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Hardin is senior policy advisory for Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, and she has been involved in the TVC’s activities since the first Summit was held in Oak Ridge in 1995. Todd May, manager for NASA’s space launch system program, accepted the award on behalf of MSFC.
The Corridor Champion Award recognizes individuals and organizations that provide leadership to enhance the TVC’s national visibility, high-tech economic development, and collaborative efforts within the region.
Past Corridor Champion Award winners include Fleischmann, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, former Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission Anne Pope, the Tennessee Valley Authority, University of Tennessee, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
TORCH’s “Kickin It for Homes” kickball fundraiser is an opportunity for the community to relive the fun of a favorite childhood sports. At the same time, every game played is a “hand-up” for the homeless, a press release said.
Participants are needed to play in the tournament, which is set for June 28 at Carl Yearwood Park located on Laboratory Road in Oak Ridge. The event will start at 9 a.m., and end when a winner emerges. The cost per eight-person team is $160. There is no cost to come out and cheer on the teams.
Teams can register by printing out a form from the website www.oakridgetorch.org and send or drop the form at the office. There is a box at the door if the office is closed. Teams can also register and pay directly online.
Trinity Outreach Center of Hope (TORCH) is located at 320 Robertsville Road in Oak Ridge. Families, church groups, work mates, and friends are encouraged to join in the fun, the press release said. [Read more…]
The storefront of the Kroger Marketplace, under construction at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue. The new store is expected to open June 29.
A new traffic signal will be activated at the intersection of North Illinois Avenue (State Route 62) and Ivanhoe Road on Friday, June 20.
It’s part of the new Kroger Marketplace shopping center, the Westcott Center, at the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.
The signal will operate in flashing mode several days before it’s activated, a city press release said. Activation of the signal could be delayed due to bad weather. [Read more…]
B&W Y-12, which will no longer manage the Y-12 National Security Complex after June 30, has been a major sponsor of the Secret City Festival for 10 years and has contributed more than $250,000 total in the past decade. The federal contractor was recognized for its community contributions during the opening ceremony at the Secret City Festival on Friday morning. From left to right are Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan; Dave Richardson, B&W Y-12 president and general manager; Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller; and Bill Reis, B&W Y-12 vice president of public and governmental affairs.
The annual Secret City Festival, Oak Ridge’s largest festival, kicked off Friday morning and continues through Saturday evening.
Highlights of the two-day festival include concerts—Eddie Money and Kix Brooks are this year’s headliners—children’s activities, Manhattan Project site tours, arts, antiques, crafts, food, and fun. There are also World War II Living History activities and demonstrations, Oak Ridge history exhibits, and regional exhibitors and vendors.
Oak Ridge was a “secret city” during World War II, when it was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons. The festival helps honor that heritage and also includes a range of entertainment, community information, and family fun, among other things.
You can check updates on this year’s Secret City Festival on Twitter here.
See the Secret City Festival website for more information, including on how to purchase concert tickets for Eddie Money and Kix Brooks. [Read more…]
Ambassador Girl Scout Miriam Ryburne, pictured with Joyce Maienschein, has been awarded a Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant of financial support for the service project she created to help needy children in the USA and in Indonesia. (Submitted photo)
The Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians has announced recent recipients of Leadership Grants to provide financial support for community service projects. The grant winners, middle- and high-school-age Girl Scouts, have each created and are leading a different community project.
Miriam Ryburne, daughter of Oak Ridgers Nan Shugart and Mark Cantley, organized and taught a team of people to make hand-knitted items for an all-girls orphanage in Indonesia, as well as for six other organizations, including the Florence Crittenden Agency and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
Allison Campbell, of Knoxville, is upgrading the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital doctors’ waiting room, designing and printing activity books for the children, and gathering immediate needs for patients.
Sierra Turner of Chattanooga is collecting CD players and CDs for cancer patients at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. [Read more…]
The team from Thompson Cancer Survival Center at Methodist is ready to “strike out” cancer. (Photos courtesy Methodist Medical Center)
Methodist Medical Center held a celebratory picnic on the top level of its parking deck earlier this month as a way to say “thanks” to employees, physicians, and volunteers. The annual event coincides with National Nurses Week and National Hospital Day. The hospital’s “Picnic on the Parking Deck” featured a full cook-out, a variety of games, and music. Whether it was on the parking deck or in the Secret City Café, all shifts including evening and midnight staffs had an opportunity to enjoy the picnic meal.
“It’s vitally important to take time to celebrate and recognize those individuals who wake up everyday to make a difference in the lives of others,” said Mike Belbeck, Methodist Medical Center president and chief administrative officer. “They all put forth such a tremendous effort to make sure our patients and guests are given excellent care and service. I feel incredibly privileged to work alongside these professionals.”
In addition to the annual celebrations such as the picnic and end of the year holiday event, known affectionately as “Turkey Day,” Methodist focuses on employee reward and recognition consistently throughout the year. For years, the hospital has honored employees through service award events and employee of the month celebrations. More recently, programs available through the hospital’s system affiliation with Covenant Health have added opportunities to salute individual employee excellence through nomination-generated awards and on-the-spot recognition. [Read more…]
Pictured above during a Thursday signing ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution’s Castle Commons are, from left, Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; ORNL Director Thom Mason; and ORNL associate lab director for computing and computational sciences Jeff Nichols. (Photo by John Gibbons/Smithsonian)
The Smithsonian Institution and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have announced a new partnership to support collaborative research programs and science education efforts. This is the first partnership between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Smithsonian, which was formalized during the signing of a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, on Thursday, June 12.
The Smithsonian and Oak Ridge National Laboratory both examine many of the world’s most complex and time-sensitive scientific problems and support many research programs that complement and reinforce each other. They also support science education to impact students and teachers from elementary school through post-doctoral studies. The MOU, signed by Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough and ORNL Director Thom Mason, creates a framework for future collaboration between the two organizations that leverages the strengths of each.
“The Smithsonian is proud to partner with another organization that realizes that basic research is vital to the future of the nation, and that knowledge about the natural world is inherently valuable to society,” Clough said. “This agreement will help us each maximize our strengths and achieve our common goals across a broad spectrum of scientific endeavor.” [Read more…]
