Oak Ridge Today

Free screening of ‘Chasing Ice,’ global warming discussion on Wednesday

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Chasing Ice

Volunteers will show an award-winning movie on global warming and its effects on the world’s glaciers in Oak Ridge on Wednesday evening.

The movie “Chasing Ice” was filmed by Jeff Balog, a photojournalist working for National Geographic, a press release said. It will be shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.

Balog filmed the movie in the “stunningly beautiful and dangerously challenging Artic landscape, in search of the truth about global warming and its effects on the world’s glaciers,” the press release said. Released in 2012, “Chasing Ice” received the Excellence in Cinematography Award from the Sundance Film Festival.

“Ninety seven percent of scientists agree that manmade climate change is real, and is happening now,” the release said. “A majority of Americans accept the science of climate change, but many do not fully understand its impacts. Jeff Balog himself was once a skeptic, until he saw firsthand how the warming planet is losing ice, even in the planet’s most brutally cold lands.” [Read more…]

Comfort Inn holiday events benefit CASA of the Tennessee Heartland

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Breakfast with Santa

Proceeds from a “Breakfast with Santa” at Comfort Inn Oak Ridge on Saturday, Dec. 7, at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. will benefit CASA of the Tennessee Heartland. (Photo courtesy T. Whigham Photography)

Families can kick off the Christmas season with Santa and help a local nonprofit volunteer organization at the same time by visiting the Comfort Inn Oak Ridge during December. The hotel is offering several different activities for the community to get in the holiday spirit with a portion of the proceeds from each event going to CASA of the Tennessee Heartland.

“We are so thankful to Comfort Inn for contacting us with this opportunity,” said Naomi Asher, executive director of CASA of the Tennessee Heartland. “Every dollar raised will help provide a voice in court for an abused and neglected child right here in our community.”

The Comfort Inn Oak Ridge will serve as the official site for “Pictures with Santa” throughout the holidays. T. Whigham Photography will be taking professional photos with Santa at the hotel from Friday, Nov. 29, through Saturday, Dec. 21. The hours are as follows: Monday through Friday from 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sundays from noon-6 p.m. One dollar from every photo taken will benefit CASA and will be matched by Enrichment Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

County, school officials start campaign to protect children from online predators

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Officials in Anderson County and at local schools have announced an educational campaign designed to protect children from online sexual predators.

Among the concerns are sexting, or the exchange of explicit photos, usually using smart phones, District Attorney General Dave Clark said in a press release.

Clark is working with Anderson County Sheriff Paul White and the Anderson County, Clinton, and Oak Ridge school systems. He said a letter is being sent out to the parents of every child in grades five through 10 in those three systems.

“We want to make parents aware of the dangers posed by online predators and provide them with some strategies to help keep their families safe,” Clark said. [Read more…]

Most apartment residents displaced by Thanksgiving fire calls can return home

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Utica Circle Fire

An apartment fire at 312 Utica Circle that was allegedly set deliberately heavily damaged one home, and other residents in the eight-unit building were displaced during the Thanksgiving weekend. (Photos by Tom Scott)

ORFD chief says Utica Circle fire was set

Power has been restored to an Applewood Apartments building on Hillside Road after a Thanksgiving Day electrical short displaced two dozen residents, and most of another two dozen residents can move back into McKenzie Acres apartments on Utica Circle, two days after they were displaced by a Saturday night fire, city officials said Monday.

The two fire calls in three days displaced about 50 people during the Thanksgiving weekend. The Red Cross has helped the residents with food and shelter, and residents and restaurants have pitched in as well.

The city hoped to get the residents back into their buildings today, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said Monday afternoon. [Read more…]

New China Palace closes at marina, reopens on Central Avenue

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New China Palace Closed

The longtime New China Palace restaurant has closed at the Oak Ridge Marina and moved to a new location on Central Avenue in the center of town.

A longtime Chinese restaurant that had been on the city’s waterfront for decades has moved out of a city-owned building at the Oak Ridge Marina and reopened on Central Avenue in the center of town.

The New China Palace restaurant reopened on Central Avenue on Nov. 22, owner Cheng Ren said Saturday.

The former waterfront location closed five weeks earlier on Oct. 18 after at least one lease extension.

The city has developed a master plan for the waterfront area that recommends the current New China Palace site off Melton Lake Drive be remodeled as a bathhouse facility. It would be used to support a growing number of rowing and public activities as part of an ambitious plan to revamp the waterfront from Elza Gate Park to Rivers Run Boulevard. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Today updates website design

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You’ve probably noticed during the past week that Oak Ridge Today has updated its website design and layout.

Among the changes are new and larger fonts, larger images in the slider at the top of the home page, and a new footer.

We’ve also been able to add more two-column areas in the main content area on the home page and have improved our separation between sections.

The new design uses HTML 5 markup, and it is mobile-responsive, which means you can continue to view Oak Ridge Today on your smart phone or tablet. [Read more…]

Learn more about Roane State’s AMTEC job training program Dec. 2, Dec. 10

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Anyone interested in Roane State Community College’s Advanced Materials Training and Education Center, or AMTEC—a no-cost, high-tech job training program for those who are unemployed or underemployed—is invited to upcoming meetings at the college’s Clinton location and at the Oak Ridge campus.

The meeting at the Clinton Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility, 214 Nave St, will be held Monday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. The meeting at the Oak Ridge campus, 701 Briarcliff Ave., will be held Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 6 p.m. in the back room inside Anderson’s Grille.

Please call (865) 481-5436 to reserve your seat. [Read more…]

ORHS basketball clinic for Boys, Girls Club league on Monday

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Coach Aaron Green and the Oak Ridge High School basketball staff are hosting a free basketball skills camp on Monday for the Boys and Girls Club league.

The clinic is for children from kindergarten to seventh grade, and it’s from 6-7 p.m. Monday at the Oak Ridge High School Wildcat Arena. There is a coaches’ question-and-answer session from 7 to 7:30 p.m.

Call (865) 482-4433 for more information, or visit the Boys and Girls Club on Facebook.

A service of lessons, carols at First United Methodist Church

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Tis the Season! Tis the season when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and what better way than through a traditional service of lessons and carols? Come to this festive service, comprised of the stories and songs of Christmas, on Sunday, Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church at 1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

The Service of Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918 at King’s College in Cambridge, England. Since then, it has been celebrated throughout the world, sometimes still on Christmas Eve, otherwise sometime during the season of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. While the backbone of the service, the lessons, has remained virtually unchanged, there is much beautiful and moving Christmas music to choose from when organizing such a service. [Read more…]

Second apartment fire this week displaces another two dozen residents

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Utica Circle Fire

An apartment fire at 312 Utica Circle heavily damaged one home, and other residents in the eight-unit building will not be able to stay at home Saturday night. (Photos by Tom Scott)

The second apartment fire in Oak Ridge since Thursday has displaced another two dozen residents.

The Saturday night fire started at about 9:22 p.m. in the 300 block of Utica Circle at McKenzie Acres. Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the second-story blaze, and no one was injured.

But roughly 25 residents, including children, will not be able to return home to the eight-unit building tonight, authorities said. The Red Cross was on its way to Utica Circle to help the residents, who huddled outside in pajamas, coats, gloves, and hats as temperatures dropped to freezing at about 11 p.m. Saturday. [Read more…]

Forum on homelessness in Anderson County on Tuesday

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Experts from social service agencies and faith-based groups will discuss homelessness in Anderson County during a Tuesday evening forum.

The forum starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. It’s been organized by the Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope, or TORCH, and ORUUC.

The experts and community members will also discuss factors that contribute to homelessness in the county, explore potential solutions, and consider how to begin a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, a press release said. The discussion will also outline ways that people can be involved in the upcoming “Point In Time Count.”
 [Read more…]

Y-12 receives two significant safety awards

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For the 10th consecutive year, the Y‑12 National Security Complex received the National Safety Council’s Occupational Excellence Achievement award. This award recognizes companies, units, or facilities that have reported injuries and illnesses that involved days away from work equal to or less than 50 percent of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics rating for their industry and have had no fatalities during a calendar year.

“We want to reduce our lost workday case rate to zero,” said B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer. “During calendar year 2012 (for which this award was given), our rate was 0.17. The comparable industry incident rate is 1.6. Y-12 employees can be proud of making safety a value in their daily lives.”

The second award received was the U.S. Department of Energy Voluntary Protection Program Star of Excellence. As the award states, employees have “achieved an outstanding level of performance in meeting established safety and health goals, actively conducting outreach to others and in achieving an injury and illness rate significantly below the average of similar businesses and operations.” [Read more…]