Oak Ridge Today

ACEMA needs disaster assessment team leaders

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Information from WYSH Radio

Anderson County Emergency Management Director Steve Payne is looking for volunteers to serve as leaders for damage assessment teams.

“We’re looking for 30 volunteers with a commitment to serve their neighbors in the event of a natural disaster,” Payne said.

Volunteers will be trained to lead a small team into communities that have suffered damage from severe weather or floods. These teams will make an initial assessment of damage as a first step in providing food and shelter and obtaining state and federal assistance for the communities.

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No injuries, exposures in Oliver Springs sulfur dioxide leak

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Oliver Springs Sulfur Dioxide Leak

Howie Rose, director of the Roane County Office of Emergency Services, pictured at right front, briefs firefighters responding to a sulfur dioxide leak at the Oliver Springs Waste Water Treatment Plant on Joel Road on Wednesday morning. (Photos by Tom Scott)

No one was injured or exposed to sulfur dioxide in a leak at the Oliver Springs wastewater treatment plant on Wednesday, but a small group of nearby residents were asked to stay in their homes as a precaution, City Manager Tina Treece said.

The small leak from a system connected to a 150-pound cylinder of sulfur dioxide was discovered by workers who heard an alarm when they arrived at the plant on Joel Road at about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Treece said there was no odor in the air and it turned out that the leak posed no danger, but officials wanted to make sure conditions were safe for residents and workers.

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Report: Heroin sold, two arrests made near Claxton Elementary

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Note: This story was last updated at 10:39 a.m. Feb. 5

Using a confidential source, authorities were able to buy heroin three times from a Powell home, and when they served a search warrant Thursday morning, they found about one ounce of the powerful drug inside the house, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department incident reports said.

The home is on Coconut Lane, about 1,000 feet from Claxton Elementary School.

The reports said the Sheriff’s Department, including Investigator Ryan T. Williams, were able to use the confidential source to make three separate purchases of heroin last week from Joe Fentress Butler, 28, of 156 Coconut Lane. Two of the purchases were for $25 worth of heroin and one was for $100, the reports said.

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Man has possible life-threatening injury after Friday shooting

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A 28-year-old man was flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with a potentially life-threatening wound after a Friday morning shooting on Johnson Gap Road in Anderson County, authorities said.

The condition of Jeffery Allen Lowe was not available, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said in a brief statement Friday afternoon.

The shooting occurred at about 10:42 a.m. Friday at 154 Johnson Gap Road, and Lowe was flown to the UT hospital by a Lifestar helicopter, Lucas said.

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Court records: Husband admits strangling pregnant wife

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A Briceville man who claimed to be experiencing withdrawal symptoms admitted strangling his pregnant wife during an argument on Tennessee Hollow Lane on Wednesday, allegedly making her unable to breathe at times and causing her to almost black out, authorities said.

The argument allegedly started at about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday when the woman “called in to work,” according to an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

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Claxton Fire Department says ‘no’ to subscription service

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Information from WYSH Radio

Earlier this week, the board of directors of the Claxton Volunteer Fire Department voted against having a paid membership program like their counterparts in Andersonville.

The Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department’s subscription plan has drawn widespread and withering criticism, but this week, Claxton voted against charging residents and businesses in their coverage area for their services.

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Survivor of fatal crash released from hospital

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County High School student injured in a Monday afternoon traffic accident in Norris that left his friend and classmate dead was released from the University of Tennessee Medical Center on Tuesday.

Evan Weaver was injured in Monday’s wreck at the intersection of Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway and flown to UT Medical Center. He reportedly suffered a broken pelvis in the crash, which occurred shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday, when his Ford Escort crossed over a concrete traffic island and collided with a Ford F250 pickup truck.

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WYSH: Anderson man pleads in robbery

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Information from WYSH Radio

An Anderson County man pleaded guilty last week to charges stemming from a robbery at the Dollar General Store in Clinton in May of 2011 that left a clerk with a broken leg.

Kelly Matthew Dick, 30, of Heiskell, was originally charged with aggravated robbery in connection to the May 14 incident in which he pushed a 57-year-old store employee to the ground, causing her to break her leg, before fleeing with $120 in cash.

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Anderson high school student killed, another injured In Norris crash

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Information from WYSH Radio

An Anderson County High School senior was killed in a Monday afternoon traffic accident in Norris, and another teen was flown by a Lifestar helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

The Norris Police Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol responded to the crash shortly before 4:30 pm Monday at the intersection of Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway.

Cameron Sharp, 17, of Andersonville was killed in the wreck, and Evan Weaver, 18, also an ACHS senior and also from Andersonville, was injured. No update on his condition has been made available.

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WYSH: Inmate’s house destroyed by fire

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Information from WYSH Radio in Clinton

Anderson County investigators are probing the cause of a suspicious Monday night fire that destroyed the house of a man currently serving time in prison on child abuse charges.

The fire at the home on Half Moon Road was reported at around 8 p.m. Monday and extinguished by the Marlow Volunteer Fire Department, which told Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies that the house was a total loss.

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WYSH: Medford mobile home catches fire

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Information from WYSH Radio in Clinton

A mobile home in Medford was damaged by a fire early Sunday morning.

The mobile home on Beets Valley Road had been unoccupied for at least three years, according to a report filed by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, and had no power running to it.

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Woman tied up, escapes during home invasion robbery

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An Anderson County woman told deputies a man with a handgun tied her up and ransacked her house looking for jewelry Tuesday afternoon, but she managed to break loose and run to a neighbor’s house.

The New Henderson Road resident said she had been upstairs in her home at about 2 p.m. Tuesday when she heard a noise downstairs, an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department incident report said. She thought it was her husband, so she called out his name. There was no reply.

The woman said she continued hearing noises from downstairs, so she went to the stairwell, continuing to call her husband’s name, according to a report by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Robert B. Sexton.

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