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Updated: Oliver Springs resident dies in collision with truck

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Note: This story was updated at 11:15 a.m. Jan. 22.

Information from WYSH Radio

A head-on collision involving a tractor-trailer in Oliver Springs on Sunday night killed one person and shut down Highway 61 leading into Oliver Springs for about 22 hours while crews cleaned up debris.

The Oliver Springs Police Department said that the fatal crash happened when a tractor-trailer dump truck was struck head-on by a car that crossed over the center line. The collision sent the tractor-trailer off the road and down an embankment, where it overturned and spilled diesel fuel and its cargo of sand. [Read more…]


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Morgan County officers break up large underage drinking party in ‘The Cove’

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and several other agencies responded to a New Year’s Eve party where underage teen drinking and drug use were occurring early on New Year’s Day, and deputies said several partygoers needed medical attention.

In a press release, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office Captain Mike Wren said Morgan County dispatchers had received a call transferred from the Anderson County 911 Center at around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in which someone reported a “large number of teenagers drinking and using drugs at remote property in ‘The Cove,’ a community located near Oliver Springs, just inside the Morgan County line.”

Sheriff Wayne Potter and several deputies responded to the location on Cove Lane, and they saw 15 to 20 people immediately run off into the woods. Another 25 to 30 people were found in what was described as an “open structure” on the property.

Officers immediately noticed that the majority of them were impaired and that there were numerous containers of alcohol also in the structure. Four people were immediately taken by ambulance to a hospital, including an unconscious 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy who was in “physical distress.” [Read more…]

Airport Road, Midway Drive close in OS due to flooding

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Note: This story was updated at 1:05 p.m.

Airport Road and Midway Drive in Oliver Springs have closed due to flooding, and weather forecasters have issued a flash flood watch for the area.

Airport Road, which is on the east side of Oliver Springs, frequently floods during heavy, prolonged rains, and drivers sometimes get stuck there when they try to drive through the water, which can be high and moving fast.

A flash flood watch is in effect until 1 p.m. Friday in Oak Ridge, Clinton, and Knoxville, and Anderson, Morgan and Roane counties, among other communities, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown. Heavy rain continues today (Friday, December 28), with flooding possible, forecasters said. [Read more…]

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Man dies in car-bicycle crash on Mahoney Road

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Information from WYSH Radio

A 72-year-old bicyclist died in a car-bicycle crash on Mahoney Road outside Oliver Springs on Sunday, authorities said.

The bicyclist, Homer A. McElroy Jr. of Oliver Springs, was riding his bicycle west on Mahoney Road near the intersection with Pappy Lane and was “traveling near the center portion of the roadway” when he was hit a 2004 Toyota Camry being driven east by Scott Stockton, 44, of Oliver Springs, at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. [Read more…]

Updated: Teen reported missing in Roane County has been found

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Cheyenne Patton

Cheyenne Patton

 

Note: This story was updated at 4:45 p.m.

Update: The teenager reported missing in Roane County has been located, the Oliver Springs Police Department said Sunday.

“Thank you all for the help!” the OSPD said. [Read more…]

Jail death probed by TBI

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the death of an inmate at the Anderson County Detention Facility that occurred in March.

Preliminary investigations have not turned up anything suspicious, according to the TBI, but their investigation is ongoing.

Patricia Jones, 53, of Oliver Springs was booked into the jail on March 17 on charges of forgery and theft filed by the Oliver Springs Police Department. Jones was found dead inside her cell the following day, March 18, by a jailer who checked on her after noticing that she had stopped snoring, and found her unresponsive. [Read more…]

Man dies, teen injured in Oliver Springs crash

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A 44-year-old man died and a teenager was injured in a two-vehicle crash in Oliver Springs on Sunday evening, authorities said.

Anthony M. Maston, who has an address listed in Oliver Springs, was driving north in a 2016 Kia sport utility vehicle on State Route 62 when he crossed the center line into the southbound lane and hit a southbound 2010 Nissan Altima car driven by a 17-year-old Oliver Springs girl, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said in a report.

Maston died due to the crash, which was reported at about 8:17 p.m. Sunday near the intersection with State Route 61, the THP said. He was not wearing a seat belt, the report said.

The 17-year-old driver of the second vehicle, the Nissan Altima car, was injured. She wasn’t wearing a seat belt either and neither was her 16-year-old passenger, the THP said. [Read more…]

Anderson County residents among 44 indicted in meth distribution conspiracy

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A group of Anderson County residents was part of an alleged methamphetamine distribution ring that involved 44 people and a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine in East Tennessee and elsewhere, federal officials said Monday.

A 30-count indictment was returned against the 44 people by a federal grand jury in Greeneville in East Tennessee on January 9. Among those indicted were nine residents of Clinton, Oliver Springs, Powell, and Rocky Top, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of Tennessee on Monday. There were also four Knoxville residents indicted and a dozen in Bristol and Kingsport in upper East Tennessee, among other defendants in Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, Clinton Police Department, Oak Ridge Police Department, Oliver Springs Police Department, and Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force in Anderson County were among the agencies that helped with the investigation, the press release said.

Here are the people that were indicted in the alleged methamphetamine distribution conspiracy: [Read more…]

Man charged with attempted murder in alleged baseball bat attack

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Clayton Perry Jones

Clayton Perry Jones

 

Note: This story was last updated at 3:45 p.m. March 22. 

An Anderson County man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly beating another man in the head, arms, and back with a baseball bat at a car wash in Oliver Springs in the summer of 2016, according to court records.

Clayton Perry Jones, 53, of Dutch Valley Road, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on Tuesday, March 13, on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a weapon, according to court records. He has an arraignment scheduled for March 26 in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton.

Jones is accused of beating Brett Blank in the head, back, and arms with a baseball bat as Blank was cleaning his vehicle at the Sportsman Car Wash on East Tri County Boulevard in Oliver Springs on Thursday, July 14, 2016, according to an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on July 13, 2017.

The alleged beating was stopped by a witness with a handgun who was also at the car wash cleaning his vehicle, which was parked in front of Blank’s vehicle, according to the affidavit. The armed witness, Hank Mullins, saw Jones hitting Blank with the baseball bat, and Mullins revealed his concealed-carry handgun to deter the fight and told them to “Stop! Stop! Stop!” according to the affidavit. Both Blank and Jones then ran in opposite directions, said the affidavit, which was filed by Oliver Springs Police Department Patrolman Samuel Seiber. [Read more…]

Man escapes from vehicle in flood water on Airport Road

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A man escaped from a vehicle in flood water on Airport Road on the east side of Oliver Springs on Saturday night, Feb. 10, 2018, authorities said. The vehicle, reported to be a Jeep, was submerged under flood water at one time, but its top was visible early Sunday afternoon. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A man escaped from a vehicle in flood water on Airport Road on the east side of Oliver Springs on Saturday night, Feb. 10, 2018, authorities said. The vehicle, reported to be a Jeep, was submerged under flood water at one time, but its top was visible early Sunday afternoon. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

OLIVER SPRINGS—A man escaped from a vehicle in flood water on Airport Road on the east side of Oliver Springs on Saturday night, authorities said.

The vehicle, reported to be a Jeep, was submerged under flood water at one time, but its top was visible early Sunday afternoon.

The man called 911 at the Oliver Springs Police Department at about 9 p.m. Saturday, and the Oliver Springs Police Department responded. Members of the Oliver Springs Fire Department also responded.

But the man was able to escape on his own through flood water reported to be chest-deep, authorities said. [Read more…]

Flooding closes several roads, Arrowhead Park in Oliver Springs

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Flooding has closed several roads in Oliver Springs and Arrowhead Park. The closures were announced Sunday morning, Feb. 11, 2018, by the Oliver Springs Police Department. (Photo courtesy Oliver Springs Police Department)

Flooding has closed several roads in Oliver Springs and Arrowhead Park. The closures were announced Sunday morning, Feb. 11, 2018, by the Oliver Springs Police Department. (Photo courtesy Oliver Springs Police Department)

 

Flooding has closed several roads in Oliver Springs and Arrowhead Park. The closures were announced Sunday morning by the Oliver Springs Police Department.

“Please use caution while driving in Oliver Springs,” the Oliver Springs Police Department said. “Several secondary roads are closed such as Airport Road, Midway Drive, Strutt Street, and Bennett Road. Other roads have debris and standing water, so please be careful.”

There was heavy rain on Saturday, and more than two inches of rain were expected in the area between Saturday afternoon and Sunday night, with more rain possible this week, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

In Oak Ridge, the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Jefferson Circle is closed due to flooding. [Read more…]

Oliver Springs fire chief provides more information on Sunday explosion

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Justin Bailey

Justin Bailey (File photo courtesy Oliver Springs Fire Department)

The explosion in Oliver Springs on Sunday that rattled windows and shook homes as far away as Oak Ridge was caused by gasoline poured on what was left of a barn that had been leveled and then ignited, the fire chief said Friday.

Oliver Springs Fire Chief Justin Bailey said firefighters don’t know for sure how much gasoline was used, but the property owner had at least a five-gallon gas can.

There was still a strong odor of gasoline when emergency responders arrived, Bailey said.

The explosion was reported on Tri County Boulevard at Mahoney Road on Sunday evening, just before it got dark, in a field across from Lee’s Market in south Oliver Springs, just down the hill from Oak Ridge.

The property owner had leveled the barn, and only natural wood remained, Bailey said. The property owner was allowed to burn the untreated wood with a permit, and he had received a burn permit from City Hall over the phone. [Read more…]

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