An Anderson County planning committee will meet next week to discuss the six bids received on a $10 million jail expansion project, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
Bids opened in June ranged from $9.66 million to $10.4 million, WYSH said. The companies that submitted bids included Rouse Construction, Messer Construction, Merit General Contractors, Denark Construction, Bell and Associates, and Johnson and Galyon Construction.
The July 4 holiday is one of the deadliest, and Anderson County authorities are stepping up their efforts this week to catch drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol.
“Too many people die behind the wheel each year due to those who choose to drive after drinking, so our deputies will be out in full force this Fourth of July showing zero tolerance for impaired drivers,” Anderson County Sheriff Paul White said in a press release.
The number of fires across Tennessee has increased since mid-June, and state officials have issued a fire advisory due to the unusually hot, dry weather.
A burn ban is in effect in 18 of Tennessee’s 95 counties, including Sevier and Fentress.
Normally, burning permits are required by the state only during official fire season, Oct. 15 through May 15. But the Tennessee Forestry Division is asking residents to delay any outdoor burning or other activities that could cause fires until after the state gets a significant amount of rain.
Fireworks are devices consisting of a combination of explosives and combustibles, set off to generate colored lights, smoke, and noise for amusement. The explosives or combustibles are used for display.
Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to Europe in the Middle Ages.
It is illegal to set off fireworks in Oak Ridge or even have them, city officials said Thursday, a week before July 4.
The Oak Ridge Police Department can arrest anyone who has fireworks or sets them off, a city press release said.
State authorities are investigating a midnight joyride by two Stardust Marina employees who wrecked a tenant’s personal watercraft on Norris Lake this past weekend, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
The workers allegedly took a watercraft belonging to one of the marina’s tenants and crashed it into a floating sign anchored along the marina harbor’s “no wake” line, WYSH reported.
Bids on the project to expand and renovate the Anderson County Jail came in within the expected price range when they were opened Thursday, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
The apparent low bid of $9.66 million was submitted by Rouse Construction of Knoxville, WYSH reported. The other five bids were said to be competitively priced as well.
A Georgia man celebrating the fifth anniversary of a friend’s recovery from a wreck on Windrock Mountain survived, but was injured, when he plunged 100 to 150 feet down a hillside on an all-terrain vehicle Friday night, a rescuer said Saturday.
“He was fortunate,” said Terry Allen, chief of the Anderson County Rescue Squad in Clinton. “He went off a very high embankment.”
Allen did not identify the man, who is in his mid-50s, because he wasn’t sure if all family members had been notified.
Firefighters put out a fire in the kitchen ventilation system at Long John Silver’s on Oak Ridge Turnpike Saturday morning. (Photos by Tom Scott)
Long John Silver’s could be closed at least a week after a grease hood in the kitchen caught on fire Saturday morning, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.
Workers were “cranking up the grill” and turning on fryers when the hood caught on fire about 8:30 a.m., Kerley said. The fire extended into the ventilation system, and a fan motor on the roof burst into flames.
About 140 tickets have been issued since the grace period ended on a new city ordinance that prohibits parking on curbs and sidewalks, a city official said today.
The tickets have been issued all over the city, many to vehicle owners who have parked with their cars facing against the flow of traffic, Oak Ridge Police Chief James Akagi said early this afternoon.
“It’s so visible,” Akagi said. “It’s such a dangerous violation.”
A 19-year-old Oak ridge man was arrested Friday after he allegedly drove a 16-year-old girl to his home on West Outer Drive, punched her, forced her into his home, and raped her before threatening to possibly kill her, Anderson County court records said.
Marvin J. Slater has been charged with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, assault, and coercion of a witness. He remained in the Anderson County jail on Tuesday afternoon, and his bond has been set at $500,000.
Slater faces a June 26 hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
According to court records, the girl said Slater had been giving her a ride home from a friend’s house when he stopped by his West Outer Drive home. When she refused to go into Slater’s house, he allegedly punched her on the arms and face and pushed and pulled her from the car and into the house, an affidavit said.
He is also accused of assaulting her in the bedroom, but the girl stopped resisting when she saw a handgun on Slater’s dresser, the records said.
The girl told Oak Ridge Police Officer John Criswell that Slater warned her that “he better not hear about this (rape) or he was going to kill her.”
The affidavit said the girl had a bruise on her leg and a cut on her lip.
After weeks of wrangling, a budget standoff between Anderson County officials and the sheriff was quickly resolved Monday as county commissioners voted 13-0 to approve a budget that doesn’t include a tax increase but sets aside money for more jailers.
The goal was to give Anderson County Sheriff Paul White a total of 13 jailers so he can open a new 128-bed minimum security dormitory this summer. After a tax hike last year, county officials didn’t want to raise the property tax rate again this year.
