A data center could be built in an existing building on Pine Ridge, also known as The Summit, off South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
The project has been proposed by GIGA Data Centers of Atlanta.
The data center would be in the building on The Summit that was once used by the Y-12 National Security Complex to store documents. The building, which is about 30,000 square feet, would be retrofitted.
[Read more…]
Peter Thornton, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, holds the cube satellite, or CubeSat, that will be completely built soon and was developed by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers and mentors. Named RamSat, the cube satellite is scheduled to launch from Virginia on a space station resupply mission on Sept. 7, 2020. Thornton is pictured above during a mentors meeting at RMS on Thursday, May 28. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The small cube satellite built by Robertsville Middle School students with help from teachers, mentors, and NASA is scheduled to launch on a resupply rocket to the International Space Station in September, and it could be deployed into orbit a few hundred miles above Earth in October.
Testing of the satellite and its components, including a battery test and vibration tests, was scheduled to start this week.
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The UCOR contract to clean up federal sites in Oak Ridge has been extended one year to July 31, 2021, and the consideration of a new cleanup contract won’t be considered until November 2020 at the earliest.
The UCOR contract could be extended one additional year, to July 31, 2022, using two six-month options, depending upon contractor performance and progress.
Before the extension, UCOR’s contract had been scheduled to expire July 31, 2020.
UCOR works on cleanup projects for the U.S. Department of Energy at the East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 National Security Complex. The work includes the demolition of old, contaminated buildings that are no longer used. The cleanup work is called environmental management, or EM.
[Read more…]
The JCPenney store in Oak Ridge has re-opened. The store is in Main Street Oak Ridge in the center of the city.
The store is open limited hours: from 12-7 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday.
There are dedicated hours for at-risk customers: 11 a.m.-12 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday. At-risk customers include the elderly, pregnant women, and people with underlying health issues.
It hadn’t been clear if the Oak Ridge store, which had been temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, would re-open after JCPenney filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, May 15.
But it is now open. Customers can enter through the doors on the Cinemark Tinseltown side of the store.
[Read more…]
Children enjoy the Healthy Living exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge before it closed in mid-March. (Submitted photo)
The Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge will reopen on a three-day-a-week schedule and welcome visitors beginning Tuesday, June 2, now that museums across the state are allowed to re-open.
The Museum will take precautions recommended as a result of COVID-19, including social distancing and increased cleaning of the facility, to protect the safety of visitors and staff, a press release said.
“Children’s Museum visitors will be expected to practice social distancing, and visitors ages 5 and older will be required to wear a mask. Masks will be optional for visitors ages 3-4,” said Beth Shea, executive director of the Museum. “All staff and volunteers in public areas of the Museum will wear masks, and the Museum will be vigilant about cleaning and visitor safety protocols.”
The Museum’s new schedule will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday until further notice, and the staff hopes to eventually expand the schedule, the press release said. [Read more…]
The number of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee passed 20,000 on Sunday.
The Tennessee Department of Health reported 20,145 confirmed cases on Sunday, with 336 deaths and 12,837 recoveries since the first case was reported in the state in early March.
It was a 1.8 percent daily increase in the number of new cases. During the past two weeks, the daily percentage increase has ranged from 0.6 percent to 3.7 percent.
The number of new cases reported in Tennessee each day has ranged between and 100 and 623. The number of new cases reported Sunday was 356.
The number of deaths reported per day has ranged between two fatalities and 14 the past two weeks. Seven deaths were reported on Sunday.
The doubling time in the number of cases—the amount of time it took to go from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases—was 26 days. For deaths, it was about 32 days (166 deaths on April 22 and 336 on Sunday). That’s a longer doubling time than reported earlier in the pandemic in Tennessee.
The seven-day average of the percentage increase in new cases in Tennessee had dropped from 2.41 percent on May 12 to 1.79 percent on May 20, but it climbed back up to 2.11 percent on Sunday.
It’s not clear what impact, if any, the expiration of the “stay at home” order in April and the re-opening of businesses last month and this month have had on the increase in the number of cases.
[Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge will open its outdoor pool for the season starting June 15, which is later than normal, with changes due to COVID-19.
The pool normally has swimming hours Memorial Day weekend, and then opens for the season around the first of June.
This year, the main outdoor pool on Providence Road will be open, but the little pool for children will remain closed for the summer, the city said in a press release Friday. The indoor pool at the Oak Ridge Civic Center will remain closed through the summer.
A maximum of 200 people will be allowed in the pool area at one time, and reservations can be made online through Eventbrite. Families will be spaced apart. Restrooms will be open, but the showers and dressing rooms will not be. The picnic table area will be closed, and no public or private pool parties will be allowed. Swimming lessons are canceled for now.
In the press release, the city said the pool water is being treated with chlorine, a disinfectant that “wipes out” the virus. The main focus will be following social distancing and repeatedly sanitizing commonly used areas, the press release said.
Here are the changes that will be in effect:
[Read more…]
There will not be a Secret City Festival this year, organizers said Thursday.
In April, organizers had announced that the festival, which is normally in June, was postponed. But no new date was announced at that time.
On Thursday, the Secret City Festival board of directors said they have explored every option to have the festival in 2020, but “we have determined that we cannot provide the level of excellence this year that we wish to.”
[Read more…]
A chalk art event on Saturday will promote a proposal to build a downtown area that could include apartments and condominiums, restaurants and stores, and green space and an outdoor performance space at Wilson Street on the north side of Main Street Oak Ridge.
The chalk art event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 23. It will feature 15 professional artists, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release.
It’s called “Paint the Town with Chalk,” and it will help people visualize what the downtown area could be like, the press release said.
Oak Ridge was built to help make the world’s first atomic bombs as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, and officials say the city was built without a distinct downtown for national security reasons. Now, they are trying to change that.
The goal is to transform the Wilson Street area into the city’s new downtown, according to a presentation last fall by Oak Ridge Community Development Director Wayne Blasius.
The downtown area could include:
[Read more…]
Covenant Health hospitals, including Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, are testing blood plasma to treat COVID-19 patients.
It’s part of a nationwide effort to treat some COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma transfusions as part of a clinical trial. The convalescent plasma is donated by patients who have recovered from COVID-19. As part of an experiment, it is being given to current COVID-19 patients who are experiencing severe or life-threatening symptoms, Covenant Health announced Friday.
Plasma is the liquid component of blood that contains many useful proteins and antibodies.
“It is commonly used in the daily practice of medicine for treating certain conditions,” said Covenant Health pathologist Mark Williams, a doctor who is the principal investigator for the clinical trial. “Convalescent plasma refers to plasma that has been donated by patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and is likely to contain antibodies to the SARS-CoV 2 virus.”
[Read more…]Note: This story was last updated at 3 p.m. May 20.
Saddled with debt and already struggling, JCPenney filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday after closing its stores because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Oak Ridge store remains closed.
It’s not clear if or when the Oak Ridge store will re-open. It’s listed as temporarily closed.
Other JCPenney stores that are listed as temporarily closed in the area include locations in Turkey Creek in Farragut, West Town Mall in Knoxville, and Foothills Mall in Maryville.
JCPenney is the largest retailer to file for bankruptcy protection since the COVID-19 pandemic forced stores to temporarily close, according to CBS News.
There are only two JCPenney stores open in Tennessee. They are both near Nashville in Middle Tennessee. One is in Mt. Juliet, and the other is in Murfreesboro.
The company closed its stores and offices about two months ago, on March 18, because of COVID-19. It temporarily furloughed most hourly store employees starting April 2.
In a press release Friday, JCPenney said it will close stores in phases during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But details about the specific stores and their closing dates haven’t been announced.
JCPenney didn’t initially say how many stores might close, but over the weekend, there were reports that the company planned to close almost 30 percent of its 846 stores—about 192 stores by February and another 50 in 2022. That will leave the company, one of America’s most well-known chains, with just over 600 stores. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the United States, JCPenney had announced plans to close six of its stores in April, according to CNN.
[Read more…]
A crew works in the area of the second phase of construction of Main Street Oak Ridge on Thursday, March 5, 2020. The construction work has since been suspended. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Four new stores are planned at Main Street Oak Ridge, but construction has been suspended for now.
The four new stores are Five Below, Home Goods, Old Navy, and Ross Dress for Less. The retailers have signed leases, and their stores could be ready to open as soon as the spring of 2021, said Neil Wilson, principal of the development company, TN Oak Ridge Rutgers LLC. The new stores would be between JCPenney and PetSmart. That includes some of the area where the roundabout used to be.
But construction of the building that would contain the new stores has been suspended.
“Retailers are postponing the opening of new stores and re-thinking the size and configuration of store footprints,” Wilson told Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson in an April 20 letter. “As a result, the retail developers are delaying the construction of the building to house those new stores.”
Wilson said TN Oak Ridge Rutgers LLC is trying hard to get the project back into its development timeline in 60 days. The storage facility, which has previously been considered by city officials, is part of the effort to get the project back on track, he said.
Wilson said retailers are suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the estimated growth in global retail for 2020 will be cut in half from the levels that were forecast before COVID-19.
The types of stores that will be hit the hardest are “short-term, fashion, furniture, and electronics retailers,” Wilson said. Customers will buy fewer of those discretionary items, choosing instead to stock up on food and household supplies.
But in the meantime, construction could proceed quickly on a three-story self-storage facility at Main Street Oak Ridge. It would be along Rutgers Avenue, behind Burkes Outlet, Electronic Express, and PetSmart. The self-storage market is doing well, Wilson said.
Some residents and city officials, including members of the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission, have opposed the proposed self-storage facility or shown little interest in it.
But in a split vote Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council voted 4-3 to approve a zoning change that could allow it. The zoning ordinance amendment, which did not specifically approve the Main Street Oak Ridge project, is expected to be considered for final approval during another City Council meeting in June.
The rest of this story, which includes background information and information about the City Council vote, is available if you are a member: an advertiser, sponsor, or subscriber to Oak Ridge Today.
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Note: Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. Some are considered premium content. This story is premium content. Premium content can include in-depth, investigative, and exclusive stories. These stories generally take more than four hours to report, write, and publish.
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