Oak Ridge Today

EPA: Oak Ridge is a Green Power Community of the Year

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ORNL Bethel Valley Solar Array

Construction was completed in 2008 on a 288-foot-long, 51.25 kilowatt solar system (second-largest in Tennessee) that will supply power to the office building that houses researchers associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s buildings technology programs. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge has been recognized as a Green Power Community of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Oak Ridge is one of only two cities to receive the award. The other is Medford, Oregon.

Oak Ridge is one of 19 Green Power Partners and four suppliers from across the country receiving Green Leadership Awards given each year by the EPA. Awardees are recognized for their achievements in advancing the nation’s renewable energy market and reducing greenhouse gas emissions fueling climate change, a press release said.

The 2014 Green Power Leadership Awards will be presented on Wednesday, December 3, at the annual Renewable Energy Markets Conference in Sacramento, California. [Read more…]

Holiday party for seniors on Dec. 5

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Oak Ridge Senior Center Holiday Party

The Oak Ridge Senior Center is having a holiday reception for area senior citizens from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, December 5. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Senior Center)

 

The Oak Ridge Senior Center is having a holiday reception for area senior citizens from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, December 5.

“Come join us for a light lunch of sandwiches, chips, and cookies, as well as holiday music and fellowship,” a press release said.

The Senior Center guitar group will be playing live Christmas music. Bingo will be offered, and door prizes given away. Goodie bags will be given out while they last. The event is sponsored by the Oak Ridge Senior Center and made possible by many generous donations from area businesses, the press release said.

For more information about this and other programs at the Oak Ridge Senior Center, call them at (865)425-3999 or visit their website at www.orrecparks.org.

Feed the People at Grove on Thanksgiving; volunteers, dishes needed

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High Places Community Church

The Feed the People dinner is at The Historic Grove Theater from 3 to 7 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

A grassroots effort will provide food and friendship for all who need them on Thanksgiving, organizers said.

Feed the People has scheduled a dinner from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving), at The Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge.

Volunteers will be needed to help as early as 9 a.m. and as late as 8 p.m.

“Whether you can help for an hour or more, we need you!” Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn said in an email.

She said meals will also be delivered throughout Oak Ridge. Call (865) 730-0331 to request a delivery for yourself or anyone you know of that is need. [Read more…]

Y-12 employee-led Help to the Smokies team still going strong

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Y-12 Employees Help the Smokies

Y-12’s Help to the Smokies employee-led team volunteered at a Great Smoky Mountains National Park cleanup event on Nov. 8. The team contributed 154 hours in restoration and enhancement activities during the event. (Submitted photo)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:40 a.m. Nov. 26.

Y-12’s employee-led Help to the Smokies team tacked another 154 hours onto their already massive volunteer service record at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during their annual volunteer work day on November 8. Since its start, the volunteer team has contributed about 14,000 hours in the Park.

Some 22 volunteers assisted park staff in maintenance and refurbishment of Loop B campsites at the Cosby Campground. The volunteer team performed general restoration activities for 31 individual campsites. These activities included elevating, leveling, and resetting 31 picnic tables, distributing and applying 85 tons of gravel covering to 26 campsites, and leveling selected camp fire rings. [Read more…]

Gooch elected mayor, Smith mayor pro tem

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Oak Ridge City Council November 2014

The new Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above. From right they are new member Kelly Callison, continuing member Charlie Hensley, new members Rick Chinn and Warren Gooch, continuing members Chuck Hope and Trina Baughn, and new member Ellen Smith. Council members are elected in staggered terms, so Baughn, Hensley, and Hope won’t be up for election until 2016. Callison, Chinn, Gooch, and Smith won their seats in the November 4 municipal election.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9 a.m. Nov. 25.

New Oak Ridge City Council member Warren Gooch has been appointed mayor, and returning City Council member Ellen Smith has been elected mayor pro tem.

The two were appointed to serve two-year terms by the seven-member Oak Ridge City Council during a Monday night meeting, the first after the November 4 municipal election.

It’s the first elected office for Gooch, a lawyer, although he previously ran for Anderson County mayor in August 2012. Gooch was the top vote-getter in the November 4 municipal election, and he is the city’s 10th mayor, according to City Council member Chuck Hope, who also sought to be mayor.

“I do think our best days are ahead of us,” Gooch said after two members switched votes and cast ballots for him, breaking an impasse that had lasted through five rounds of voting. “Great things happen here every day, and they have for 70 years.” [Read more…]

Photos: Demolition of Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church

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Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church Sanctuary Demolition

Workers demolished the former Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Robertsville Road on Monday. Pictured above at right is the stone-and-glass west end of the sanctuary. (Photos by Peter Scheffler)

 

Workers demolished the former Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Robertsville Road on Monday. The congregation has moved to a new church at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike, on the north side of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, home to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office.

Church members agreed in September 2012 to sell their former site, which they had used for almost six decades, to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center.

The new UU church was dedicated in October. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge falls to Rhea County in thrilling fourth-quarter comeback

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Oak Ridge Wildcats Logan Fadnek and Rhea County Golden Eagles

Rhea County dampened a fourth-quarter comeback by Oak Ridge, sacking Wildcats quarterback Logan Fadnek (17) three times in one eight-play drive before intercepting him. Also pictured above is Tyler Pendleton (40) of the Golden Eagles. (Photos by Julio Culiat)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 1:50 a.m. Nov. 24.

Oak Ridge mounted a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback against Rhea County on Friday—narrowing a three-touchdown deficit to one—but the Wildcats were unable to make up for missed opportunities and turnovers and they fell to the Golden Eagles 35-21 in a state quarterfinal playoff game.

Down 28-7 in the final quarter, Oak Ridge scored back-to-back touchdowns in 24 seconds to close the 28-7 deficit to 28-21 with about eight minutes left to play.

After a defensive stop less than two minutes later, the Wildcats had the ball back at midfield, with a chance to tie the game. Oak Ridge fans were fired up, and Coach Joe Gaddis said he’s never heard Blankenship Field so loud. [Read more…]

Woman, dog escape, but house burns in Thursday fire

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Holbrook Lane House Fire

A woman and her dog escaped with no injuries from this house fire on Holbrook Lane between Oak Ridge and Clinton on Wednesday evening, but the home was heavily damaged and possibly destroyed. (Photos by Tom Scott)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:50 p.m. Nov. 21 with a possible cause of the fire.

A woman and her dog escaped a raging house fire on Holbrook Lane on Thursday evening, but the home was heavily damaged and possibly destroyed. It was the third house fire between Oak Ridge and Clinton in less than two weeks, and the second in two days.

Flames were shooting through the roof of the hilltop home at 309 Holbrook Lane when firefighters arrived, said Stephanie Fox, assistant chief of the Marlow Volunteer Fire Department. Thick smoke billowed high into the air, and a dark plume could be seen as far away as Oak Ridge. Firefighters battled the blaze using what is known as a defensive attack, meaning they didn’t go inside.

Fox said the homeowner, whose identity wasn’t immediately available, was downstairs when the fire started. She heard glass break and went upstairs and saw flames, Fox said. The woman, estimated to be in her 50s, went back downstairs to get her dog and exited the house through the door of the walk-out basement. She was not taken to the hospital and was going to stay with relatives overnight, Fox said. [Read more…]

Woman dies after trying to save pets from house fire

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Ridge Lane Firefighters

Firefighters battle a blaze at a Ridge Lane home on Wednesday. A woman who tried to save her pets from the fire died overnight. (Photo by Tom Scott)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 1:50 p.m. Nov. 23.

The 65-year-old woman who was burned and seriously injured while trying to save three pets from a house fire on Wednesday afternoon died overnight at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, authorities said.

Martha Babb Bailey and Adra Denton of Oak Ridge had arrived at Bailey’s home at 131 Ridge Lane around 3 p.m. Wednesday after grocery shopping. When they opened the front door, the house, which is in Orchard Knob subdivision in Anderson County, burst into flames. Denton called 911 to report the fire, and Bailey ran into the burning home to try to rescue two dogs and a cat, Anderson County Sheriff Paul White said.

But Bailey’s clothes caught fire, and she collapsed in the living room, White said. Denton was unable to reach her and called 911 again to say her friend was trapped in the burning single-story home. [Read more…]

Police search for suspect in robbery at Family Dollar in Oliver Springs

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Oliver Springs Armed Robbery

The Oliver Springs Police Department is searching for this suspect in a robbery at the Family Dollar Store at about 9:34 p.m. Wednesday. (Photo courtesy OSPD)

 

The Oliver Springs Police Department is searching for a suspect in an armed robbery at the Family Dollar Store at about 9:34 p.m. Wednesday.

The suspect allegedly entered the store at 51 Edmonds Drive, gave the clerk a $100 bill, and asked for change. After the clerk gave the suspect the change, the man then demanded the money in both cash registers, requested both clerks’ phones, took their wallets out of their purses, and left the store, the Oliver Springs Police Department said. [Read more…]

Rescuers pull woman from house fire after she tries to save pets

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Ridge Lane Home Fire

Two Anderson County deputies and a Marlow firefighter pulled a seriously injured woman out of this home, which was on fire on Ridge Lane on Wednesday afternoon. The woman had reportedly tried to rescue her pets from the fire. At right is Steve Newby, deputy chief of the Claxton Volunteer Fire Department, and at left is Marlow Volunteer Fire Department Captain Zach Pressnell, who helped pull the homeowner from the burning home.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 1:25 p.m. Nov. 20.

Two Anderson County deputies and a Marlow firefighter rescued a woman who was seriously injured trying to rescue her pets from a house fire on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

The woman, who has not been identified, was taken by ambulance to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and then flown by Lifestar helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department. Her condition and age weren’t immediately available.

The woman was pulled out of the burning home at 131 Ridge Lane by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Wiley Maloney, Reserve Deputy Gene Rose, and Marlow Volunteer Fire Department Captain Zach Pressnell. Pressnell said the woman was conscious but lay on the floor about five feet inside the single-story home, with fire rolling out of the front door and heavy smoke inside. [Read more…]

Chinese supercomputer stays No. 1, Titan at ORNL still No. 2

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Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, which was the world’s top supercomputer in November 2012 but is now ranked No. 2. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

 

For the fourth consecutive time, Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, has retained its position as the world’s number one system. Meanwhile, Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which was the top supercomputer in November 2012, remains number two.

Tianhe-2 is capable of performing at 33.86 petaflops, or 33.86 quadrillions of calculations per second, on a benchmark test known as Linpack.

The rankings are from the 44th edition of the twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, which was announced Monday in Mannheim, Germany; Berkeley, California; and Knoxville. Tianhe-2 has been in the top spot four consecutive times, and Titan has been number two each time. [Read more…]