Oak Ridge Today has uploaded a copy of the city manager’s budget presentation to Oak Ridge City Council. You can see a PDF version of the budget presentation here: City of Oak Ridge (Fiscal Year 2017 Budget).
Council received the PowerPoint presentation during a special meeting on Tuesday.
Here are a few highlights from the Tuesday meeting: [Read more…]
Mark LeNoir, right, a junior at Oak Ridge High School, is running for Oak Ridge City Council in November. (Submitted photo)
A 17-year-old junior at Oak Ridge High School is running for Oak Ridge City Council, and he said he wants to represent the city’s youth on the seven-member body.
Mark LeNoir, the first candidate to publicly announce a City Council campaign this year, at least to Oak Ridge Today, will turn 18 on October 5, about one month before the November 8 election.
On Wednesday, LeNoir said he kicked off his campaign a few weeks ago at a banquet for Youth Leadership of Oak Ridge at the DoubleTree Hotel.
“My biggest thing is that there is a lot of unrepresented youth in this town,” LeNoir said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. “It’s kind of stayed on the same path for the last 20 years. I want to get change happening.”
LeNoir said he wants more cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, including possibly having the city take over the American Museum of Science and Energy, or AMSE, and Clark Center Park. [Read more…]
TVA Norris Hydoelectric Project (Submitted photo)
Norris Dam is one of three Tennessee sites added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, state officials said Wednesday.
The Tennessee Historical Commission announced the addition of the three sites. Besides Norris Dam, the other two sites are Jefferson Street Historic District in Brownsville in Haywood County and Kenner Manor Historic District in Nashville.
Norris Dam is referred to as the Norris Hydroelectric Project. Built in Anderson and Campbell counties between 1933 and 1936, the Norris Hydroelectric Project was the first project for the newly established Tennessee Valley Authority, a press release said. Named after Nebraska Senator George Norris, who advocated for public power facilities, the dam and associated properties provided electricity to the rural areas of Tennessee and the surrounding states, helped with seasonal flood control, and provided power for wartime industries.
Norris Hydroelectric Project had a dramatic impact on the landscape since people were displaced when Norris Lake was flooded, recreation areas were created, and the community of Norris was built, the press release said. [Read more…]
Mark Watson
Note: This story was last updated at 10:30 a.m.
The proposed city budget presented to Oak Ridge City Council members on Tuesday would leave the property tax rate unchanged, but it could include rate increases for water, sewer, and trash collection.
If approved by Council, the budget would not increase the property tax rate for the ninth year in a row. After five-year reappraisals last year, the rate is now set at $2.52 per $100 of assessed value.
The proposed budget includes a 3 percent pay adjustment that would move employees along their pay scales, helping to separate those who have worked for the city for a while from those who have just started.
The trash fee would increase by $3.50 per month, raising it from $10.50 to $14 per month starting in October. The fee was raised to $10.50 last year. At $14 per month, the city would no longer subsidize part of the trash fee, as it has previously done. The city used to pay half of the $14 fee, meaning residents paid $7 per month and the city paid $7. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge resident Christopher D. Keever has proposed a craft beer market that could open in July in central Oak Ridge.
The business would be called Crafter’s Brew Market and Social. It would be located at 856 Oak Ridge Turnpike, which was a demonstration site for Waterworks Pool and Spa.
With approval, the site would be remodeled with a building and bathrooms, according to a beer permit application filed with the city.
It would be a craft beer market with on-site and off-site consumption of craft beer and international bottled beer. To enter after 9 p.m., customers would have to be 21 years old or older. [Read more…]
An aerial view of Oak Ridge’s third solar array development at Heritage Center, which was built by a team honored with a U.S. Department of Energy Sustainability Award. (Photo courtesy DOE EM)
A solar power plant in west Oak Ridge is one of two projects recognized with 2016 Energy Sustainability Awards by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Teams at the two DOE Environmental Management, or EM, sites were recognized for spearheading projects that have saved taxpayer dollars while promoting efficiency and smart use of DOE resources, a press release said.
“The DOE Sustainability Performance Office highlighted efforts at the Oak Ridge and Savannah River sites as outstanding contributions to the department’s goal of improving environmental, energy, and economic performance while reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the press release said.
UCOR, the prime contractor for Oak Ridge’s EM program, helped the small business subcontractor Restoration Services Inc. team with community partners to build a one-megawatt utility scale photovoltaic power generating project called Powerhouse Six that became operational in April 2015. [Read more…]
Kenneth R. Tarcza (Photo courtesy DOE Oak Ridge Office)
Kenneth R. Tarcza has been named manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office Integrated Support Center.
The announcement was made Tuesday by DOE’s Office of Science.
Prior to retiring in 2015 as a colonel with the U.S. Army, Tarcza served as the chief of staff for the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, which executes the vast majority of the Army’s science and technology programs, a press release said. In that role, he was responsible for a broad range of functions—administration, finance, safety, legal, and resource management.
Most recently, he served with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where he oversaw research on site as well as with academia. [Read more…]
Mark Watson
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson will present the proposed budget for the next fiscal year during a special meeting this evening (Tuesday, May 31).
Watson will present the budget to the Oak Ridge City Council in a meeting that starts at 7 p.m. today in the Municipal Building Courtroom.
Council is expected to consider approving the budget in two meetings in June. [Read more…]
UCOR has announced 20 winners in its Education Mini-Grant Program. Schools in Anderson, Knox, Loudon, Knox, Morgan, and Roane counties were eligible to submit proposals. (Photo submitted by UCOR)
UCOR has announced 20 winners in its Education Mini-Grant Program.
The Mini-Grant Program was designed to recognize and support excellence in teaching by providing funds to assist classroom teachers for specific projects or curricula, focusing primarily on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, a press release said.
Schools in Anderson, Knox, Loudon, Knox, Morgan, and Roane counties were eligible to submit proposals. Applications were screened and awardees selected using a blind process that prevented members of the selection panel from knowing the names of the teachers or the schools.
The UCOR Mini-Grant committee has selected the following projects for 2016: [Read more…]
Oumar Souleymane Diallo
Fifteen students, including one from Oak Ridge High School, have been named to the 2016 cohort of Haslam Scholars at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. There are 14 students from Tennessee and one from North Carolina.
The ORHS student is Oumar Souleymane Diallo.
A student from Hardin Valley Academy, Sophia Cui, is also among the incoming students.
The Haslam Scholars Program is UT’s premier four-year scholarship program. Each year, the program admits 15 first-year students from the university’s Chancellor’s Honors Program and supports them with the university’s most prestigious and generous named scholarships. [Read more…]
An exhibit at the Secret City Festival in June will honor the service and heroism of U.S. military chaplains of World War II. (Submitted photo)
An exhibit at the Secret City Festival in June will honor the service and heroism of U.S. military chaplains of World War II.
The exhibit, “Faith and Courage,” recognizes the contributions of a special group of veterans whose story is rarely told, U.S. military chaplains, a press release said. The dedicated service of chaplains to those who go into harm’s way for our country, their humble self-sacrifice, and their common, but little-known, acts of heroism exemplify personal values, traits, and traditions that are of unquestionable benefit to any society, the release said.
“This exhibit honors these exceptional individuals and attempts to extend the value of their service and sacrifice by keeping their memories alive as an example for later generations,” it said. [Read more…]
The Mt. LeConte Jug Band will once again entertain guests at Methodist’s “Survivor Sundae” celebration and cancer awareness event on Sunday, June 5. (Submitted photo)
Note: This story was updated at 5:25 p.m. May 30.
With improved screenings and advanced treatment, more and more people are beating cancer each year. But that doesn’t change the significance of being a cancer survivor and the hard fight to put cancer in its place.
Join Methodist Medical Center as we celebrate National Cancer Survivors’ Day on Sunday, June 5, with the third annual “Survivor Sundae.” This special ice cream social will take place from 2-4:30 p.m. at the Cheyenne Ambulatory Center, 944 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Survivor Sundae will honor cancer survivors and their families who have supported them along the way as well as provide cancer prevention and awareness information for the community. Cancer survivors can leave their mark on a special group art project supplied by Painting with a Twist, which will be displayed in the Thompson Cancer Survival Center at Methodist. [Read more…]
