The Kerry Trammell Memorial 5k Run and Walk will start at 8 a.m. May 4 at the Oak Ridge Marina.
Proceeds of this year’s race will go toward the purchase and installation of emergency mile markers on the Melton Lake Greenway. The mile markers will be placed every .10 miles and coordinated with 911, and Trammell’s name will be placed on each.
The course starts on the Oak Ridge Marina peninsula and runs on Melton Lake Drive and along the water on the Melton Lake Greenway. [Read more…]
Note: This story was updated at 11:30 p.m. March 14.
Hoping to improve safety, state officials plan to install a stoplight west of Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the intersection of State Route 95 and Bethel Valley Road.
The stoplight and other geometric improvements have been endorsed by Johnny O. Moore, U.S. Department of Energy manager at the ORNL Site Office.
“This intersection poses safety problems for the general public, as well as employees of ORNL, and these proposed improvements would be greatly appreciated,” Moore said in a Feb. 6 letter to Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson.
The project could cost $200,000. The Tennessee Department of Transportation would fund it through the Federal Highway Administration Highway Safety Project. Oak Ridge City Engineer Steve Byrd said this type of project qualifies for 100 percent federal funding.
On Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council approved an agreement that would make the city responsible for maintenance after the stoplight is built. The annual maintenance cost for the city is expected to be about $1,500. [Read more…]
The three Rotary clubs of Oak Ridge are combining forces to launch the inaugural Oak Ridge Dragon Boat Festival, to be held Saturday, May 31, at the Oak Ridge Marina and Pavilion in Melton Lake Park.
“The purpose of the festival is to provide a venue for dragon boat races, offer food and musical entertainment and raise funds for nonprofit service organizations in the community,” said Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson, president of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge.
The boat-racing event will celebrate Oak Ridge’s waterfront and signature rowing venue. The other two clubs are the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary and Oak Ridge Sunset Rotary clubs.
A dragon boat is a long, low boat adorned with a snarling dragonhead at the boat’s front end, as in the Chinese tradition. Dragon boat races have become popular events in many U.S. cities, ranging in size from Philadelphia to Knoxville.
This all-day Dragon Boat Festival race will be an entertaining competition among teams of 20 persons each—18 paddlers, a caller, and a steerer. The teams will come from community employers and organizations, some of which are signing up to become corporate sponsors of the event. [Read more…]
Reservations due Monday
The United Way of Anderson County will have its annual meeting on Thursday morning at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.
Reservations are due Monday, April 14.
A light breakfast will be available at the annual meeting, which is scheduled from 7:30-8:30 a.m. Thursday.
“The community is invited to attend the annual meeting and campaign announcement,” a press release said. “It is a time for UWAC to share with donors the lasting change their contributions make in Anderson County and an opportunity to thank and recognize the volunteers that lead the effort. [Read more…]
Hundreds of children hunt about 15,000 eggs during the annual Egg Hunt at Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
Hundreds of children hunted about 15,000 eggs during the annual Egg Hunt at Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday. Here are a half-dozen pictures.
Demolition work at the K-25 Building in west Oak Ridge is complete, and cleanup work is expected to be complete this summer. Pictured above is the former south end of the east wing. (Photo by John Huotari)
Demolition of the K-25 Building in west Oak Ridge has been completed. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy looks toward the future and preserving the footprint of the Manhattan Project building.
The building was about 44 acres “under roof,” according to Susan Cange, deputy manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. K-25 was built to enrich uranium for atomic bombs during World War II.
“There was a lot of discussion over the years about whether we could retain a portion of the building as a part of historic preservation,” Cange said. “From a safety and security perspective, it really wasn’t a viable alternative.”
In 2012, Cange and others signed a Memorandum of Agreement, and they envisioned completion of a preservation project within five to seven years. They also agreed to retain the footprint of the building and dedicate it in some way to allow visitors to see the enormity of the former mile-long, U-shaped building. [Read more…]
Andy Page
Contract could be worth about $150 million over five years
For the second time in about five years, a federal health and safety institute has renewed its contract with Oak Ridge Associated Universities for the support it provides on a sick worker program. The new contract could be worth about $150 million during a five-year period.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health awarded the contract to a team headed by ORAU in Oak Ridge. Under the new contract, ORAU and its partners Dade Moeller and Associates Inc. and MJW Technical Services Inc. will continue to support NIOSH and its work under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, or EEOICPA, a press release said.
Last renewed in 2009, this contract has been managed by ORAU for more than a decade, and this is the second time NIOSH has renewed with ORAU and its partners, the release said. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Tourism Council building on Highway 61 near Interstate 75 is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Anderson County Tourism Council)
Information from WYSH Radio
The Anderson County Operations Committee on Monday will consider a request from the Anderson County Tourism Council to sell the log cabin that currently houses the organization’s offices and the county Welcome Center, and purchase a much larger cabin located near the current headquarters.
The current welcome center has been housed in an 1,800-square-foot former Jim Barna log cabin since 1998, but officials said that with a staff expansion in the works, they need more space. The cabin that they are interested in purchasing measures some 3,500 square feet and has a current asking price of $280,000.
The current welcome center would have to be sold at auction as it is a county-owned property, and a minimum bid would be set after an independent appraisal is conducted. The Operations Committee meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
Information from WYSH Radio
In case you have passed by the Dollar General Store on Clinch Avenue in the past week and have wondered why part of the building has been boarded up, it is because last weekend, someone accidentally crashed into the side of the store.
The incident occurred Saturday afternoon at around 1:30 p.m., when Betty Overton, 79, pulled into the parking lot and attempted to pull into an unoccupied parking spot. While doing so, her car struck a parked vehicle and kept going, slamming into the side of the building and creating a large hole.
Several shelves inside the store were knocked over and merchandise damaged, but no injuries were reported even though one woman who left the store before officers arrived was reportedly pinned in between two of the shelving units. No citations were issued in connection with the accident.
Randy Myers
Note: This story was updated at 3:48 p.m. April 11.
Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Randy Myers is resigning so he can focus on campaigning full-time for sheriff.
His last day on the job will officially be Tuesday, April 15.
“We’re campaigning full-steam,” Myers said Thursday. “We’re fully committed.”
Myers, 48, started with the ORPD in 2007. He is a Republican candidate for Anderson County sheriff in the May 6 primary election, where he has one opponent, Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper Anthony Lay. The primary winner will face the incumbent, Sheriff Paul White, a Democrat, in the Aug. 7 county general election.
A city board on Thursday declared this home at 117 Wade Lane to be unfit for human habitation and ordered it demolished within 90 days.
Note: This story was updated at 11:40 p.m.
From the outside, the homes look they’re in decent shape and not the worst in the neighborhood.
But inside and underneath, problems range from collapsing floors and settling foundations to leaking roofs and tens of thousands worth of mold damage.
On Thursday, a city board declared the five vacant homes to be unfit for human habitation, and members ordered them demolished within 90 days. The city could use federal money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to buy and demolish the homes. [Read more…]
Pictured above is the proposed Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex, with the administrative area in the front and the fortified section of the building in the rear. (Submitted image)
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Wednesday called for a special Senate hearing on whether an ongoing review of the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge could serve as a model to improve oversight of U.S. Department of Energy projects, a press release said.
In a hearing held by the Appropriations Subcommittee for Energy and Water Development, of which he is the lead Republican, Alexander noted that Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is currently conducting a “Red Team” review of UPF. Mason’s Red Team members are using the same process that has made the Office of Science the only office in DOE that successfully manages efficient and cost-effective projects, said Alexander, a Tennessee Republican. [Read more…]
