Oak Ridge Today

Council to consider utility rate increases, sewer tanks, new fire trucks

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Emory Valley Road Sewer System Holding Tank

A draft image of what a sewer system holding tank could look like on Emory Valley Road east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center. The proposal could change based upon input from Oak Ridge City Council members. (Images courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

Oak Ridge officials are considering utility rate increases that could cost many residents another $6.87 per month, and they have also proposed building three large sewer system holding tanks, including two near busy roadways, in response to a federal order requiring the city to stop all sewer system overflows by September 2015.

Council could consider those proposals, as well as a request to buy three new fire trucks, during its Sept. 9 meeting. [Read more…]

Two Knox robberies solved with arrests of Clinton men

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Information from WYSH Radio

Two Clinton men were arrested Wednesday on charges stemming from two, unrelated Knox County bank robberies.

The first robbery occurred Saturday morning at the ORNL Federal Credit Union branch on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville. Authorities say that 32-year-old Jason Ronald Brown walked into the branch Saturday morning, said he had a bomb, and demanded money. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash but left the purported bomb behind. The Knoxville Police Department’s Bomb Squad determined that it was not a real bomb. [Read more…]

Former Powell Clinch utility chief pleads guilty to theft charges

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Information from WYSH Radio

Former Powell Clinch Utility District president and general manager Del Roberts pleaded guilty Wednesday in an Anderson County courtroom to stealing almost $94,000 from the utility.

Roberts pleaded guilty to charging $93,856 on a PCUD credit card and hiding the charges in a special account between January of 2007 and May of 2010. Roberts spent the money on things like vacations, college tuition, dental care, and other personal expenses. [Read more…]

With asbestos removed, DOE starts month-long move back into Federal Building

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Oak Ridge Federal Building

The asbestos-containing insulation has been removed, and U.S. Department of Energy employees and contractors started a month-long move back into the Joe L. Evins Federal Building this week.

The asbestos-containing insulation has been removed, and U.S. Department of Energy employees and contractors started a month-long move back into the Joe L. Evins Federal Building this week, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The move back into the five-story building should be complete by the end of September, said Ben Williams, public affairs specialist for the DOE Oak Ridge Office. [Read more…]

ORNL-grown oxygen ‘sponge’ presents path to better catalysts, energy materials

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ORNL Oxygen Sponge

This schematic depicts a new ORNL-developed material that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new oxygen “sponge” that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms at low temperatures. Materials with these novel characteristics would be useful in devices such as rechargeable batteries, sensors, gas converters, and fuel cells.

Materials containing atoms that can switch back and forth between multiple oxidation states are technologically important but very rare in nature, said ORNL’s Ho Nyung Lee, who led the international research team that published its findings in Nature Materials. [Read more…]

Woman reports stranger in home, police find insufficient evidence to confirm

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Police had insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove a report that a woman returned home to find an unknown man in a South Beverly Circle house on Tuesday afternoon and might have been injured by him, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The Oak Ridge Police Department received a call at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday that a woman had returned to the house in west Oak Ridge and was surprised by the man inside.
[Read more…]

Stand up paddleboarding races at Oak Ridge Marina on Sept. 8

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Chattanooga Stand Up Paddleboarding Competition

A stand up paddleboarding competition in Chattanooga. (Photo courtesy ORCVB)

People in the recreation industry call it a fast-growing sport with a Hawaiian heritage.

It’s stand up paddleboarding, or SUP, and it’s coming to Oak Ridge in September in a new event called the Secret City SUP Classic. It will feature two races starting at 2 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Oak Ridge Marina on Melton Lake Park.

“SUP is a new sport that’s taking the waterways by storm, and Oak Ridge provides the perfect venue for these races,” said Katy Brown, executive director of the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We hope paddleboarders of all ages will come out to the waterfront as we introduce the region to a different side of the Secret City.” [Read more…]

First local Habitat for Humanity family celebrates mortgage payoff with mortgage burning

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Habitat for Humanity Mortgage Burning

The first family to pay off its mortgage in the traditional manner through Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County celebrates with a mortgage burning ceremony last week. Pictured from left are homeowners Becky and Ray Seiber and HFHAC Executive Director Jennifer Sheehan.

The first family to pay off its mortgage in the traditional manner through Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County, making monthly mortgage payments, celebrated with a mortgage burning ceremony last week.

Owned by Becky and Ray Seiber, the home just north of Oliver Springs in the Cove community was also the first house built by the then-new Habitat for Humanity chapter in 1992. The Seibers are considered the affiliate’s first family. [Read more…]

UT names nuclear materials expert as 13th UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair

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Steve Zinkle

Steve Zinkle

KNOXVILLE—Steve Zinkle, an authority on the effect of radiation on materials in fission and fusion nuclear reactors, has been named the thirteenth University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair.

Zinkle will serve as Governor’s Chair for Nuclear Materials, based in the department of nuclear engineering at UT with a complementary appointment in materials science and engineering. He begins at UT on Oct. 1. [Read more…]

Roane Alliance’s annual fundraising gala is Nov. 1

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Roane Alliance Annual Gala

The crowd at a previous Roane Alliance Annual Gala. (Submitted photo)

The 2013 Roane Alliance Gala will be held Friday, Nov. 1, and the theme of this year’s annual fundraiser will be “Magic.”

“The Roane Alliance Gala is always kind of a magical event,” said Roane Alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Henderson. “So, it just made sense to embrace that as our theme this year.”

The Gala is the primary annual fundraising event for The Alliance, and the money raised from the night goes toward funding the many programs The Alliance administers throughout the year to ensure quality growth for Roane County, a press release said. [Read more…]

New Nashville center for financial services firm UBS to add 1,000 jobs

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Tennessee and Nashville officials announced Wednesday that UBS, a global financial services firm, will establish a shared services center in Nashville, adding 1,000 jobs. It’s a $36.5 million investment, officials said.

UBS currently provides operations support in Nashville through more than 200 employees and has a full-service wealth management office, a press release said. The new UBS Nashville Business Solutions Center will offer expanded business services in support of their wealth management and investment banking divisions. [Read more…]

Council approves pedestrian safety projects, Chamber contract

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Oak Ridge City Council

During a special meeting Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council approved pedestrian safety improvement projects on Oak Ridge Turnpike and at Jackson Square, and approved a contract worth up to $175,000 with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. (File photo)

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday agreed to use more than $500,000 in red light camera money to improve the city-owned parking lot on the north side of Jackson Square and make eight Oak Ridge Turnpike intersections safer for pedestrians.

Council also approved a $175,000 contract with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, an amount that was down significantly from previous years but higher than what City Manager Mark Watson had originally proposed earlier this year. [Read more…]