Information from WYSH Radio
On Thursday, the Oliver Springs Budget Committee recommended a tax rate increase and across-the-board water and sewer rate increases as they prepare to adopt a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
BBB-TV reported that the committee recommended water and sewer rate increases for both residential and commercial customers as the city prepares to apply for a loan to make improvements to its aging wastewater plant. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
On Monday, the Norris City Council voted on second and final reading to adopt its budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The budget approved this week contains no property tax rate increase, but it does provide 2 percent cost-of-living raises for city workers.
The Council did approve rate increases in water and sewer service that should cause customers’ bills to go up by anywhere from $5 to $10 a month. The increased rates are needed to pay for sewer improvements mandated by the state that will be undertaken during the next three years.
Magician Mark Young will be featured at Wonderful Wednesday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on June 19. (Submitted photo)
The sleight-of-hand tricks of a magician will be featured at Wonderful Wednesday, from 11 a.m.-noon June 19 at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. Mark Young will bring his entertaining magic show to the museum, delighting children with his magic tricks.
Young was a professional magician for 20 years, working in such locations as the Big Red Boat cruise line of Walt Disney World, Cypress Gardens in Florida, and Opryland in Nashville. The magician began learning tricks as a child in Oak Ridge and has entertained children and adults at past museum events. [Read more…]
CLINTON—The Anderson County Commission endorsed a budget Thursday that lowers the property tax rate, gives employees a day off, and is supposed to provide enough money to pay for jailers hired in the past year while allowing the sheriff to hire new ones for a jail addition that could open later this year.
The budget would also restore some funding for the relatively new Alternatives to Incarceration program, which Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank had proposed cutting by 80 percent, and add money to cover the cost of increased health insurance premiums for county employees.
The budget was endorsed in a 12-1-1 vote during a special meeting Thursday, the second this week. It could officially be adopted during the County Commission’s regular meeting on Monday. [Read more…]
Organizing for Action will be holding an event on Saturday called Climate Cleanup. This event will take place at 3:30 p.m. and be held at the pavilion at Melton Lake Park next to the New China Place restaurant in Oak Ridge.
Climate Cleanup will start with Organizing for Action fellow Scott Julius giving a speech about climate change, why the climate change deniers are wrong, and how this problem impacts Tennessee. His assistant Rose Williams will give a short speech about what one can do to help. Their goal is to encourage people to contact senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander to get them to sponsor comprehensive climate change legislation.
After the speeches, a cleanup will take place to help remove litter from the park, allowing those present to do something tangible to help the environment. [Read more…]
A city board has declared Price Florist on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation and use.
Price Florist won’t be demolished yet.
On Thursday, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals declared the longtime business on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation or use. It’s already been vacated, and the property owner is cleaning it up.
But the six board members at Thursday’s meeting stopped short of issuing a demolition order. [Read more…]
A 20-month-old boy ran out in front of a car on New Clear Branch Road south of Lake City on Thursday morning and was hit by a car, authorities said.
The boy, who had run out from his home on New Clear Branch Road, had no broken bones, but he was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Joseph Lindsay said. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge firefighters investigate a report of smoke at Oak Ridge Utility District on Thursday morning. They found a hot ceiling tile and determined a light ballast had apparently failed, causing a fixture to overheat and igniting insulation paper. (Submitted photos)
The Oak Ridge Fire Department called it a “near miss.”
Firefighters responded at about 6:40 a.m. Thursday to a report of smoke at the Oak Ridge Utility District office building on South Jefferson Circle. The source of the smoke was initially believed to be a motor on a heat and air unit that had failed, but fire crews using a thermal imaging camera located a hot ceiling tile in an office, an ORFD press release said.
“It appears that a light ballast had failed, causing the fixture to overheat, which ignited the paper backing on the insulation lying directly on top of the recessed light,” the release said. “The paper burned along the insulation for approximately five feet until the insulation came into contact with a sprinkler pipe, where it self-extinguished. There was no damage, smoke or water, to the building, and the burned insulation was removed by the firefighters.” [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Fire Department responds to a trash fire apparently started by charcoal ashes on Golfcrest Lane on Wednesday. Pictured above are Oak Ridge Fire Department Capt. Kerry Osborne on top of ladder, and firefighters Joe Brackins, left, and Seth Burnett.
(Photo by Tom Scott)
Charcoal ashes discarded in a trash bag on a deck apparently started a Wednesday afternoon fire on Golfcrest Lane, the Oak Ridge Fire Department said Thursday.
Firefighters responded to a report of smoke at 119 Golfcrest Lane at 12:49 p.m. Wednesday. A neighbor threw water on the flames before the Fire Department arrived and the small fire was out, an ORFD press release said.
The only damage to the home was a small hole in two boards in the deck. [Read more…]
A Neon Vibe 5K will be held at A.K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge on Sept. 21. (Photo courtesy Neon Vibe 5K)
The “Atomic City” will “light up the night” this fall when a brand new event, the Neon Vibe 5K, comes to town.
The 5K is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21, at A.K. Bissell Park. The Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the race this week.
The Neon Vibe 5K is an after-dark, fluorescent glow light fun run that will have participants “glowing crazy with color and dancing all night long,” a press release said. Starting with the 5K, participants will run a traditional, non-competitive 3.1-mile course with four UV black light “glow zone” color stations and upbeat dance music set up throughout the route. [Read more…]
A tree fell on a vacant Delaware Avenue home during a severe Monday night storm. (Photo by Brad Jones)
A strong storm that blew through Oak Ridge on Monday knocked two trees down onto homes. One fell onto a firefighter’s house and caused several thousand dollars worth of damage, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said.
Firefighters also responded to a call from a woman who called 911 and said she thought she had been struck by lightning during the 7 p.m. storm.
“Upon arrival, the fire department found her in the living room of her home complaining of chest pain,” Kerley said. “She stated she was standing looking out the window when lighting hit in front of her, and she began experiencing chest pain. She was transported to Methodist Medical Center for evaluation.” [Read more…]
Radio Systems Corp.—home of the PetSafe and SportDOG brands—recently awarded $2,000 to the Mutt Strutt, a charity dog walk created by the Young Professionals of Oak Ridge Community Outreach Committee in partnership with SARG (Shelter Animal Rescue Group).
The Mutt Strutt was created to support the improvement of the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, and this year’s event will be held at A.K. Bissell Park at 10 a.m. Saturday. [Read more…]
