Oak Ridge Today

Anderson high school student killed, another injured In Norris crash

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Information from WYSH Radio

An Anderson County High School senior was killed in a Monday afternoon traffic accident in Norris, and another teen was flown by a Lifestar helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

The Norris Police Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol responded to the crash shortly before 4:30 pm Monday at the intersection of Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway.

Cameron Sharp, 17, of Andersonville was killed in the wreck, and Evan Weaver, 18, also an ACHS senior and also from Andersonville, was injured. No update on his condition has been made available.

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Open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for Pugh and Co.

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The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce has organized a Tuesday morning open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony for Pugh and Co., certified public accountants and public advisers.

The ceremony is scheduled from 9-10 a.m. Tuesday at Pugh and Co., which is in the Jackson Plaza, Suite A-404, 800 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

One person dies in Decatur Road house fire

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Decatur Road House Fire

One person died in a Monday afternoon fire at a home at the corner of Decatur Road and Delaware Avenue. (Photo by Tom Scott)

One person died in a Monday afternoon house fire on Decatur Road, Oak Ridge Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said.

Authorities aren’t releasing the name or age of the person, pending notification of relatives. Authorities also wouldn’t say where the person was in the house during the fire.

The Oak Ridge police and fire departments are investigating the cause of the fire, which was concentrated around the home’s back porch and living room and sent thick gray and black smoke billowing skyward.

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Fire flares on Decatur Road back porch

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Decatur Road Fire

Oak Ridge firefighters quickly extinguished a fire at a Decatur Road home on Monday afternoon.

Oak Ridge firefighters quickly extinguished a fire that briefly raged at a Decatur Road home on Monday afternoon, including on the back porch.

Neighbors reported smoke at the home at about 2:45 p.m. Monday.

The Oak Ridge Fire Department appeared to bring the fire under control within a few minutes and later entered the home, which is at the intersection with Delaware Avenue. Firefighters remained on the scene more than 90 minutes afterward.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

School Board to discuss school resource officers, superintendent search

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Bob Smallridge

Bob Smallridge

The Oak Ridge Board of Education will discuss a plan to possibly add more school resource officers during a meeting this evening.

The board will also consider a new timeline in its search for a new superintendent.

Interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Robert J. Smallridge, who is a former superintendent in the Secret City, said he would like to have one school resource officer, or SRO, in each school. There is currently one SRO at the high school.

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City Council to discuss electronic signs, economic development

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Rivers Total Car Care Electronic Sign

Business owners with electronic signs, including Toney Stevens of Rivers Total Car Care in Oak Ridge, objected to a letter they received in December asking them to fix sign ordinance code violations. Since then, the violation notices have been canceled, and the Oak Ridge City Council will discuss the electronic sign ordinance in a work session tonight.

The Oak Ridge City Council will review the city’s electronic reader board sign ordinance during a work session at 7 p.m. today.

The meeting will also include a presentation and report on the city’s economic development programs and possible changes in how the city supports new jobs and companies, improves retail opportunities, and enhances housing improvements.

Changes to the city’s electronic sign ordinance were proposed late last year, but they were pulled from a December meeting of the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission agenda after a backlash from business owners.

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Dead for now, Manhattan Project national park bill could be reintroduced

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K-25 Building Aerial View

Now mostly demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building is pictured above. The site could be included in a Manhattan Project National Historical Park. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

A bill to create a Manhattan Project national park that would include Oak Ridge died in the last session of Congress, but the legislation could be revived this session.

“It will be reintroduced,” said Cindy Kelly, founder and president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. “We are very optimistic that the bill will move through the process.”

Besides Oak Ridge, the park would also include sites in Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash.

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Seven graduate from Y-12 apprentice program

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Y-12 Apprentice Graduation Ceremony

Brett Spradlen, third adult from left, was presented his carpenter’s certificate by Y-12 Vice President and Facilities, Infrastructure and Services Director Linda Bauer, third from right. Also pictured from left are Vivian Spradlen (Brett’s mother), Alison Spradlen (wife), Hunter and Brody Spradlen (sons), Eddie Spradlen (father and Y-12 Security and Emergency Services employee), and Wayne Jobe (Y-12 journeyman carpenter). (Submitted photo)

Seven people recently graduated from the Y-12 National Security Complex Apprentice Program at a ceremony held at the site’s New Hope Center.

Each graduate spent three to four years with a journeyworker and attended between 144 and 246 hours of classroom training each year on his own time, usually in the evenings at local union halls.

This is the second graduation ceremony for the restarted apprentice program at the site. Previously, Y-12 had not graduated an apprentice for almost 30 years.

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‘Doctor Woman’ discussed at Monday AAUW talk

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May Wharton, founder of the Uplands Retirement Village in Pleasant Hill, Tenn., will be one of the subjects of a Monday talk at an American Association of University Women meeting at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.

Dr. Wharton, who came to Pleasant Hill in 1917, was called “Doctor Woman.”

Monday’s talk by W. Calvin Dickinson, a retired history professor at Tennessee Tech, starts at 11:30 a.m. Dickinson will also talk about Dr. Dora Lee Wilder, the first woman to receive a medical license in Tennessee, early in the 19th century.

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Democratic Party honors volunteers Monday

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The Anderson County Democratic Party will honor and thank volunteers who worked in the campaigns of all Democratic candidates in 2012 elections with a free dinner and party at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, at the Clinton Community Center.

Volunteers throughout the county worked in campaigns ranging from President Obama’s re-election campaign to the campaigns of state and local candidates in 2012.

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Aldi could open at Woodland Town Center in September

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Aldi Site at Woodland Town Center

The property at Woodland Town Center where an Aldi grocery store could open by September near Panera Bread and Aubrey’s between South Illinois and South Purdue avenues.

The new grocery store that could open on South Illinois Avenue by September could be an Aldi, a developer said Friday.

The 15,800-square-foot store would be on 1.6 acres at Woodland Town Center, where the new Aubrey’s and relocated Panera Bread opened in October. It would be across from those two restaurants, on the other side of a new roadway called Woodland Terrace East.

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Two industry fires reported in Clinton

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ORFD Tower Truck

The Oak Ridge Fire Department responded with a tower truck and personnel to a Thursday evening fire at Rexnord Link Belt Plant on J.D. Yarnell Industrial Parkway in Clinton. (Photos by Tom Scott)

Two fires were reported Thursday night and early Friday morning at businesses in Clinton.

The first fire broke out Thursday night at Rexnord, and the second one occurred early Friday at Eagle Bend Manufacturing, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton. In both fires, no injuries were reported, and they are not believed to be suspicious in nature.

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