Wildflower fans will enjoy a guided, curated hike on Haw Ridge this Saturday, April 29, at 10 am. There will likely be sightings of inconspicuous orchid, Wister’s coralroot, and other spring wildflowers, a press release said.
“Some of these flowers are growing on a small cedar barren,” said botanist and hike leader Larry Pounds. “We’ll walk a loop of less than two miles. The trail is rough in places.†[Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy has asked for public comment about a proposed plan to reduce groundwater contamination in the main plant area of East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.
Comments are for an interim record of decision. There will be a public meeting Tuesday evening in Oak Ridge.
“The proposed plan identifies enhanced in situ bioremediation (EISB) as DOE’s preferred alternative to remediate six specific areas of groundwater in the main plant area of the East Tennessee Technology Park,” DOE said in a public notice distributed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. “EISB is a method that involves using microorganisms to reduce contamination levels in these specific areas of groundwater. For these six areas, workers have excavated, or will excavate, the primary sources of contamination, as specified in the Record of Decision for Soil, Buried Waste, and Subsurface Structure Actions in Zone 2, East Tennessee Technology Park, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (DOE/OR/01-2161&D2).
[Read more…]Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has appointed Wartburg attorney Jamie Brooks as chancellor for the Seventh Judicial District in Anderson County.
The vacancy was created when former Chancellor M. Nichole “Nicki†Cantrell, the county’s first female chancellor, resigned in January.
“Jamie is a highly qualified attorney who will bring significant legal experience to the Seventh Judicial District,†Lee said in a press release last week. “I appreciate his leadership and am confident he will serve Tennesseans with integrity.â€
Brooks is currently a solo practitioner at Wilson and Brooks, and he has more than 37 years of varied legal expertise, including real property law, family law, wills and estates, and criminal defense, the press release said. His law firm page said he has has also practiced divorce, personal injury, elder, appellate, and real estate law.
[Read more…]Two championship regattas have been at the Oak Ridge Marina this month.
The first was the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Championship Regatta on April 15-16.
The second is the Dogwood Junior Championship Regatta this weekend, April 22-23.
The regattas are hosted by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association.
[Read more…]The Oak Ridge City Council in a special meeting Tuesday evening, April 18, will discuss a water intake bypass during construction of the new water plant at the Clinch River.
During the meeting, the seven-member Council will consider awarding a contract worth up to $367,4000 to Morgan Construction for materials and installation of the bypass water line at the water intake site.
The special meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom. You can see the agenda here.
After the special meeting, the seven-member Council will hear a presentation of a housing study by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. There will also be a follow-up discussion of the school resource officer program, an update about the conference center plaza project, and a review of the airport project. You can see the agenda here.
Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers will speak about the “State of Oak Ridge Schools†at Lunch with the League on Tuesday, April 18.
The program is open to the community and will be held from 12-1 p.m. at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. A meet and greet will begin at 11:30 a.m. [Read more…]
Ken Tarcza
Ken Tarcza has joined Oak Ridge Associated Universities as chief of staff.
Tarcza comes to ORAU after an impressive military and federal career, a press release said.
A graduate of West Point, Tarcza spent his military career serving in numerous roles, including assistant professor of mechanical engineering at West Point; commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency’s Southern Europe office in Wiesbaden, Germany; and chief of staff for the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
After retiring from the military in 2015, he went on to be a supervisory physical scientist for the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground before being named manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office and Office of Science Integrated Support Center/Consolidated Service Center in 2016. There, Tarcza and his organization helped enable more than $10 billion of annual program activity, the press release said. [Read more…]
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded Geiger Brothers a $9.9 million contract to build the K-25 Viewing Platform at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge. The Viewing Platform will help commemorate what was once the world’s largest building and part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. The site enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants through the Cold War.
The K-25 Viewing Platform will be next to the K-25 History Center, which opened about three years ago. It will give visitors a complete view of the former building’s massive 44-acre footprint.
While the K-25 History Center focuses on the men and women who built and operated the Oak Ridge Diffusion Plant during the Manhattan Project and Cold War, this facility will help visitors understand the scope and magnitude of the former K-25 Building, a press release said.
The U-shaped K-25 Building was a mile long. It was demolished in 2013.
Construction on the Viewing Platform is scheduled to begin in May 2023, and it is expected to be complete in late 2024, the press release said.
[Read more…]
Mark Watson
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson will present “State of the City” during at Lunch with the League on Tuesday.
Watson, who is retiring in May, will be the featured speaker at noon Tuesday, April 4, in the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. It’s hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
Watson has served as Oak Ridge city manager since August 2010. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration and city management from the University of Kansas. In 2019, he received his doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in public administration and American government. [Read more…]
Mickey Wade has been named associate laboratory director for the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective April 1.
“To reach the nation’s clean energy goals, we must develop and deploy nuclear energy technologies,” interim ORNL Director Jeff Smith said in a press release. “Given his experience in industry and the national lab system, Mickey is the perfect choice to ensure ORNL is applying its leading expertise and capabilities to help the United States reach net zero.”
In his new role, Wade will oversee the directorate’s facilities, capabilities, and scientists and engineers who are tackling such challenges as extending operations of the current U.S. nuclear reactor fleet, investigating economical and flexible advanced reactor systems, and making fusion energy a viable power source, the press release said.
[Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy is conducting controlled burns of grassland areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation through mid-April, weather permitting.
People may see smoke from this activity. However, smoke in Oak Ridge and other areas in the region could also be the result of prescribed burns currently being undertaken by other federal and state agencies, a press release said.
It said the controlled burns are planned on the Three Bend Area off Pump House and Bull Bluff Roads and other managed grassland areas off Bethel Valley Road and off Highway 58.
[Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department will host its free annual Community Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 1 at 11 a.m.
The egg hunt will be a traditional style Egg Hunt held at Alvin K. Bissell Park. Parking will be available at both the East and West Civic Center parking lots. In the event of severe weather, eggs and prizes will be handed out via drive through at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
The event is limited to children aged four through fourth grade. Families are asked to pre-register at Eventbrite.com. Pre-registration helps staff plan for the correct number of eggs and other supplies, a press release said.
[Read more…]