Oak Ridge Today

Secret City Wildbots ranked No. 9 in Smoky Mountain Regionals

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Smoky Mountain Regionals Team 4265

Photos by Angi Agle

 

By Angi Agle and University of Tennessee

With the first day of competition complete, the Secret City Wildbots are ranked Number 9 in the Smoky Mountain Regionals competition held at the Knoxville Convention Center. Continuing competition Saturday morning will determine final standings for the elimination rounds Saturday afternoon.

Team selection for the elimination rounds are based partly on standing (the top eight teams are automatically entered and choose two other schools for their teammates), but partly on individual capabilities and other factors.

At the end of the elimination rounds, the winning team of three robots earns the right to enter the World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, from April 22-25. [Read more…]

Smoky Mountain Regional robot competition kicked off Thursday with practice

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Smoky Mountain Regionals Team 4265

Photos by Angi Agle

 

By Angi Agle

The Smoky Mountain Regional robotics competition kicked off Thursday with practice rounds, and qualification matches began Friday morning.

The theme of this year’s game is “Recycle Rush.” Robots are to pick up recycle bins, put foam noodles in trash cans, and stack all of them in the center of the field. Additional points are gained for the number of containers stacked.

Human players feed foam noodles into the trash cans as the robots hold them up to a hole in the plexiglas, as well as feeding gray recycle bins into the field for the robots to stack.

Team 4265, the Secret City Wildbots, experienced some technical challenges, which were expected to be resolved Friday morning. [Read more…]

Severe thunderstorm warning, tornado watch in effect

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Watch vs. Warning

Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown

 

Anderson County is under a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch this evening, and quarter-size hail and 60 mph wind gusts are possible, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

The severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 7:54 p.m. Friday. It’s in effect until 8:45 p.m. and applies to Knox County, northeastern Roane and Loudon counties, southeastern Morgan County, and southern Anderson County.

The NWS said a severe thunderstorm was located near Oak Ridge and moving east at 45 mph at 7:53 p.m. Cities affected include Oak Ridge, Clinton, Oliver Springs, Farragut, Kingston, Karns, Powell, Bearden, and Knoxville.

Meanwhile, a tornado watch remains in effect until midnight Friday for much of East Tennessee.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Concert of Darkness at Unitarian Universalist Church on Good Friday

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The annual Concert of Darkness at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church will feature a variety of choral, instrumental, and solo selections that offer a time to reflect on the somber occasion of Good Friday, a press release said.

The concert starts at 4 p.m. Friday, April 3, at the church, which is at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Three Dog Night to headline Saturday night concert at Secret City Festival

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Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night (Submitted photo)

 

Three Dog Night will headline the Saturday night concert at the Secret City Festival in June.

The band’s hits include “Joy to the World,” “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Mama Told Me (Not To Come),” “Black and White,” “Shambala,” and “One.”

The 13th Annual Secret City Festival is June 12-13. Three Dog Night will play on Saturday, June 13. [Read more…]

Marshall Tucker Band to headline Friday night concert at Secret City Festival

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The Marshall Tucker Band

The Marshall Tucker Band (Submitted photo)

 

The Marshall Tucker Band will headline the Friday night concert at the Secret City Festival in June.

The band’s hits include “Heard It in a Love Song” and “Can’t You See.”

The Marshall Tucker Band started in Spartanburg, South Carolina, signed with Capricorn Records in 1972, and opened shows for The Allman Brothers in 1973, a press release said.

In 1974, the band began to headline its own shows across America due to the strong sales of its debut album, which went platinum, the release said. The Marshall Tucker Band toured rigorously over the years, playing sheds, stadiums, theaters, fairs, and festivals. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge teachers, principals ask for 4 percent pay raise

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Mike Haygood at Oak Ridge Board of Education

Mike Haygood, assistant principal at Jefferson Middle School, asks for a 4 percent salary increase on behalf of the Oak Ridge Education Association. At left is Steve Reddick, OREA co-president, and at center is Phil Cox, JMS principal.

 

Oak Ridge teachers and principals have requested a 4 percent salary increase in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Teachers said they’ve “gone backwards” in terms of real buying power during the past decade. And administrators said it’s become more difficult to attract quality applicants in part because of salaries.

It’s not clear yet if the requested increases will be approved or if the money is available or would require a property tax rate increase. There are a number of steps to complete before the budget receives final approval in June. Among other things, it has to be considered by both the Oak Ridge Board of Education and Oak Ridge City Council. [Read more…]

Four charged with aggravated robbery in alleged plot to steal rent money

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Raymond R. Gray

Raymond R. Gray

Four young Oak Ridge adults have been charged with aggravated robbery and criminal conspiracy in an alleged plot to rob a woman for rent money, authorities said.

The alleged armed robbery occurred on Highland Avenue at about midnight April 1, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Ben Higgins said in warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

The victim said three men who had their faces covered had robbed her at gunpoint and fled in a black Chevy sedan, the warrants said. The victim followed them north on Highland Avenue. [Read more…]

Breakthrough 5K supports programs for adults with autism

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Breakthrough Run Start

Organizers of the ninth annual Breakthrough 5K Run/Walk for Autism on April 18 invite youths and adults who have disabilities to join in the race.

Those with autism and any other disabilities are invited to join more than 400 runners and walkers in the 5K run and walk and one-mile Fun Walk that supports the not-for-profit Breakthrough of Knoxville, which provides a range of services to help adults with autism to live as independently as possible.

The Breakthrough Run/Walk for Autism begins at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Regal Cinemas Pinnacle Stadium 18 at Turkey Creek, in Farragut. The run, on a USATF-certified course, will have chip timing for the 5K. [Read more…]

City, Schools Preschool Building Planning Committee to meet April 9

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Oak Ridge Preschool and School Administration Building

The Oak Ridge City Council has agreed to use $150,000 in unspent red-light camera to repair the lead-based paint on the Oak Ridge Schools Preschool and Robert J. Smallridge School Administration Building on New York Avenue. Officials say the building needs to be renovated or vacated for the Head Start program to receive funding in the 2015-2016 school year. (File photo)

 

The new joint city-school committee that could lay the groundwork for a new preschool by the 2016-2017 school year will meet on Thursday, April 9.

The meeting of the Joint City/Schools Preschool Building Planning Committee will start at 1:30 p.m. April 9 in the School Administration Building conference room.

Members of the committee are Charlsey Cofer, Keys Fillauer, Bruce Borchers, Lee Ann Shelton, Jessica Hill, Allen Thacker, Mark Watson, Janice McGinnis, Ellen Smith, Shirley Raines, Pat Fallon, and Jon Hetrick.

The joint city-schools committee for the Preschool was endorsed earlier this year. For now, officials have agreed to use $150,000 in red-light camera money to repair the lead-based paint on the city’s Preschool, providing what officials hope will be a temporary fix while they develop a plan to permanently repair, replace, or move the Preschool. The city-school committee could work to determine space needs, develop an affordable finance plan, develop a project timetable, and make a public education plan.

ORNL part of project to study how tropical forests respond to climate change

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Amazon Tropical Rainforests

The future of tropical rainforests in the Amazon (pictured) and worldwide is the focus of a new research project that combines field experiments and predictive modeling. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory will play key roles in an expansive new project that aims to bring the future of tropical forests and the climate system into much clearer focus by coupling field research with the development of a new ecosystem model.

The project is called the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics, or NGEE-Tropics. Its goal is the development of a model that represents how tropical forests interact with Earth’s climate in much greater ecological detail than ever before. This will help scientists explore, more accurately than is possible today, how rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, increasing greenhouse gas levels, and other natural and human-induced changes affect tropical forests’ influence on Earth’s climate.

Led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the effort includes collaborators from Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. The study also includes researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NASA, and several institutions from other nations. [Read more…]

Workers building sewer system holding tank near Emory Valley Road

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Emory Valley Road Sewer System Holding Tanks

Workers assemble a sewer system holding tank near Emory Valley Road and Fairbanks Road on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Workers have been assembling a sewer system holding tank near Emory Valley Road and Fairbanks Road. It’s one of three tanks that will help Oak Ridge comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires the city to end all sewer system overflows by September 2015.

The Emory Valley Road tank is on a roughly one-acre tract on the east side of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center. The other two tanks will be built near the intersection of South Illinois Avenue and Scarboro Road, just down the street from the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex, and in an isolated, industrial area off Cairo Road in east Oak Ridge.

The Oak Ridge City Council approved the locations for the three tanks, officially known as equalization basins, in September 2013. The Anderson County Commission agreed to donate a small parcel of land for the Emory Valley Road tank. And the City Council agreed in December 2013 to buy a car wash owned by businessman Terry Mulllins for $125,000 and replace it with the tank at Scarboro Road and South Illinois Avenue as part of a plan to move that equalization basin farther back from the road. [Read more…]