Oak Ridge Today

Council to consider Blankenship design agreement, money for relocated court

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The renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium could start in January and be complete by June, officials said Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018, will consider an in-kind design agreement for renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)

 

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider an in-kind design agreement for renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium and $70,000 in funding for renovations for Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division II, which is moving to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road.

The Blankenship Field design contract would be awarded to Barge Design Solutions of Knoxville. It would be an in-kind donation to the project, valued at up to $50,000, and used to help meet the requirement to have matching funds for a Local Park and Recreation Fund grant awarded to the city by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. That $496,000 grant required a 50 percent local match, which is to come from the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation.

The Barge Design Solutions work would include surveying, civil engineering, landscape design, permitting, and construction administration.

The roughly $1 million project is called the Oak Ridge Blankenship Field Renovation and Trailhead Improvement Project. [Read more…]

Montessori School of Oak Ridge closing after 40 years

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The Montessori School of Oak Ridge is pictured above.

The Montessori School of Oak Ridge is pictured above.

Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 a.m. Sept. 22.

After 40 years, the Montessori School of Oak Ridge is closing.

There will be a silent auction on Saturday, September 30, at the Montessori School from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., a press release said. School items and miscellaneous games will be in the auction. The school is located at 728 Emory Valley Road in Oak Ridge. There will be office equipment, furniture, and small appliances also.

Opened in 1977, the Montessori School of Oak Ridge is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation chartered by the State of Tennessee for operation as a parent-owned cooperative. It is certified by the Tennessee Department of Education for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, and it has been “dedicated to providing a high quality Montessori program to children ages 2 to 6 years from all racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.” [Read more…]

Regions Foundation donates $20,000 for new Emory Valley Center building

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Regions Capital Donation to Emory Valley Center

Pictured above from left are Dottie Thompson, Emory Valley Center Capital Campaign co-chair; Jenks Bostic, Regions Bank consumer banking executive for East Tennessee and North Carolina presenting check to Emory Valley President Jennifer Enderson; Janet Wood, Emory Valley Center development director; Gene Caldwell, Emory Valley Center Capital Campaign co-chair; and Kevin Crateau, Regions Bank East Tennnessee and North Carolina Area marketing director. (Submitted photo)

 

Regions Foundation recently presented a check for $20,000 to President Jennifer Enderson for Emory Valley Center’s Capital Campaign for a new building on Emory Valley Road.

Jenks Bostic, Regions Bank consumer banking executive for East Tennessee and North Carolina. and Kevin Crateau, Regions Bank East Tennessee and North Carolina area marketing director, recently participated in a tour of Emory Valley Center and were inspired by the people supported by the agency to request a donation from Regions Foundation.

Bostic also has a personal connection to Emory Valley Center. His mother, Bertie Bostic, was a well-respected, longtime teacher at the Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center (DARC) and his father, Paul Bostic, was the superintendent of Anderson County Schools under whose administration both the DARC and the Emory Valley School operated for many years. Bostic is well acquainted with the work and mission of Emory Valley Center, a press release said. [Read more…]

Students to raise money for Emory Valley Center at musical coffeehouse Friday

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Emory Valley Center Early Learning Center

A coffeehouse at First Presbyterian Church on Friday will benefit the Emory Valley Center, which has been raising money for a new building on Emory Valley Road.

A coffeehouse at First Presbyterian Church on Friday will raise money for the Emory Valley Center.

The coffeehouse “promises to be fun-filled and very musical,” and it will feature 11 acts and 19 performers, a press release said. The performances will include folksy guitar plucking, women’s a capella, and modern dance.

The night will help the Emory Valley Center launch its final year of fundraising for a new building on Emory Valley Road, the release said.

The coffeehouses are operated by college students, and they are designed to provide an enjoyable musical venue while also raising funds for worthy causes in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

B&W Y-12 donates $75,000 for new Emory Valley Center building

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Emory Valley Center Early Learning Center

B&W Y-12 donated $75,000 to Emory Valley Center on Wednesday as part of a capital campaign to help build a new facility to replace the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center on Emory Valley Road by 2015.

Fundraisers at 75 percent of goal

B&W Y-12 donated $75,000 on Wednesday to help the Emory Valley Center build a new facility by early 2015, when a county-owned building that houses some of its programs is expected to be torn down.

B&W Y-12 has now donated $175,000 of a $250,000 pledge, and EVC volunteers have raised $2.5 million of their $3.3 million goal, said former state representative and pediatrician Gene Caldwell, who is co-chair of the EVC capital campaign. That’s 75 percent of the fundraising goal.

Emory Valley Center now has two facilities across the street from each other on Emory Valley Road. The new 30,000-square-foot building west of the current administrative and workshop areas on the south side side of Emory Valley Road would consolidate the nonprofit’s operations, which include an Early Learning Center, gym, offices, kitchen, and work training center.

“This is a huge, huge help,” EVC President Jennifer Enderson of the B&W Y-12 donation. “The clock is ticking on when we must vacate an existing facility, and we can’t start construction of the new one until we have raised enough money.” [Read more…]

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…]

Emory Valley Road land could be donated for Oak Ridge sewer system tank

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Emory Valley Equalization Basin

Anderson County commissioners have endorsed donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for an Oak Ridge sewer system holding tank.

CLINTON—Despite a few concerns about whether the tank would be an eyesore, Anderson County officials on Monday endorsed a request to give up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road in Oak Ridge for a sewer system holding tank.

The tank would be east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center, and it would be used to help Oak Ridge stop all sewer system overflows by 2015, as required by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order.

The Anderson County Commission endorsed the land donation in a voice vote Monday night. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge asks for county land on Emory Valley Road for sewer system tank

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Emory Valley Equalization Basin

Oak Ridge officials have asked Anderson County to consider donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for a sewer system holding tank.

Oak Ridge officials have asked Anderson County to consider donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for a sewer system holding tank east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Oak Ridge to stop all sewer system overflows by 2015, and studies have shown that several holding tanks are required at critical locations “to equalize and detain excess flow during heavy rain events,” Public Works Director Gary Cinder said in a July 26 memo. One equalization tank would be required near the county-owned Daniel Arthur Center, which is used by satellite county offices, the Oak Ridge Senior Center, and the Emory Valley Center.

The Anderson County Operations Committee will consider the request during a Monday evening meeting. [Read more…]