The Tennessee Division of Forestry and the U.S. Department of Energy will have controlled burns beginning at noon and ending at 7 p.m. Monday, April 5.
The controlled burns will continue Tuesday if necessary, the City of Oak Ridge said.
The controlled burn will be in the area of Wisconsin and Whippoorwill Drive in west Oak Ridge.
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The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival will feature three renowned storytellers on June 5. This year’s festival, led by volunteers from three Oak Ridge Rotary clubs, will be virtual because of COVID-19 concerns.
The featured storytellers will be Andy Offutt Irwin, Bil Lepp, and Kim Weitkamp. They are known to audiences nationwide for their wit, wisdom, and abilities to make audiences laugh, cry, and reminisce, a press release said.
Information on ticket purchases, prices, and additional workshops will be announced later. The evening show will be 8 p.m. Saturday, June 5.
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Canceled last year, the postponed Secret City Festival is scheduled for September this year.
Normally held in June, the Secret City Festival was canceled last year a few months after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
This year’s festival is scheduled for September 24 and 25 in Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. Organizers said it will feature two days of music, food, history, science, and more. Details of the festival haven’t been announced yet.
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The Lavender Festival will not be held again this year, organizers announced Sunday after consulting with Oak Ridge city officials.
“While many people have been vaccinated and COVID-19 cases are decreasing, Lavender Festival’s crowd and limited area make it an unsafe event to hold early in the summer,” organizers said. “We have always prided ourselves on creating a happy, stress-free festival focused on good health. We cannot in good conscience create an event that would endanger our vendors or guests, many of whom attend the festival from other states, or anyone in the Oak Ridge community.”
Organizers said vendors accepted to the 2020 festival should check their email for information for vendors.
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A tall, talented Houston team with several future Division I basketball players eliminated Oak Ridge 77-45 in a Class AAA state semifinal tournament game in Murfreesboro on Friday.
Oak Ridge (28-6) took an early 6-0 lead in the BlueCross Basketball Championships game at Middle Tennessee State University. But after Houston (22-3) took the lead with about three minutes left in the first quarter, the Mustangs never gave it up and they led by as many as 33 points.
Still, Oak Ridge was down by only eight points, 29-21, at halftime.
However, the Mustangs outscored the Wildcats 33-10 in the third quarter and had a 62-31 lead going into the final quarter. Houston senior forward Zander Yates (6-foot-8) scored 14 points in less than two minutes in the third quarter to help open up that lead for the Mustangs.
Houston, a team from Germantown east of Memphis, had four starters, including Yates, who are 6-foot-6 or taller. Oak Ridge had one, 6-foot-8 senior center Jonathan Milloway. The Mustangs had a rebounding advantage, 40 to 27, and they also shot 50 percent from the field (26 of 52) and almost 50 percent from beyond the three-point line (11 of 23).
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Oak Ridge advanced to a state semifinal basketball game on Friday with a 68-57 win over Siegel in a Class AAA quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Here are photos of Thursday’s game by Zack James.
The Wildcats (28-5) will play Houston (19-3) of Germantown, east of Memphis, at 8:30 p.m. Central time Friday in a semifinal game in the BlueCross Basketball Championships at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
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Note: This story was last updated at 12 p.m. March 19.
Oak Ridge advanced to a state semifinal basketball game on Friday with a 68-57 win over Siegel in a Class AAA quarterfinal game on Thursday.
The Wildcats (28-5) will play Houston (21-3) of Germantown, east of Memphis, at 8:30 p.m. Central time Friday. The BlueCross Basketball Championships are in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
[Read more…]The citywide household trash pickup program will start Monday, April 5. Household trash, old appliances, and minor remodeling materials will be picked up, a press release said.
A schedule is below. The city said its collection efforts will follow the schedule as closely as possible.
“Residents have always been very cooperative and we ask for their continued cooperation this year by following a few guidelines,” the city said in the press release.
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The Oak Ridge Wildcats will play Siegel in the first round of the Class AAA state high school basketball championship on Thursday.
Oak Ridge (27-5) and Siegel (27-4) are two of eight Class AAA boys teams in the BlueCross State Championships in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
The Wildcats and the Stars, a Murfreesboro team, are scheduled to play at 7 p.m. Thursday (Central time). You can see the tournament bracket here.
Oak Ridge, which had finished second in Region 2, advanced to the state tournament by beating Dobyns-Bennett, which had finished first in Region 1, 65-61 in a Class AAA sectional game in Kingsport on Monday, March 8.
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The first Secret City Improv Festival in Oak Ridge is scheduled for September.
The festival had originally been scheduled for October 2020, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a press release said.
The rescheduled festival will now be Friday, September 24, and Saturday, September 25, this year at the Grove Theater.
The festival is a spin-off festival from the “perennially fun and spontaneous Gatlinburg Improv Festival,” the press release said.
“Our goal for the Secret City Improv Festival is to provide an environment to foster networking opportunities and collaboration for improv teams from all around,” the press release said. “Our mission is to showcase a diversity of teams and styles on the stage and to foster growth through workshops.”
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Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs has been promoted to deputy city manager. He will start his new job Monday, March 8.
In his new position, Suggs will help with several projects, including the new water plant, economic development projects, computer software, and the transfer of the Oak Ridge Airport project, the city said in a press release.
Suggs’ promotion will allow other potential leaders to advance, most immediately in the Oak Ridge Electric Department, the press release said. Ardo Ba, who is currently the department’s electric operations manager, will serve as interim electric director.
“The city is fortunate to have someone with a unique set of engineering, business, and operations knowledge and experience who is able to step up,†Suggs said of Ba. “I am confident that I am leaving the department in capable hands.â€
Suggs joined the City of Oak Ridge in 1989 as assistant director of public works after having served in related professional positions in Texas. He began serving as electric director in 1991.
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They won the District 3-AAA championship game against Clinton. They advanced to the Region 2 championship game by defeating West and Maryville in quarterfinal and semifinal games.
On Thursday, in the championship game, they finished second in the region, losing 55-52 to Bearden after narrowing a 15-point Bulldogs lead late in the third quarter to one point late in the fourth.
Tonight, Monday, March 8, the Oak Ridge Wildcats (26-5) will play for a chance to compete in the state basketball tournament. They will travel to Dobyns-Bennett (25-4) in Kingsport in upper East Tennessee for one of eight Class AAA sectional games across the state. The winners of the sectional games advance to the state tournament in Murfreesboro, and the season is over for the losers.
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