Oak Ridge Today

Temps could stay below freezing through Christmas

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The extreme cold wind chills will continue much of the day on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. When going outside, dress appropriately. Wear several layers of clothes, coat, hat, and gloves. (Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown)

Temperatures could stay below freezing through Christmas, and a wind chill warning remains in effect for Oak Ridge through early Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

The wind chill warning expires at 1 p.m. Saturday. The NWS forecast said wind chill values could range between -3 and 7 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds of between 5 and 10 miles per hour. Scattered snow flurries are possible between noon and 2 p.m. Saturday.

The high Saturday is forecast near 22. The low Saturday night is forecast at 12.

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Updated: TVA ends blackouts in Oak Ridge

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Note: This story was updated at 3 p.m.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has terminated rolling blackouts in Oak Ridge.

“Everything is now going back to normal,” City of Oak Ridge spokesperson Lauren Gray said.

The mandatory rolling blackouts that affected electricity across the region and in the City of Oak Ridge were to help TVA meet the power demand today (Friday, December 23), a press release said.

The blackouts were expected to affect about 2 percent of Oak Ridge Electric Department customers and last for about 30 minutes, the press release said. The blackouts were expected across the Tennessee Valley.

They were being conducted because of the low temperatures and to meet high power demand, according to the press release, which came from the City of Oak Ridge.

Information was not available about which 2 percent of customers were affected, although there were measures in place to ensure hospitals, fire departments, and other similar operations are not without power, Gray said.

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NWS: Dangerous wind chills possible

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Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown

Dangerous wind chills are possible from Thursday to Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

The temperature could drop to 11 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday night, 5 degrees on Friday night, and 9 degrees on Saturday night, according to the NWS forecast for Oak Ridge.

And there could be wind gusts of up to 20-30 miles per hour between Thursday night and Saturday, the Oak Ridge forecast said, making the outside air temperature feel even colder.

Wind chills in the area between Knoxville and Kingston could range between -10 and -12 from Friday morning to mid-Saturday, the NWS said.

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Oak Ridge wins two tourism awards

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Pictured above are, from left, Rebecca Williams and Barbara Ferrell of the Lavender Festival; Katy Watt, president of Explore Oak Ridge; and Mark Ezell, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourism at a recent awards ceremony. (Photo courtesy Explore Oak Ridge/City of Oak Ridge)

Oak Ridge has won two awards for promoting tourism in middle East Tennessee, an area that includes the Knoxville metropolitan area.

The Oak Ridge Lavender Festival was awarded the 2022 Best Annual Festival or Event Award, a press release said.

Explore Oak Ridge was awarded the Excellence in Tourism Award for Best Advertising or Marketing Campaign for the “Katie the Calutron Girl” marketing promotion.

The 2022 awards were presented by the Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council in a December 1 ceremony. The METTC promotes tourism activities and represents a 16-county region including Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Cooke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier, and Union counties.

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City offices closed for Christmas, New Year’s

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The Oak Ridge Municipal Building is pictured above on Tuesday evening, May 5, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

City of Oak Ridge offices will be closed for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

City administrative offices and Oak Ridge City Court will be closed from Friday, December 23, to Monday, December 26, for Christmas.

They will also be closed on Monday, January 2, for New Year’s Day.

Offices and the court will re-open on Tuesday, January 3, a press release said.

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Gooch re-appointed mayor

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Warren Gooch

Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch was appointed without opposition to a fifth two-year term on Monday, and Council member Jim Dodson was appointed to his first two-year term in a 4-3 vote.

Gooch is starting his third four-year term on Oak Ridge City Council. He has been mayor since being elected to Council in 2014. He had no opposition on Monday.

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New supervisor named for Manhattan Project National Park

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Wendy Berhman

A new supervisor has been named for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.

The selection of Wendy Berhman as the new superintendent was announced by National Park Service Acting Regional Director Kate Hammond.

Berhman succeeds Kris Kirby, who served in the position for six years before accepting a position as associate state director for the Bureau of Land Management Wyoming State Office, the NPS said.

Besides Oak Ridge, the three-site national park includes Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The three sites were part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. The park was established in 2015, and it is administered through a collaborative partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Oak Ridge designated World War II Heritage City

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Y-12 Calutron Girls
Women enriching uranium in calutrons at Y-12 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. (Photo by Manhattan Project photographer Ed Westcott)

The City of Oak Ridge has been designated a World War II Heritage City, the only city in Tennessee to receive that designation.

The National Park Service has notified the city of the designation, Oak Ridge said in a press release Tuesday.

“The American World War II Heritage Cities Program honors the contributions of local towns, cities, (and) counties, and commemorates the stories of the men, women, and children whose bravery and sacrifices shaped the U.S. home front during World War II, and still impact our nation today,” the press release said. “Only one American World War II Heritage City can be designated in each state or territory. Oak Ridge played a critical role in history and has been designated Tennessee’s American World War II Heritage City through the program. ”

Oak Ridge was a key production site during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could. Among other work, Oak Ridge enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime and had the first reactor to make plutonium-239. A plutonium sample was sent to scientific facilities at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and more of that isotope, the fuel used in the second bomb, was produced at Hanford, Washington.

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Learn about secrecy, spies on Dec. 17

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The Oak Ridge Turnpike Gatehouse is pictured above on the west end of town. (Submitted photo)

You can learn about secrecy, security, and spies during the Manhattan Project in World War II in Oak Ridge on Saturday, December 17.

This National Park Service program is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. December 17 at the Oak Ridge Turnpike gatehouse on the west end of town.

“The program is accessible to all visitors and will give insight to what life was like in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project with heightened security, need for secrecy, and worry of spies,” the NPS said in a newsletter.

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Disability issues to be discussed Tuesday

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The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge will host Marian Wildgruber on Tuesday, December 6. Wildgruber will discuss her work with the Mobility Justice Working Group and the new Disability Advisory Board for the City of Oak Ridge. Her topics will include outreach, priorities, paratransit, and sidewalk/crosswalk infrastructure, a press release said.

This event will be held at 12 p.m. Tuesday at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Church Social Hall. It will also be available via Zoom. A link for Zoom access will be distributed later. You should bring your lunch if you want one. Lunches from The Soup Kitchen will be available beginning in 2023, the press release said.

Wildgruber grew up in Seattle and got her bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Washington. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 12 years in Washington, Oregon, California, and Washington, D.C., during which time she got her master’s degree in public administration, the press release said.

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Pre-World War II settlements to be discussed during Saturday hike

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Canning was a part of life in agricultural East Tennessee before World War II. (Photo credit: Tennessee Valley Authority)

During a hike on Saturday, the National Park Service will discuss settlements in the area before World War II and the drastic changes to the area during the war.

The hike is scheduled on North Boundary Greenway. It will start at the East Quarry Road Trailhead at 2 p.m. Saturday, November 26.

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Chamber’s Christmas Parade is Saturday, Dec. 10

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A photo from a previous Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade. (File photo by Eli Welton)

The annual Christmas Parade in Oak Ridge will be Saturday, December 10.

It’s organized by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by The Cowperwood Company.

This year’s theme is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

More than 80 floats are expected to participate in the parade, which is scheduled from 6 p.m. to roughly 8 p.m. The parade route will include Lafayette Road, then Oak Ridge Turnpike. [Read more…]