Oak Ridge Today

Council to discuss utility rates, consider pedestrian safety

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council will discuss a utility rate review and consider more than $500,000 worth of projects to improve pedestrian safety during a work session and special meeting tonight. (File photo)

The Oak Ridge City Council will consider pedestrian safety projects valued at more than $500,000 and a $175,000 contract with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce during a special meeting at 8 p.m. today (Monday).

That meeting will follow a non-voting work session that starts at 7 p.m. During the work session, Council will discuss a proposal to a build a storm water holding tank along Emory Valley Road on land that could be donated by Anderson County, hear a presentation on the purchasing and financing of three replacement fire engines, and discuss a utility rate review by Chris Mitchell of Management Consultants LLC. [Read more…]

Council considers electronic signs, land bank, rental inspections

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider new regulations for electronic signs, expanding the city’s residential rental inspection district, and creating the first-ever land bank in Tennessee.

Oak Ridge officials could prohibit animated electronic signs, expand the city’s residential rental inspection district to include about 1,700 homes, and officially set up an Oak Ridge Land Bank Corp. during a Monday night meeting.

The Oak Ridge City Council will also consider approving contracts with economic development consultant Ray Evans and state lobbyist Bill Nolan, and terminating the lease on the building that once housed the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic on Badger Road. Now partially empty, the split-level two-story building still houses the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, and city officials said they haven’t decided what to do with it yet.

The Monday night City Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom. [Read more…]

Three conceptual drawings for Jackson Square revitalization to be discussed tonight

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Jackson Square Revitalization Square Option

Pictured above is one of three conceptual drawings for the project to revitalize Jackson Square, the city’s original town center. The drawings will be on display during an open house at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce this evening. (Submitted image)

During a meeting this evening, residents will be able to view and comment on three conceptual drawings for the project to revitalize Jackson Square, the city’s original town center.

The open house meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. today (Wednesday) at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

The Community Development staff will record public comments and provide feedback to project team members Hedstrom Design LLC, Landscape Architects, and Vaughn and Melton Consulting Engineers Inc. The design will be finalized, and construction is anticipated to begin in January 2014. [Read more…]

Auditorium to be built at UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge

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University of Tennessee Arboretum Auditorium

University of Tennessee AgResearch on Tuesday announced that a new auditorium will be built at the UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge through a public-private partnership. A building design concept is pictured above. (Image courtesy of UT AgResearch)

A new auditorium that could be used for education will be built at the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge through a public-private partnership, officials announced Tuesday.

The partnership includes UT AgResearch, a unit of the UT Institute of Agriculture; the UT Institute for Public Service; and the Rogers Group.

The auditorium was announced during a Tuesday morning breakfast at the Arboretum that was sponsored by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. [Read more…]

Public meeting next month, construction next year on Jackson Square project

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Jackson Square Grant Ceremony

Gov. Bill Haslam, fourth from left, joins local residents re-creating a famous “War Ends” photograph in Jackson Square, but this time with an $800,000 state check for parking lots, sidewalks, benches, and bicycle racks. (File photo June 2012)

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam visited Oak Ridge about one year ago to announce that a state grant valued at roughly $800,000 had been awarded to the city to help revitalize Jackson Square, focusing on parking, lighting, landscaping, and benches.

Next month, Oak Ridge officials will have an open house to present three conceptual drawings for the project, which is in the city’s original town center. The public meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant awarded last year is to be used for the project’s first phase, which includes renovating the Jackson Square parking lot by adding handicapped parking and access, pedestrian lighting and circulation, landscaping and event enhancements, and bicycle racks and benches, a city press release said. [Read more…]

Habitat for Humanity celebrates reorganized, cleaned-up store

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Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Local officials and Habitat for Humanity workers and volunteers celebrate with a June ribbon-cutting ceremony at the renamed home store, which has been cleaned up and offers lower prices, officials said.

Local officials and Habitat for Humanity workers and volunteers celebrated the opening of a reorganized, cleaned-up store in Grove Center during a June ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Formerly known as the Home Store, it’s now called ReStore, said Jennifer Sheehan, interim executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County.

Four large shipping containers that had been in front of the store and used for storage have been removed, and trees have been trimmed, creating a better line of sight to the store from the road, Sheehan said.

“We’re working hard to improve curb appeal,” she said. [Read more…]

ORCVB budget cut: No layoffs, focusing on more events, weekend stays

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Secret City Festival Kickoff 2012

The Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau is one of three organizations that present the annual Secret City Festival. ORCVB President Katy Brown is pictured above, fifth from right, at the opening ceremonies for the 2012 festival along with other state and local officials.

Its budget has been cut 25 percent, but there will be no layoffs at the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Instead, the four-person staff will focus on attracting more weekend visitors to the Secret City and bringing in more events, possibly including those that generate fees. The organization could “own more events,” ORCVB President Katy Brown said, and rely on more grassroots efforts. That could include using more social media and travel writers.

“It’s going to be a shift,” Brown said Monday after the Oak Ridge City Council approved—in a voice vote with no opposition—a new one-year $300,000 contract for the ORCVB, the city’s main tourism organization. The funding is down from $410,000 last year. [Read more…]

Guest column: E-fairness—good for Oak Ridge, good for Tennessee, good for U.S.

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Parker Hardy

Parker Hardy

For years, online-only retailers have enjoyed a significant competitive advantage over their local competitors: they don’t have to collect state sales taxes. This means online retailers can create the illusion of having lower prices than traditional retailers because those online retailers do not, in most instances, collect the same sales taxes that our local brick-and-mortar stores do. And because they do not collect those taxes, they automatically enjoy a 9.75 percent advantage over local businesses.

This is not only unfair; it’s bad for local businesses, communities, and families. It is money that is not available for use in supporting our schools, paving our roads, building our playgrounds, or hiring police officers and firefighters.

The Marketplace Fairness Act would set things right. [Read more…]

IDB endorses professional services contract with Chamber

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The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce could provide an office for the Industrial Development Board, store its files, prepare its meeting minutes and agendas, and take care of its accounting under a proposal endorsed Monday.

The Chamber would do the work for $25,000 per year, IDB Chair David Wilson told board members. [Read more…]

IDB to discuss contract on Bethel Valley lot, agreement with Chamber

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The Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board on Monday will discuss a contract to purchase a lot in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park and an agreement with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

The IDB meets at 4 p.m. Monday in the Municipal Building Training Room.

Oak Ridge Chamber will lay off some workers, Economic Partnership to become dormant

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Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce

The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce will lay off some employees, and its support corporation, the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership, will become dormant.

Its funding has been cut, and the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce is laying off some employees, an official said Monday.

It will be a smaller organization, and the Chamber’s support corporation, the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership, will become dormant, its work absorbed by the Chamber, said Parker Hardy, president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

Hardy declined to name the employees who will be laid off or say how many workers might be affected, although he said the information could be shared later. [Read more…]

Council passes no-tax-increase budget

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Oak Ridge City Council Budget Meeting

The Oak Ridge City Council will consider the municipal budget, which is not expected to raise property taxes, during a second and final reading Tuesday evening.

The Oak Ridge City Council has approved a budget that does not raise the property tax rate in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The budget provides $50,000 more for the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce than Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson had requested, and it gives city employees a 1 percent pay raise.

Council members deferred a request from the Oak Ridge Board of Education to match $50,000 in spending for one of two new school resource officers at Jefferson and Robertsville middle schools. City officials estimated the cost per SRO is about double the school system’s request, or more than $100,000 per year per officer, when the cost of a police car is included. [Read more…]