Oak Ridge Today

Contractor, businessman seeking seat on City Council

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Rick Chinn

Rick Chinn

Rick Chinn, a lifetime resident of Oak Ridge, is seeking a seat on the Oak Ridge City Council in the upcoming November 4 election.

Chinn, who is a licensed contractor and local businessman, serves on a number of nonprofit boards and has been active as a civic leader in working to improve the quality of life for all Oak Ridge families, a press release said.

Chinn explained his reasons for seeking to serve on City Council.

“A lot of people in Oak Ridge have invested their time and energy over the years to help me better understand and appreciate how rewarding it is to live and work in Oak Ridge,” he said in the press release. “I have worked hard to continue that tradition of excellence by volunteering my time and resources over the past 20 years. I want to ensure that my children have the same opportunities in the future that have been provided to me. I am ready to work hard for the future of Oak Ridge.” [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…]

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…]

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…]

State certification means 110-acre Horizon Center site is ready for development

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Tennessee Certified Site at Horizon Center

The Select Tennessee Certified Site at Horizon Center is pictured at center above. A 28-acre portion of the parcel at left has been identified as a primary data center site. (Submitted photo)

Tennessee officials have identified 110 cleared acres in Horizon Center as one of the first sites in the state to be named a certified site, meaning the property has met certain rigorous standards and is ready for development.

It’s now the second certified site in Horizon Center, a business park on State Route 95 in west Oak Ridge.

The 110-acre site has been designated as a Select Tennessee Certified Site by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. [Read more…]

IDB endorses project to add power at Horizon Center, subject to TVA grant

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With a pre-application deadline this Wednesday, the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board agreed last week to commit $750,000 to a project to increase the electrical capacity at Horizon Center Business Park if the city gets a matching grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The project, which would add 14 megawatts to the park’s electrical capacity with the potential to add more later, would extend power from a substation on Blair Road in west Oak Ridge to the edge of Lot 5 on the back side of Horizon Center. It would install 13 kilovolt lines on poles that could hold 69 kilovolt lines later. [Read more…]

TVA names Horizon Center site as primary data center site

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Horizon Center Data Center Site

A 28-acre site at Horizon Center has been designated by the Tennessee Valley Authority as a site that is ready to recruit data centers. (Submitted photo)

The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified a 28-acre site at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge as a potential data center site, a designation that will help Oak Ridge recruit companies, an official said.

“Having a primary data center site in Oak Ridge is a tremendous advantage and will definitely give us a competitive edge when recruiting data center prospects,” said Kim Denton, president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership. [Read more…]

Guest column: Chamber hopes to continue working with city on business development

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Throughout the years, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce has been a valuable asset to the community, supporting local businesses and promoting new business development in our city. For more than 20 years, the city of Oak Ridge and the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce have had an agreement through which the Chamber works in partnership with the city to attract new business to the community.

Appropriately, during these challenging economic times, the city is looking at all of its economic development relationships and asking itself whether or not it’s a good investment. We recognize the city’s efforts to conserve public dollars and have made a proposal to City Council for the formation of a better and less expensive partnership for the future. [Read more…]

Answer Financial move has significant impact, new tenant possible

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Answer Financial Oak Ridge

Answer Financial Inc. is relocating from this building on Union Valley Road to Bridgewater Road in West Knoxville.

Answer Financial’s decision to relocate its local sales center to Knoxville, taking several hundred jobs, will have a significant impact on Oak Ridge, but another tenant could be interested in moving into the office building on Union Valley Road, business leaders said.

One of the largest auto and home insurance agencies in the United States, Answer Financial broke ground on its new 32,775-square-foot facility on Bridgewater Road in Knoxville last week. It could be open by early fall and serve as the company’s primary sales center. It will be able to house more than 400 employees, including more than 100 new employees the company plans to hire in the next two years.

Estimates of the jobs lost in Oak Ridge ranged from about 200 to 300, and officials said Answer Financial workers earned $40,000 to $50,000 or more.

[Read more…]