Oak Ridge Today

Nonprofits release Congressional testimony for Manhattan Project park

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Two nonprofit organizations have released the testimony they are submitting to Congress this week for hearings on a Manhattan Project national park that would include Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan will testify at a Senate hearing at 3 p.m. today on behalf of the nonprofit Energy Communities Alliance. His testimony is available here.

The nonprofit Atomic Heritage Foundation has also released its testimony to the Senate and House, where Y-12 National Security Complex D. Ray Smith will testify at 10 a.m. Thursday.

The House testimony is available here, and the Senate testimony is available here.

[Read more…]

Mayor testifies before Senate on national park bill

Posted at
By 6 Comments

Mayor Tom Beehan will testify before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, advocating for a Manhattan Project national historical park that would include Oak Ridge.

Beehan will represent Oak Ridge and two other Manhattan Project cities—Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N.M.—as well as the nonprofit Energy Communities Alliance.

He will testify before the National Parks Subcommittee on a bill filed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat. That bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, would set up a national park for Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos.

[Read more…]

Union County mayor wants to withdraw from PlanET

Posted at
By 3 Comments

PlanET Forum Oak Ridge

Regional leaders rank community issues during a recent PlanET forum at the Flatwater Grill in Oak Ridge.

Union County Mayor Micheal Williams wants the county to withdraw from a regional planning organization that recently held a series of public forums and drew some opposition from property rights advocates, including in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.

Named PlanET, the five-county organization includes Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union counties. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan is chair of its board of mayors.

“Union County is a rural county and is much smaller, as far as demographics are concerned, than the other counties which make up PlanET,” Williams wrote in a May 1 letter to the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization. “I feel that Union County would be better served if we promote ourselves as an individual county instead of grouping with the larger ones and being left behind.”

[Read more…]