Willow Brook Elementary School was locked down around lunchtime Wednesday after a nearby burglary, Oak Ridge Police Lt. Robin Smith said this afternoon.
Smith said Oak Ridge Police Lt. John Kelly called the school and recommended it be locked down.
“The school was never involved,” Smith said. “There was nothing that happened at the school. Lt. Kelly just asked them to lock it down as a precaution.”
The Oak Ridge City Council will appoint a mayor and vice mayor on Monday, one month after the Nov. 6 election.
Council will also consider hiring a full-time veterinarian at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter and approving a pair of $17,000 demolition contracts for two city-owned homes.
The current mayor, Tom Beehan, and vice mayor, Jane Miller, have both asked to be appointed to a third two-year term. In Oak Ridge, the mayor and vice mayor—officially called mayor pro tem—are also council members, and they are appointed after each municipal election.
There has been some public opposition to re-appointing Beehan as mayor. It has been led by new Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn.
An employee at Lincoln’s Sports Grille on South Illinois Avenue reported that he was hit in the head by an unknown suspect as he took out the trash early Friday morning, authorities said.
The employee said he was taking the trash to a dumpster behind Lincoln’s at about 12:23 a.m. Friday when he was struck from behind without warning, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said. The restaurant worker said the suspect laughed after hitting him, but made no other statement before fleeing east across ORAU Way.
An Oak Ridge man fleeing from undercover agents at Walgreens on Tuesday allegedly drove on the sidewalk and accelerated backward toward a police investigator, forcing the officer to run between two vehicles to avoid being hit, according to Anderson County court records.
The alleged driver, Frederick R. Black, 28, of West Pasadena Lane, has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of evading arrest. He remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Thursday, and his bond has been set at $500,000.
A Pizza Hut driver was allegedly robbed at gunpoint Saturday night while delivering pizzas on Jefferson Avenue, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.
The suspected robber allegedly stole the 25-year-old victim’s cell phone, three pizzas, and $70 in cash at about 10:10 p.m. Saturday, the report said.
Pizza Hut had received a call from someone who identified himself as George W. and ordered three pizzas at 9:22 p.m. Saturday. But when the driver delivered the pizzas to the vacant duplex on the east side of Jefferson Avenue, there were no cars parked there, the home was dark, and no one answered the door or the phone.
The Oak Ridge Electric Department, left, cut the power to a Culver Road home after a tree limb fell onto a line, knocking it to the ground and onto a boom lift, right, used by the homeowner trimming the tree. The man was stranded in the lift until city workers could turn off the power.
A Culver Road man trimming trees at his home was stranded in a boom lift Friday night after a tree limb fell onto a power line, knocking it to the ground and onto the lift, authorities said.
The man was able to be lowered to the ground after the Oak Ridge Electric Department disconnected the power. The man was not injured, but he was a little cold, Oak Ridge Police Officer Christopher Wallace said.
The man appeared to have been trapped about 20-30 feet in the air for about an hour on a chilly Friday night.
The Oak Ridge man injured in a rollover accident on South Illinois Avenue has been discharged from the University of Tennessee Medical Center, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Montgomery Lloyd Samu-Dodson, 21, of Nevada Circle was flown by Lifestar helicopter to the hospital after the 9 p.m. Monday wreck at the Bethel Valley Road overpass.
An Oak Ridge driver was injured in this rollover accident at about 9 p.m. Monday on South Illinois Avenue near Edgemoor Road, authorities said (Photo by Tom Scott)
An Oak Ridge driver injured in a rollover accident Monday night reportedly passed other cars at high speed and changed lanes before drifting off South Illinois Avenue, striking a cement bridge rail at Bethel Valley Road, and traveling a total of about 100 feet through the air, an accident report said.
The driver was trapped inside the vehicle, an Oak Ridge Fire Department report said. Rescuers cut the unidentified driver out of the 1995 Jeep Cherokee, removing the vehicle’s roof, windshield, remaining side windows, and driver’s side doors.
The driver was then flown by a Lifestar helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.
The ORPD report identified the driver as Montgomery Lloyd Samu-Dodson, a 21-year-old Nevada Circle resident
A Greenback man died after his compact utility vehicle went off the roadway and into the ditch on Highway 95 near Bethel Valley Road Tuesday, overturned, and hit a tree, authorities said.
Daniel B. Summers, 46, had been driving northbound on Highway 95 at about 7:30 p.m. when his 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer left the road as he was going around a curve, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department report.
The SUV traveled about 80 feet along the ditch before the right wheels dug in, causing the vehicle to vault and overturn, the report said. The driver’s side door smashed into the tree.
Five Oak Ridge police officers who moved into the city this year were motivated to do so at least in part by a program that allows them to take their police cars home.
Now, the Oak Ridge Police Department has five officers who are eligible for assigned vehicles under that program, but there are no vehicles available.
So, the Oak Ridge City Council tonight will consider buying eight patrol vehicles, including several new take-home cars as well as a few replacement vehicles.
The Take Home Vehicle Program started in September 2011. Oak Ridge Police Chief James T. Akagi said it increases officer visibility in the city and the neighborhoods where they live, allows quick response times, improves productivity, and boosts employee pride in department vehicles, resulting in better maintenance.
He said the ORPD fleet includes 43 vehicles. Twenty-one of them are assigned, and they last longer and get more miles, Akagi wrote in an Oct. 26 memo to Oak Ridge City Manager Mark S. Watson. He said the eight new cars, either Ford Interceptors or Dodge Chargers, could cost up to $340,000.
Tonight’s Oak Ridge City Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building Courtroom. The agenda is available here.
More information could be added later.
An Oak Ridge woman was taken to the hospital after the van she was driving hit the ditch on Highway 95 on Monday morning and rolled over. (Photo by Tom Scott)
An Oak Ridge woman was taken to the hospital Monday morning after the minivan she was driving hit the ditch on State Route 95 and rolled over, an accident report said.
Lisa Marie Lewis, 47, was not ejected from the 2004 Ford minivan during the 10:30 a.m. accident, but she had possible injuries, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.
Lewis, who had been driving northbound on SR 95 near Melton Hill Dam, was taken by ambulance to Methodist Medical Center, the report said.
A safe that reportedly had $3,100 in cash and coins was stolen from Billy’s Time Out Deli this weekend, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.
Few other details about the alleged burglary were available. The safe was believed to have been taken from Billy’s between about 8 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. Sunday, the report said.
Billy’s is a popular diner at 202 S. Illinois Ave.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
