Oak Ridge Today

Letter: With city considering grant for synthetic turf, why not a new senior center?

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The Secret City is great at selective discrimination, while its citizens are not vocally supportive of its senior citizens. It lives by divide and conquer.

This actually makes the old adage, “Divided We Fail, United We Stand” a truism for future growth.

Oak Ridge is great at doing conceptual studies in order to hide and delay building its senior citizens a new center.

After reading the article about a SAB (board) proposing to waste, or is that give, some design firm another $50,000, I still remember all the parlaying over the Wildcat Den.

Then the city’s political manipulators tried to get seniors to endorse a bond issue to ensure other monies could be lumped together for a senior center. This failed. [Read more…]

City board recommends senior center at Civic Center; will ask for $50K for conceptual studies

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Oak-Ridge-Civic-Center-March-7-2016

A city board has recommended that the Oak Ridge Senior Center be located at the Civic Center on Oak Ridge Turnpike, and the board will ask the City Council to consider $50,000 for conceptual studies, possibly in April. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

An Oak Ridge board has recommended that the city’s senior center be located at the Civic Center and Alvin K. Bissell Park, and the board will ask the City Council, possibly in April, to consider $50,000 for conceptual studies.

The Oak Ridge Senior Center is currently located in a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road. It’s been there since 1999.

Some senior center users have been advocating for a new home for years, arguing that they didn’t voluntarily leave the former Wildcat Den (the Midtown Community Center) and that their current home has a number of deficiencies. But despite those efforts, the senior center remains on Emory Valley Road.

The current effort to find a new home has been under way since last year and picked up in January, said Linda McGhee, senior programs recreation manager in the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge recreational facilities, library closed Saturday; AC govt. offices close early Friday

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Note: This story was updated at 1:20 p.m.

Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks facilities and the Oak Ridge Public Library will be closed on Saturday, January 23, due to the forecasted winter weather, officials said.

This closure includes the Oak Ridge Civic Center, the Public Library, the Scarboro Community Center, and the Senior Center.

At this time, officials plan to reopen city facilities on Sunday, January 24, at normal operating hours, a press release said.

The Anderson County Courthouse and other county government offices closed early, at 1 p.m. Friday, due to winter weather already moving into Anderson County.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Copyright 2016 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Senior Citizens Holiday Reception is Friday

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Oak Ridge Senior Center Holiday Party

A previous holiday party at the Oak Ridge Senior Center. (File photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Senior Center is having a Holiday Reception for area senior citizens on Friday, December 4, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., a press release said.

“Come join us for a light lunch of sandwiches, chips, and cookies as well as holiday music and fellowship,” the release said. “The Senior Center guitar group will be playing live Christmas music. Bingo will be offered, and door prizes given away. Goodie bags will be given out while they last. The event is sponsored by the Oak Ridge Senior Center and made possible by many generous donations from area businesses.”

Like the Oak Ridge Senior Center on Facebook, visit the website at http://orrecparks.oakridgetn.gov/, or call them at (865) 425-3999 for more information about this or other programs offered by the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AC Senior Center continues march to fruition

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County Commission approved a measure Monday night that knocks down one more hurdle in senior citizens’ quest for a new senior center.

Commissioners voted unanimously to ask Mayor Terry Frank to formally request, in writing, that ETHRA voluntarily end its contract to operate the Office on Aging and instead cede control to the county. That, coupled with the formality of submitting a request for proposals—or RFP—for vendors with a possible site, means that the Office on Aging is indeed one step closer to moving into a new and larger building.

Currently, they have an offer for a lease on a building on South Seivers Boulevard in the heart of Clinton to serve as a new senior center and all indications are that once the bureaucratic hurdles are cleared, they could begin moving in by the end of this summer. [Read more…]

AC Senior Center a step closer to reality

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Information from WYSH Radio

On Monday night, the Anderson County Operations Committee unanimously voted to approve a five-year lease with B&B Properties on a building in Clinton that will serve as the home of a new Anderson County Senior Center.

The next step in the process will be consideration by the full Anderson County Commission on Monday of the $1,896-a-month lease for the building at 439 South Charles Seivers Boulevard. If approved by the Commission, the Anderson County Office on Aging hopes to be in the new facility by the end of July.

Supporters of a senior center have long decried the lack of adequate space to conduct activities and programs for seniors in the current home of the Office on Aging on Leinart Street. This is the same property officials thought they had an agreement to lease earlier this year that fell through due to a higher-than-expected monthly rent.

The Office on Aging will be providing WYSH with a list of needed items for the new facility in the next few days, and they will pass that information along when it becomes available.

AC Operations Committee to consider senior center lease

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County Operations Committee will meet at 6 p.m. today (Monday, June 8) with a full agenda, including consideration of a five-year lease on a building at 439 South Charles Seivers Boulevard for use as an Anderson County Senior Center.

The cost of the $1,896-a-month lease would primarily be paid for out of the budget of the Anderson County Office on Aging, with some county assistance possible. But the remainder of the cost is expected to be paid for through donations.

Seniors and supporters of a senior center will rally before the meeting and then head upstairs to further demonstrate that support to committee members.

The Operations Committee will meet in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. See the agenda here.

AC seniors rally for new senior center

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Information from WYSH Radio

On Tuesday in Clinton, Anderson County seniors took their quest for a new Senior Center to the front steps of the Courthouse.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 5, seniors convened in front of the Courthouse carrying signs indicating their desire for a new senior center and reminding county officials that they and their demands are not going anywhere.

Currently housed in a small facility in downtown Clinton, the Office on Aging—which serves as the de facto Senior Center—and the Council on Aging have been actively searching for a suitable building. A couple of months ago, they thought they had found a suitable location for a Senior Center, but that deal fell through when the rent turned out to be higher than the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency—or ETHRA—was willing to pay. ETHRA provides a significant portion of the Office’s budget. [Read more…]

AC seniors to protest Tuesday, ask for senior center

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Submitted/WYSH Radio

There will be a protest on Tuesday in front of Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton, and protesters will ask for a senior center and for Anderson County to take over the Anderson County Office on Aging.

The protest is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 5.

In a press release, organizers said that if attendees have trouble standing, they should bring a lawn chair. They are asking Anderson County seniors to bring their friends, family, and neighbors.

Organizers said “our seniors are just as important as our animals,” referencing efforts currently under way to build a temporary animal shelter in Anderson County.

Council to consider traffic signals, access at ORHS, Main Street Oak Ridge

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Main Street Oak Ridge Master Plan March 26, 2015

Here is the master plan for Main Street Oak Ridge. (See a larger version of the plan in the link below.) The traffic signal and access would be on Rutgers Avenue in the bottom middle of the map above.

 

The City Council on Monday will consider resolutions that would allow new traffic signals at Oak Ridge High School and Main Street Oak Ridge.

Main Street Oak Ridge is the proposed project that would redevelop the former Oak Ridge Mall. The proposed traffic signal would be on Rutgers Avenue at a new access to Main Street Oak Ridge that the City Council could approve on Monday.

The other traffic signal would be on Oak Ridge Turnpike between Oak Ridge High School and the Civic Center. Council postponed a vote on that stoplight in March. [Read more…]

Council to discuss postponed stoplight at ORHS, Senior Center lease extension

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Oak Ridge Turnpike and High School Stoplight

The Oak Ridge City Council on Tuesday will discuss the proposed traffic signal on Oak Ridge Turnpike at the High School and a proposal to extend the lease on the Senior Center for five years through 2019.

Those are two of the agenda items for a Tuesday evening work session.

The City Council postponed a vote last week on a contract to install a stoplight on the Oak Ridge Turnpike in front of Oak Ridge High School. The light could eliminate the need for a crossing guard.

City officials had said the light could be installed by August 2015, but the postponement of the contract vote to the April meeting will likely delay the completion date, possibly until after school starts later this year. [Read more…]

Closings: Oak Ridge, Roane Schools; some city, county, state offices

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Oak Ridge Schools and Roane County Schools are both closed today. So are Anderson County government offices, and the Oak Ridge Public Library and Senior Center. All other municipal offices will operate on a regular schedule.

Anderson County courts are also canceled, and daytime classes at Roane State Community College campuses, including in Oak Ridge, have been canceled. A decision on nighttime classes (those that begin after 4:30 p.m.) will be made later.

State offices are also closed because of the current weather situation in West and Middle Tennessee and forecasted winter weather moving east. [Read more…]