At this moment, I’m watching the rain fall, and I’m feeling glad that the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay finally made their way to East Tennessee.
We need the rain, not just for our gardens, lawns, and shrubs, but also for water supply and electric power generation. According to TVA’s “drought update” issued August 21 (and circulated to City Council), calendar year-to-date rainfall across the Tennessee Valley was 25.49 inches, which is 74 percent of normal, and hydroelectric generation for the calendar year has been just 61 percent of normal. The update says, “It will take rainfall well above normal — approximately 9 to 11 inches — over an extended period of time to return normal flows back to the Tennessee River Basin.”
What the drought update does not point out is that reduced hydropower generation means higher electricity prices for us TVA ratepayers…
From the forecasts, it appears that Fay won’t deliver 9 to 11 inches, but the gentle rain that’s falling right now should help…
There’s great news for Oak Ridgers who have been wishing for our curbside recycling collection to include mixed paper recycling and all types of recyclable plastic. Starting October 1, we’ll have “single stream recycling.” That means that all forms of recyclables will be collected at curbside, loaded into the truck, and hauled off to the Advanced Polymer Recycling (APR) facility in Knoxville to be sorted and shipped to end users. They’ll take all kinds of paper, glass bottles, aluminum cans, steel cans, and plastic numbers 1-7 (including plastic bags, but not styrofoam — although even styrofoam might be added in the future), and APR assures us that the collected material will be recycled (not sent to a landfill).
Our Environmental Quality Advisory Board (EQAB) had a presentation on August 7* (I was there) where personnel from Waste Connections (the city’s waste hauler) and APR told about the new recycling program.
EQAB also heard about the Recycle Bank program that could significantly increase our recycling participation by giving people incentives to recycle. For a fee of about $2 per month per household, residents would be provided with a 65-gallon wheeled collection cart outfitted with an RFID tag. The cart would hold far more material than we can put in the 18-gallon bins we have now, and when bins are picked up at curbside the household’s recycling “contributions” would be automatically weighed and recorded. Households would be credited with points based on the weight of the material they recycled, and points could be used to obtain discount coupons and other valuable benefits contributed by the Recycle Bank’s local and national business sponsors. According to the Recycle Bank personnel who spoke to EQAB, the typical household generates enough recyclable material to earn $20 worth of rebates each month, which they describe as a 10-to-1 return for the $2 fee.
The Recycle Bank program has been operating in the northeast — mostly in the Philadelphia area — for a couple of years, and they are now branching out to other regions. Based on experience in other cities, Waste Connections and the Recycle Bank figure that Oak Ridge would go from 45% participation in curbside recycling to 80-85% participation, and we’d increase our recycling from 10% of the solid waste stream to about 33%. That’s a 25% reduction in waste sent to the landfill and a substantial benefit to the environment, saving landfill space, saving trees that would be processed into paper, saving some energy and water that would be used in producing commodities from virgin material, and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases from mining, logging, and processing. It also reduces costs for waste hauling and landfill fees, but because (1) the city has a collection contract with Waste Connections and (2) Anderson County pays tipping fees at the landfill (for waste collected in the Anderson County part of Oak Ridge), it’s not clear to me how much of that savings the city government would see.
City Council is scheduled to hear about these new recycling opportunities at a work session on September 8, and I expect that on September 22 we will have a vote on joining the Recycle Bank program. There are a few wrinkles to be worked out (for example, not all Oak Ridge households have a sidewalk or driveway on which they could roll a heavy wheeled container to the street), but it looks to me like this is something that Oak Ridgers will embrace.
—–
*There was a similar presentation in Knoxville on August 13 for area governments, reported by the News Sentinel the following day. That article made it sound like Knoxville is the only community considering these changes, but that’s not the case. According to Waste Connections, Oak Ridge accounts for about half of their curbside recycling customers in all of East Tennessee. They figure that if the Recycle Bank program is going to happen anywhere in the region, Oak Ridge will have it first.
City Council’s long-awaited “agenda setting” retreat (the sequel to the abandoned “visioning” process) is tomorrow morning (Saturday, July 19) from 8 am to 1 pm, at the Municipal Services Center.
Like all City Council meetings and work sessions, this is a public meeting; I have no idea how much “public” we will see.
We’ve been getting a lot of input from citizens who have ideas about what the City’s agenda should be, and I hope we’ll have time to discuss those ideas (plus ideas of our own). The agenda looks like it might be heavy on facilitation and DVDs, and a bit light on interaction (I do hope I’m wrong about that):
8:00: Welcome and Opening Comments
8:15: Introduction: Who Raised the Bar? Driving forces Creating the Turbulence. Sandy S. (facilitator)
8:45: Feedback from Council…Emerging Themes from Council Input {Open Discussion}
Break:
9:30: Group Decision Making Process and “The Abilene Paradox” brief DVD
10:00: The Growth Curve…a model for understanding the stages and phases of change as applied to:
• The Community
• City Staff
• City Council Leaders
Group discussion on “where we are” before discussing “where we are going.”
11:00: Break
11:15: Leaders as Change Agents “Mission Critical” DVD Lessons from NASA for Oak Ridge {Group Discussion}
12:00 Lunch
12:45: Where do we go from here?
• Remaining focused amidst 27,000 customers
• Determining our priorities
UPDATE (August 11, 2008):
We’ve had two agenda-setting sessions now (the one on July 19 was followed by a second session on August 2), and we’re still not where people wanted to be (another session will be scheduled), but progress has been made.
One thing that Council members seem to agree on is that we don’t have nearly enough opportunities to discuss. Open meetings laws prevent deliberation on city business outside of announced meetings and work sessions, and interactions during formal meetings and work sessions are inhibited by various factors. At meetings those inhibiting factors include long agendas, parliamentary procedure, the physical layout of the courtroom where Council meets, and the presence of TV cameras. At work sessions, interaction is limited due to the fact that most of the scheduled time is devoted to formal presentations — there’s seldom enough time for everyone to ask all of their questions about the topic, much less discuss it among ourselves.
As a result of the realization that we all want more discussion, in October we will try out a new procedure of having a pre-meeting work session (Mayor Tom Beehan is calling it a “caucus”) one week before the regular meeting to discuss the items on the agenda for the following week’s meeting. The first such session is scheduled for October 13, 2008, one week before the October 20th meeting.
If you were hoping the red-light camera issue would be resolved soon (one way or the other) so that other public concerns could get attention, you will need to wait another month. City staff does not have a proposed contract ready for City Council consideration this month, so the next vote on the subject is now expected to happen at the August 18, 2008, City Council meeting.
UPDATE: The vote is in. City Council voted 4 to 3 to authorize a contract with RedFlex. In favor of the camera contract were Mayor Tom Beehan, Mayor Pro-Tem Jane Miller, Tom Hayes, and Charlie Hensley. Opposed were Willie Golden, Dave Mosby, and Ellen Smith (that’s me).
The contract will be for 5 years (with optional renewal periods) and it authorizes up to 15 camera installations for speed and/or red-light enforcement. There will be signs to inform motorists that photo enforcement is in use, and at each location there will be a 30-day “warning” period during which violators will get warning tickets (but no fines).Staff wants to start slow with 3 camera locations targeting school zones.
It goes without saying that his was not an easy decision, and the community expressed strong passions on both sides of the issue.
Wow, I’ve fallen way behind here…
One piece of recent good news is the report that Anderson and Roane Counties, along with two other East Tennessee counties, will be using optical-scan voting machines for early voting this year. The optical scan system uses electronic technology to record votes, but because voters mark their choices on paper, a paper record of the vote is retained and is available for auditing in case of challenges to the election for results. Also, by bringing in extra machines for early voting, election officials will free up several of their “regular” eSlate machines for use on Election Day.
For me, the existence of an audit trail (and not having to use the annoying eSlate device) will be just one more incentive to vote early. Early voting in the August election starts July 18.
This bit of Internet silliness comes to me from Trina:
The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.
Seven random/weird facts about me:
1. I’m pretty sure that Internet memes such as this one exist mainly to help people build web traffic to their blogs.
2. I’ve visited 48 of the 50 U.S. states, missing only Alaska and Mississippi.
3. I have lived in Oak Ridge for slightly less than half of my life.
4. I once took a sauna fueled by a wood fire, then ran stark naked through the snow in subzero weather to jump into a very cold lake through a hole cut into the ice.
5. I was much younger when item 4 happened.
6. When I was in elementary school (around 3rd and 4th grade), I was fascinated by archaeology and read extensively about discoveries in and of ancient Egypt, Troy, and Minoan Crete.
7. My graduate school studies included two semesters’ study of Quaternary pollen analysis.
I choose to present a verbal image of martial discord, in the form of the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1870):
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.
Finally, in the spirit of sharing, I will tag the following (was 4; now just 3 due to technical problems at one blog; maybe I’ll add more later):
For a long time, there have been hints that the long-awaited redevelopment of the Oak Ridge City Center (Mall) might begin soon.
The latest hint comes from the Oak Ridge Fire Department, which has announced:
“Starting MONDAY, JUNE 16, the OR MALL common areas will be closed to the public. Exterior doors will be locked and exits from the anchor stores will not be used, with one exception. Goody’s has to keep their mall exit as an emergency exit only temporarily. IF customers have to use the mall exit during an emergency, they will exit into a roped off area that will lead them to the exit corridor between Penney’s and Goody’s. This situation is temporary - a new exit corridor is being constructed directly from Goody’s to the existing corridor. The mall office area, security area, and anchor stores (JC Penney, Goody’s, Sears, Belks) will be the only areas open to the public….
…The demolition of the mall areas is being planned right now….”
This is always a busy time of the year. Some of the items listed on my calendar are:
Thursday, June 12, 2008 - City Council’s “Night Out”,, from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the Oak Ridge Civic Center A/B and Club Rooms. The official announcement says: “Council’s Night Out provides an opportunity for City Council members and City staff to meet one-on-one with citizens. The meeting’s emphasis will be Housing and Neighborhoods, although attendees are welcome to discuss any topic of their choosing. Appointments are not necessary.” I expect that red light cameras, proposed commercial development in Woodland, and the ongoing construction on Oak Ridge Turnpike in west Oak Ridge (including the fate of the maple trees in front of the Rolling Hills Garden Apartments) will be hot topics.
Monday, June 16, 2008 - City Council meets at 7 pm in the Municipal Courtroom. The agenda includes red-light cameras and proposed commercial development at the edge of Woodland. ‘Nuf said…
Friday and Saturday, June 20 and 21, 2008 - Secret City Festival; it gets bigger every year. One new feature this year: the Secret City Festival is going “green” — aiming for “zero waste.” Organizers of the zero-wast Earth Day event back in April will help with collection and sorting of recycling and compostables, but they are looking for volunteers (this is something kids can do!) to help make this happen. If you are interested, e-mail Stan Duncan (stan dot duncan at comcast dot net) or call 481-6050 or call Angie Palau 223-8267.
July 4th, 2008 - Celebration on the Fourth on the Melton Hill Lake lakefront - Activities start at 2:30 p.m. with a wakeboard competition, followed by musical entertainment beginning at 5 p.m. and fireworks at 10 p.m. This seems almost too good to be true — while the city is putting on the fireworks display, local promoter Mike Brown of M&M Productions USA is (with the help of several sponsors) supplying the other entertainment at no cost to the city!
I do have a couple of misgivings: (1) In years past, I recall that fireworks displays on the lake resulted in traffic jams. This year there are supposed to be shuttle buses to offsite parking at the Roane State Community College campus — I hope that arrangement works… (2) Traditionally, the Oak Ridge Community Band puts on a well-attended outdoor concert (featuring patriotic music) at the Civic Center music pavilion before the fireworks. I expect that this event — along with the change in the fireworks location — will eat into their audience. On the other, there may not be much overlap between the audiences for the community band and the musical entertainment out at the lake.
It’s not just people in Oak Ridge who hope that something can be preserved from K-25: That Was Then on Washington Monthly website
Two public meetings are coming up on the topic of camera-based traffic enforcement.
The first is this Thursday, May 15, 2008 — a “Citizen’s Red Light Camera Informational Meeting” sponsored by the “Tennessee Liberty Alliance” (additional website), at 7 pm, at the Midtown Community Center (Wildcat Den) on the corner of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Robertsville Road. The Liberty Alliance is opposed to camera enforcement, and two local residents will present their arguments. Dr. Dale Gedcke (author of an opinion column on the subject in Sunday’s News Sentinel) will present technical arguments against the use of cameras and Ron Brown (who has sued the city regarding speed limits) will speak on legal arguments. Others will be given a chance to speak. Sponsors say they endorse “other methods to achieve this goal of safety more effectively, while at the same time, protecting the citizen’s rights guaranteed by our Constitution of the United States.”
The second is the Oak Ridge City Council work session on Monday, June 2, 2008, at 6:30 pm, at the Municipal Service Center on Woodbury Lane. Contrary to what some news media have reported, the Council has not yet given final approval to an camera-based enforcement program, but has enacted an ordinance that would authorize the use of this type of enforcement. At this meeting, I hope we will learn about the safety data the Police Dept. has collected on the subject and the proposals that have been received for a potential contract.
