I'm Ellen Smith, member of the Oak Ridge City Council. Thank you for visiting my blog and reading my views on public and private life in and around Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This website is my own; content here does not represent the official policies or views of the City of Oak Ridge. To add your own comments, click on the topic title to open a comment box. To read posts about a particular topic, scroll down to "Categories" (in the sidebar) or use the "Search" box in the sidebar. Look under "Archives" to see collections of past posts organized by date.
Grumble, grumble, grumble… Just about everybody who lives or works in Oak Ridge knows about the growing problem of traffic congestion at the Solway bridge and Solway around 5 to 6 pm weekdays. This could be resolved, of course, if more of the people who work in Oak Ridge also lived in Oak Ridge. The [...]
No, I don’t believe that everyone in Oak Ridge wants to keep chickens, but Peggy Hanrahan’s Realty Center seems to be open to the idea — their business sign is advertising a free chicken coop with every house sold…
This is in keeping with the goals of the Oak Ridgers who would like to keep backyard [...]
Following up to my earlier post on chickens… Today’s Oak Ridger reports that the 5 Planning Commission members who attended last week’s work session were negative about the idea of allowing chickens in residential neighborhoods. I wasn’t able to attend the meeting and I haven’t yet seen what staff presented to them. However, I do [...]
One event planned for Earth Day 2010 in Oak Ridge is the “Oak Ridge Gran Prius.” This will be a rally event challenging participants to get the best gas mileage driving a Toyota Prius across town on a defined course — thus letting people (particularly public officials who make decisions on buying vehicles) find out [...]
Chickens were the main topic in the waning minutes of Monday evening’s City Council meeting. There’s been public interest in allowing backyard poultry-keeping (mostly for eggs — and in support of sustainability, the locavore lifestyle, and connecting kids with “nature”). Oak Ridge’s zoning ordinance doesn’t allow “livestock” (including fowl) except in the RG-1 zone, so [...]