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.
Two front page stories in today’s Knoxville News Sentinel make me eager to see similar press releases from Oak Ridge:
1 – The full schedule for the “Sundown” concert series was announced. Oak Ridge will be having another “Secret City Sounds” free summer concert series on Friday evenings in Bissell Park (in [...]
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 [...]
The Oak Ridge city staff and and the Knoxville Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) have been working quietly to get started on a process to update the city’s pedestrian and bicycle plans. City Council found out earlier this week that an advisory committee had been formed and several meetings have been held. Currently the city has [...]
“Solar 101”: Solar Basics for the Oak Ridge Homeowner will be held Saturday, November 14th, 2009, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, in the Oak Ridge Public Library Auditorium. Sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Quality Advisory Board and the City of Knoxville’s Solar America Cities Program, this workshop will provide an overview of the solar [...]
Since this blog has started getting search-engine hits from people looking for info about July 4th fireworks, here’s a link to the Oak Ridger story about fireworks this year: Oak Ridger article, July 3, 2009
The city-sponsored fireworks show is Saturday evening at 10 pm at the Melton Lake Marina. Traffic and parking could be a [...]
The City is holding several meetings about the State Route 95 improvement project –to discuss the options in TDOT’s recent letter (see my previous post). Here are some details from a message distributed by city staff:
Open Walk-in Review Sessions
Wednesday, July 1, and Thursday, July 2, 2009, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Multipurpose [...]
The suspense has ended — the election results are in. That’s a relief. With the large field and low turnout, I didn’t know what to expect in the results, but I think the city made out OK in the end. My preferred Council candidates won, and I’m particularly pleased that Anne Garcia Garland will be [...]
Citizen Jeff Zink (jeff.zink@comcast.net) polled the City Council candidates on several topics. He got thoughtful answers from five of the candidates (Garland, McBride, Mosby, Tobler, and Turner) and a short reply from a sixth (Miller). He distributed the results this afternoon via e-mail. I received a forwarded copy of his message, which said “Please [...]
With early voting under way, it’s high time for me to share my recommendations for City Council. I support the re-election of David Mosby and Tom Beehan, and I strongly recommend electing the newcomer Anne Garcia Garland.
Although I don’t always like their opinions, both Mosby and Beehan are knowledgeable, hard-working (not always in the public [...]
Early voting for the June 2 City election started on Wednesday and continues through Thursday, May 28, 2009. Hours are 10 am to 6 pm weekdays (except Memorial Day, May 25) and from 9 am to 12 noon today (Saturday, May 16) at the Larry Dickens Office Building (aka Emory Valley Center [...]