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.
An article and editorial in this past week’s editions of The Oak Ridger reported that Doug Janney of the city’s Industrial Development Board (IDB) had asked the owners of Oak Ridge City Center LLC if they still wanted the $5 million in development assistance promised earlier.
These articles confused some people who remember the 2002 referendum [...]
Although I am tired of talking about the Crestpointe issue, it’s important to note some observations about the financial aspects of the Crestpointe proposal and some potential alternatives.
City estimates of Crestpointe finances (see http://www.cortn.org/summit/summit-crestpoint.pdf) show a net yearly gain to the city (including our schools) of $511,389 for the first year of operation. This assumes, [...]
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, I asked several questions and made several comments about the action that Council was about to take regarding the Crestpointe proposal (more about those points later).
Mayor David Bradshaw challenged opponents of Crestpointe, who believe with me that Oak Ridge can and should do better, to find and present viable [...]
The frenetic effort to collect signatures from 10% of Oak Ridge’s voters is drawing to an end. As the Oak Ridger reported today, as of Friday the campaign had 2,400 signatures on hand — probably more than enough to force a referendum, which requires about 2,000 validated signatures. On Monday, a total of 3,172 signatures [...]
I have been telling people that I know we need more retail in town – to enhance residents’ quality of life and to increase sales tax revenues – but that I believe Oak Ridge can and should do better than accept the problematic Crestpointe proposal.
We can do better. Better options are starting to emerge. [...]
Yesterday’s Oak Ridger carried a front page story headlined Mayor ‘committed’ to $65M retail center. The article reports on an interview in which Mayor David Bradshaw said that he believes in the Crespointe project and is concerned about the City’s need to draft a contractual agreement with the developer that will protect the city’s interests.
However, [...]
Oak Ridge is in the midst of the 20-day drive to collect enough petition signatures to force a referendum on the proposed bond issue for the Crestpointe shopping center.
As a general rule, I don’t think that voters should be able to insist on voting on individual financial decisions by elected officials. (At the February 19th [...]
Previously I posted my views on the Crestpointe proposal. The obvious follow-up question is “What would you do instead?”
My answer is “Let’s commit to redevelopment of the City Center.”
A little history may be necessary to explain what I’m talking about…
Back in 2000 the City (with the help of consultants) developed — and City [...]
Well, if you have been paying attention, you know that on Monday evening the City Council passed a resolution authorizing the issuance of up to $6 million in general obligation bonds for the Crestpointe project.
Actually, the bond resolution doesn’t name Crestpointe; instead, it says the bonds would pay for various types of generic civic improvements [...]
Well, it’s no secret that I’m a candidate for City Council in the June 5, 2007, election (with the filing deadline still several weeks away, all of the local papers have reported that I have filed as a candidate). It’s also no secret that the hottest local issue of the season is the proposal for [...]