May 31st, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
I can’t choose the best word to describe my thoughts on media reaction to the City of Oak Ridge comments on the draft request for proposals (RFP) for DOE’s Oak Ridge environmental management (EM) contract (the successor to Bechtel Jacobs). OK, I’m tickled to see that Frank Munger likes my own main addition to those comments — the suggestion that the contract be named “Oak Ridge,” not just “East Tennessee Technology Park”, since it’s for environmental cleanup and waste management across the Oak Ridge complex, not just at ETTP. But what to say about the way Munger described those comments in his blog — not to mention the online reaction? One city comment asked DOE to require that the top executives of the new contractor and major subcontractors have “their primary residences” in Oak Ridge. It’s unfortunate that Munger sees this as “forcing” them to live in the city. Consider that this purpose of this contract is to clean up sites in Oak Ridge that are contaminated with radioactive and hazardous material, manage legacy wastes, and do it all in a manner that ensures current and future public safety. Shouldn’t the people responsible for leading this work (who, by the way, likely will receive high-six-figure compensation for their trouble) show their confidence in the quality of their work by living in the same community where they are working? From my professional background and experience at ORNL, I know more about environmental conditions here than most people do, and I believe that the Oak Ridge residential environment is safe and that the public has no reason to fear the impacts of ongoing “EM” work, but what does it tell the world if the top executives responsible for this work decide to locate their homes and families 15 or 20 miles away from the project? As the city’s letter states, “This requirement is especially important for the cleanup contract to promote community and public confidence in the ability of the Contractor to perform the work in a safe manner.”
Oak Ridge environmental cleanup has given the city of Oak Ridge an undeserved bad reputation, while providing a significant economic boost for the region. It is entirely reasonable that the people who are profiting from cleanup should support the community that is supporting them.
Posted in: In the News, Oak Ridge Issues.
Tagged: Bechtel Jacobs · DOE · environmental cleanup · Frank Munger
May 11th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
City Council passed the budget unanimously on first reading at our meeting Monday night. Discussion was lengthy, and many amendments were proposed, but the only actual change in expenditures from the proposed budget was a $3,500 increase in funding for a social services program operated by Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC). The City’s certified tax rate after reappraisal is expected to be $2.39 — that’s the property tax rate that will bring in the same total amount of tax (on properties on the books last year) as last year’s $2.77 rate. Council’s budget calls for a $2.39 rate.
Our property tax assessment notice arrived in Monday’s mail. The appraisal is up by a little more than 13%, which apparently is below the citywide average increase. I have a hunch that the larger increases are on newer construction.
Posted in: In the News, Oak Ridge Issues.
Tagged: city budget · City Council · property tax
May 6th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
It’s FY 2011 budget time for the Oak Ridge City Council. Although I’ve attended myriad meetings of the Council Budget & Finance Committee, I face a stack of budget reading: City budget and Schools budget — and audit report for FY 2009. The Council audit committee meets Monday at noon, and Council meets that same evening at 7 for a public hearing and the first vote on the budget.
This is a tough budget. No property tax increase and no layoffs, but also no money for employee pay increases or for a variety of items that department heads say their organizations need. In spite of that, total City spending will go up, mostly because of higher payments into the state retirement fund, to help make up for investment losses in the last couple of years. (This is one more opportunity for the public — especially our kids — to pay for the mistakes of investment bankers…)
Things look worse for the schools. Although the school board’s budget asks for a 3.5% increase from the City general fund (that’s more than the increase being proposed for city government), their budget cuts a bunch of positions, particularly for teacher assistants. That’s a shame, as I think that teacher assistants in the earliest grades are hugely important for kids. Like the city government, the schools face a big increase in retirement contributions. On the other hand, the schools are planning to give some raises to staff: there are step increases for teachers who are eligible (about half the teachers) and they are budgeting for a teacher bonus (if the state declares a bonus for staff positions covered by the state Basic Education Program, Oak Ridge will give the same bonus to staff whose positions aren’t in the BEP). School finances have a way of improving after the city budget is passed — if things work out like they have in recent years, the school budget picture will get slightly better in June or July. Maybe the state won’t declare that bonus, or maybe the final state education budget will be more generous than currently projected…
One feature of the budget that’s disappointing for a lot of us is the fate of that traffic camera revenue from FY 2010. People have a lot of excellent ideas for using that money for special initiatives to benefit the community, but it’s needed to plug a hole in the FY 2010 budget. The hole is largely due to two problems: (1) Property tax collections are lagging more than usual (that’s not all that surprising) and (2) a new GASB accounting standard calls for revenue to be accounted for in the year it’s collected instead of the year it was due. That’s a sensible rule, and I’m surprised and disappointed to learn that it’s not the way things have been done (apparently the City has previously claimed tax revenues when due, even if that’s years before they are collected). Unfortunately, though, the one-time accounting change has created a budget shortfall for the first year’s traffic camera money will fill.
Monday night, I expect more vigorous discussion of the budget than we’ve had in recent years. We’re likely to hear from members of the public who have been told (incorrectly) that it was City Council decided to cut those positions out of the school budget, several Council members are likely to propose cuts in specific items, and I won’t be surprised if one Council member asks for additional funding to hire several police officers.
Posted in: Calendar, Oak Ridge Issues.
Tagged: budget · city budget · City Council · school superintendent
Apr 13th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
On Monday, a west end resident reported that the city’s sewage treatment plant has been emitting an odor lately. He asked if the plant might be overloaded. I asked staff what’s going on. Since the fellow who contacted me probably isn’t the only one who’s been wondering about the odor, I’m sharing the reply I received:
The odor from the wastewater plant is related to some biological issues with the recent start up of the digesters in the new solids handling system. The plant is nowhere near overloaded — it is apparently working in high gear, hence the odor. The operations staff have been receiving assistance from our engineer, Lamar Dunn, to resolve the situation and get the system working as designed. The recent wide temperature swings from warm days to cool nights are also making the problem more noticeable by trapping the odor and not letting it disperse into the atmosphere. We are hoping things will settle down soon.
From this description, it sounds to me like there are some new “bugs” (of the microbial variety) that need to become accustomed to the diet of sewage they receive at Oak Ridge’s treatment plant. Here’s hoping things settle down quickly!
Posted in: Life in General.
Tagged: sewage
Apr 9th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
"Humped-zebra"-type crossing in Sydney, Australia.
Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Bob Fowler asked Oak Ridge City Council members for our views on use of the revenue from those controversial cameras that enforce speed limits and red-light compliance. His article on the answers that he got from five of us is in Friday’s paper. My full answer didn’t make it into the article, but I can provide it here:
City Council has never budgeted for this revenue, although some individual Council members have made public statements about its use that some residents now interpret as having been promises from the full Council.
I have told city staff that I think this money should be placed in a special revenue fund so that its expenditure can be tracked separately from the General Fund. I want the money to be used for one-time improvements that will have long-term benefits for the safety of motorists and pedestrians in the city. It should not be used for recurring expenses because the city shouldn’t count on having this revenue forever, and it should be used for traffic safety because traffic safety is the stated purpose of the cameras.
Some possible uses are traffic-calming measures such as roundabouts and “humped zebra crossings” (that’s a British term for striped pedestrian crosswalks that are elevated above the road surface for greater visibility and to slow traffic), new walk light signals, additional signs to alert drivers to the speed limit, and more stop signs to slow down the drivers who speed through residential neighborhoods on streets like Outer Drive. Also, there is a federal mandate requiring cities to upgrade the reflectorization on all street signs and pavement markings within the next few years — I think that would be an appropriate use for traffic camera money.
Posted in: In the News, Oak Ridge Issues, Public safety.
Tagged: city budget · City Council · traffic cameras
Apr 8th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
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 the performing arts pavilion behind the Oak Ridge Civic Center), and I hope there will soon be a complete schedule for it. According to a Facebook page, the first concert will be May 7th (7:30pm – 11:30pm), by “The Breakfast Club”, an ’80s tribute band.
Last summer’s series was organized kind of at the 11th hour, so it wasn’t possible to announce the schedule in advance, but I’m hoping for a lot more advance info this year. I think attendance would have been higher with better coordinated publicity. I heard from a number of residents who said they would have liked to have had a schedule to pin onto the fridge. More than the Secret City Festival, the Secret City Sounds series seems to induce some of my ORNL colleagues who don’t live here to come into Oak Ridge for a good time.
2 – There’s also an article about “Safe Routes to School” activities at a Knoxville elementary school. Oak Ridge was also awarded a “Safe Routes” grant for improvements and programs at and near Robertsville Middle School, and I’m hoping that we’ll soon be seeing news about progress in implementing the program.
Posted in: Calendar, In the News, Life in General.
Tagged: arts · pedestrian safety · Robertsville Middle School · Safe Routes to School · Secret City Sounds
Mar 11th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
A couple of weeks ago I commented on plans for the “Oak Ridge Gran Prius” and its relation to Toyota safety issues. At this point, it appears that the Gran Prius event might not happen, due in part to nagging safety concerns. Now, however, there’s an op-ed piece in the New York Times telling how many past instances of “sudden unexplained acceleration” were actually due to people pressing down (hard) on the accelerator pedal when they thought their foot was on the brake! Hmm…
Posted in: Greening the city, Life in General.
Tagged: Toyota
Feb 26th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
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 Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce seems to be making some inroads on that front with its “Live Where Your Work” effort, but packing up and moving isn’t a practical option for everybody who’s here now. Instead, many people who work at ORNL have been going home “the back way” by taking Hwy 95 to the I-40 interchange near Lenoir City. That route is getting clogged, too… Late in the day Thursday when I drove “the back way” from ORNL to downtown Knoxville for a session of the MTAS “Elected Officials Academy”, it took me a full 10 minutes to go the first mile on Bethel Valley Road (from the ORNL west entrance to Hwy 95) — traffic was backed up a long way from the intersection, waiting to turn left. This was the third weekly class, and the situation has gotten worse each week — probably due to more and more people avoiding Solway each week. The delay was still less than I’ve sometimes experienced around Solway at that time of day, but still…
I keep looking for billboards saying “If you lived in Oak Ridge, you’d be home by now,” but the Oak Ridge residential developers who advertise in Solway have been more subtle than that. I don’t much like the idea of making it easier for people who work in Oak Ridge to live elsewhere, but this congestion is making a lot of people eager for some sort of transit on the Pellissippi Parkway corridor — one of the things that Gary Gilmartin and the Oak Ridge Energy Corridor partnership are discussing. I just hope that the initiative also ends up benefiting people who live in Oak Ridge…
Posted in: In the News, Life in General.
Feb 22nd, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
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 chickens — they are thinking in terms of pets that lay eggs, not full-scale poultry farming. Not everyone would want backyard chickens, but not everyone wants a pet dog, either. If Oak Ridge doesn’t make it explicitly legal to keep chickens — under certain rules designed to protect the neighborhood, I have a hunch that people will keep them anyway, but without rules.
Posted in: Greening the city, Life in General, Oak Ridge Issues.
Tagged: chickens
Feb 16th, 2010
by Ellen Smith.
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 know that there was no advance publicity of the meeting’s topic (unless you count this blog) so there may have been no interested citizens at the meeting, and it’s apparent from the article that staff presented the idea in negative terms (saying it was supported by only a “handful of people” and raising concerns about the workload for enforcement and licensing and permitting).
If chickens are going to come to Oak Ridge to roost or lay eggs, people with interest and knowledge of chicken-rearing are going to have to sit down for a two-way discussion with the planning commissioners and staff. The newspaper says the topic will be addressed by the full Planning Commission at its February 25th meeting (5:30 pm in the City courtroom); based on what I know of the subject and what I read in the newspaper reports, I think it’s premature for the Commission to take any final action on this.
Follow-up (written on Wednesday): Community Development staff provided me with a copy of the written material provided to the committee; it included copies of the text of a couple of e-mails I had received from citizens. Staff say that there were several interested citizens at the meeting. It appears that discussion at the meeting dealt mainly with broad concepts.
Posted in: Greening the city, In the News, Life in General, Oak Ridge Issues.
Tagged: chickens · oak ridger · planning commission
