Atomic City Talk

Good point.

But they ARE contributing folks. They saved the city MILLIONS by putting a stop to the "great mall robbery" and the "crestpointe caper".
They are for letting private enterprise work. That's our style of government. It's called democracy.

Have they saved the city or cost the city?

It's all a matter of who you talk to. The juniors feel the seniors have boycotted and the senior feel they have saved. It's perception and what you are looking for for the city. Cautious and stagnant is what we have become. You have to take risks to make money and as long as the older generation is in control there will be no risks taken and the city remains stagnant.

So you are saying that they are going to raise the money from private sources. Now you are starting to get the idea.

Funny letter (the second one) today about the hotel. The writer essentially complains about the City Council changing the zoning on property it does not own in a letter that wants to freeze the zoning on property he does not own.

The first letter was also amusing where someone in Oliver Springs remembers the good ol' days and wonders why

I didn't know that the Oliver Springs City Council was involved. How does that work?

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/sep/25...dge-hotel/

What caught my attention the most was when the reporter referred to the area proposed for the hotel as "on the edge of a quiet, historic residential community". "Historic", perhaps. In fact ALL of Oak Ridge could fall under that category. But "quiet"????? Perhaps with income generated by the hotel, our city can afford more police officers to patrol that "quiet" community.

We have to stop saying "NO" to everything.

No one likes change, but everyone adjusts to progress. After all, we once used a pencil and a scrap sheet of paper to do the math.

Not sure. At this point though, our best hope for a grocery store may be with the small commercial section planned for Rarity Oaks, since development of the land behind Weigel's seems to have stalled.

Just as the area nearest Y-12 and ORNL on South Illinois is a logical place for a hotel, the area near Weigel's would be a very business-savvy place for a grocery store, since it's a long way (relatively speaking) to Kroger or Food City for a large number of residents on this end of town.

I would love to see The Fresh Market come into Oak Ridge. I couldn't afford to do all of my grocery shopping there, but it still would be nice to have that choice.

Maybe Ms. Stanley decided people wouldn't want to shop where, when the wind blows the wrong way, you get a snootful of the aroma coming from wastewater treatment plant. I don't think I could live in Jackson Commons because everytime I've been back there to look at the houses, the wind shifts and I've about gagged.

News Bulletin: I just got word that Patel picked up an application for a tax abatement today. We came out fighting hard to get this approved for Patel because we felt this would be an asset for the city. I hope I do not find out that some back room deal was cut for a tax abatement. This needs to be voted down. We cannot continue to give tax abatements to every business that comes into town. I still have a sour taste in my mouth over the National Fitness abatement. I hope Mr. Hardy is not making this part of his deal with these businesses coming into our fair city. If so, maybe Mr. hardy needs to be removed for cutting deals and hiding them from the voting public to get things approved. This is sleezy politics at its best if this is what happened. It is not good business to decieve the people of a community. This is why the citizens of Oak Ridge do not trust any deal brought before them. We cannot get revenue if we continue down this path. Stand up and let them know we will not tolerate this anymore and we DO NOT want this abatement approved.