OAK RIDGE town council
Jan. 7 / MEETING HIGHLIGHTS as reported by CHRIS BURRITT Mayor Ann Schneider called the monthly meeting to order with Mayor Pro Tem Jim Kinneman and council members George McClellan, Doug Nodine and Martha Pittman participating remotely. The meeting was recorded and livestreamed on the town’s Facebook page and its YouTube channel. Gary Blackburn, who served on
Oak Ridge’s first town council, offered the invocation. It was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Alexandra Santiago, a member of Boy Scouts of America girl-led Troop 219 which meets at Oak Ridge Presbyterian Church. Santiago and two other troop members, Selby Chipman and Caroline Ruppel, are among the first girls in the U.S. to attain the rank of Eagle Scout.
WHAT they voted on, and HOW they voted: Mayor Ann Schneider, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Kinneman and council members George McClellan, Doug Nodine and Martha Pittman voted on the following items during the Jan. 7 council meeting.
5 0: Appoint Stuart Mease to the Finance Committee and Michael Bell to the Board of Adjustment 5 0: Renew the town’s memorandum of understanding with Guilford
County regarding stewardship and management of the Cascades Preserve
4 1: Approve (Kinneman opposed) a policy allowing three options for
meetings of the Town Council and town committees and boards under COVID19 public gathering restrictions
2 3: Enact a policy recommending remote meetings for the council and committees (the motion failed, with Kinneman and Pittman voting in favor) 5 0: Instruct the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to recommend one or more names for the Whitaker property park
5 0: Approve the first reading of a proposed ordinance to renew the town’s waste collection franchise agreement with GFL Environmental Services
PUBLIC SAFETY
Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO
After three “smash-and-grab” incidents at Oak Ridge Town Park in the last month, sheriff’s deputies have once again placed “Lock it or Lose it” signs at park entrances as a reminder for vehicle owners to lock up their valuables (and place them out of sight).
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Sheriff’s Office. First Lt. Jeremy Fuller reported the sheriff’s District 1 office responded to 53 calls in Oak Ridge in December. Of those, 38 calls related to burglar alarms; another related to a theft from a house and another to a theft from a vehicle at Town Park. In early January, deputies investigated break-ins of two vehicles parked at Town Park where two suspects broke out windows to steal purses, Fuller said. All three incidents were “smash-andgrab” thefts in which motorists had left valuables in plain view, Fuller said. He urged motorists to place belongings out of sight and, even better, remove them from their vehicles before parking at Town Park or other public places. Deputies have once again placed signs at Town Park advising people to protect their possessions. Oak Ridge Fire Department. Chief Ken Gibson said the department handled 58 calls last month, including 32 EMSrelated calls. Firefighters completed 181
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hours of training in December. The department responded to a house fire on North Bunker Hill Road Jan. 3; the family made it out of the house safely, but was displaced, Gibson said.
PUBLIC HEARING
The council conducted a public hearing related to a request by Bryan and Tammy Gardner to rezone nearly 25 acres northwest of Oak Ridge from RS-40 (Residential) to agricultural. No one spoke against the request by the Gardners, who own the property on Warner Road east of Happy Hill Road in Oak Ridge’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. It is part of 87 acres on which the couple lives. About five years ago, Bryan, a builder, planned to construct houses on the property. At his request, the council rezoned the property from agricultural to residential. The couple has now decided they don’t want to build houses on the land, Tammy told the council, so they were requesting to return the residential zoning
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