Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association            

January 10, 2008

Minutes – Monthly Meeting 

Attendance:  Judy Clevenger, Bill Henry, Betty Stokes, Lloyd Stokes, John Clark, Ruth Ann Maddux, C. J. Maddux, Peggy Whitehouse, Kenneth Whitehouse, Fanny Smith, Margaret Allard, Andrei Petrov, Mick Wiest, W. E. Tewes, Anne McBride, Bill Wilcox, Emily Hunnicutt, Don Hunnicutt, Ed Westcott, Colleen Black, Ray Smith, Fay Martin, Pete Scott, Keith McDaniel, Dave Miller, Sheila Hutchison, Diana Davis, Mrs. Sullivan and Edward Sullivan

The meeting began at 7:10 p.m. in the Wildcat Den Room of the Midtown Community Center.  There were 29 people present. (See attachment 1 on file.)

President, Keith McDaniel presided at the meeting.  Keith reminded everyone that membership dues are now due for 2008.  He also announced there would be a short Board of Directors meeting after tonight’s monthly meeting.

Bill Wilcox reported on the Partners for K-25 Preservation activities.  He mentioned that the PKP group was entering a very crucial time with regard to the Department of Energy and the K-25 facilities and their preservation for future generations.  DOE has asked the Site Specific Advisory Board to advise them on how they should go about saving K-25.  The SSAB wants to hear the community’s opinions on the subject and they have announced a community meeting will be held with the Local Oversight Committee on February 7, (a Thursday) in Pollard Auditorium.  A time for the meeting has not yet been announced. Bill asked that we please come to the meeting and bring as many people with us as possible.

Mick Wiest introduced the guest speaker for the evening, Mr. Edward T. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan is an educator and librarian.  He is currently the Librarian at the Lake City Middle School.  He has taught English and Composition classes at the middle school level.  He published his first book in 1999.   In 2000 Mr. Sullivan moved to Oak Ridge and began researching how the Manhattan Project was taught to school students. He was shocked to find that Oak Ridge and most of the communities where the atomic bomb was built were left out of the text books when the story was told. He decided to write a book giving young readers a broader story and he modeled his book on Richard Rhodes book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.”

Mr. Sullivan’s book was published this past summer. Its title is, “The Ultimate Weapon- The Race to Develop the Atomic Bomb.” One of Mr. Sullivan’s goals in writing his book was to capture the imagination of students by telling them stories that would intrigue them and hold their interest.  Some of the stories he incorporated into the book are: the account of Leo Szilard pushing Albert Einstein to write a letter to Roosevelt encouraging research into developing an atomic weapon and then later pushing the petition to stop its use, the dramatic Chicago Pile story, tales about General Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer’s personalities, the story about baseball player and spy, Moe Berg and what life was like for the people living in the secret cities where the bomb was being developed.

Mr. Sullivan credited Ed Westcott for the many government archive photographs used in the book.

He also wanted to show young readers how complicated and messy history really is and how many of the powerful politicians in the U.S. did not want to make use of the bomb after it was built.  The debate that historians have had about using the bombs is also discussed.

The most difficult part of writing the book, according to Mr. Sullivan, was coming to a place of being able to grasp and then write about the physics involved in the making of the atomic bomb.

Mr. Sullivan stayed after the meeting to sign copies of his book which is also available at the Discovery Shop in the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Keith McDaniel introduced Anne McBride; Chair of the ORHPA Sign Committee to speak about the work the Sign Committee has done in preparing proposals for an ORHPA ground sign in front of the Midtown Community Center.  (See attachment 2 on file.)  The members of the Sign Committee, (Dave Miller, Anne Ross, Bobbie Martin, Anne McBride, Harold Jernigan, Bill Wilcox, Susan Gawarecki and Martin McBride), have been working for 3 months gathering information and estimates to bring several proposals to the board of directors and membership for a ground sign for our building.

Anne reviewed the 2 proposals made by the Sign Committee.  One proposal is for a double sided, custom 4’ x 8’ sign made of alum a core, with removable tenant panels, installed on a concrete base with external lighting to be finished with a brick base and mounted on the grass in front of the last parking space of our parking lot on the front corner by the Robertsville Road side (perpendicular to the Oak Ridge Turnpike.)  The total cost estimate for this design (including electric, brick work, tree work and landscaping) is about $8,755.

The second proposal is for a double sided, custom 4’x 8’ sign made of aluminum with Plexiglas, with removable tenant panels, a 2 line message board with a lockable hinged clear shield, a set of 4” font letters, with internal lighting and to be finished with a brick base and mounted on the grass in the same location as above.  Both sign proposals have the sign height at about 7 and 1/2 feet above the ground. The total cost estimate for this design (including electric, brick work, tree work and landscaping) is about $13,900.

Before placing a ground sign in front of our building we need to consider removing the 7 Bradford Pear trees which are falling apart with every wind storm and have been costly to maintain.  They would be blocking the view, from the turnpike, of any new ground sign.

After having a survey of the property completed, we can see that all the pear trees in front of the building are on city property.  The city has advised us that we should pay to have them removed and replace them with some other type of trees. Mick Wiest has prepared a landscape drawing adding new white dogwood and serviceberry trees on the east front side of our building.  We are working with the city to make sure we have their approval before we go forward with tree work.  We will be required to submit a permit for the sign once the board of directors decides which proposal to go forward with.  The city will also have a city traffic safety official review any proposed sign location to make sure it does not block the traffic line of sight from the Robertsville Road corner.

A poster showing drawings of the proposed sign designs was available for review at the meeting.  Suggestions were made that we consider using a solar panel to power a new ground sign and that we ask the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to consider helping with the sign costs.

Keith McDaniel announced the guest speaker for the February 14 monthly meeting will be member, Dr. Stella Schramm.  Dr. Schramm is an assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at Tusculum College.  She will be speaking to us about the lessons learned from the redevelopment of the New Orleans Historic Warehouse District and Riverfront.

The meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m.

Minutes Respectfully Submitted,

Anne McBride, Secretary,

Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association

January 13, 2008