{"id":83,"date":"2026-10-10T04:13:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/?p=83"},"modified":"2026-10-10T13:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T13:41:12","slug":"campaign-announcement-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/2026\/10\/10\/campaign-announcement-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign Announcement – 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This appeared in The Oak Ridger newspaper on October 8, 2026<\/em>. See it online at https:\/\/www.oakridger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/candidate-profiles\/2026\/10\/06\/ellen-smith-announces-run-for-oak-ridge-city-council\/92101370007\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oak Ridge City Council member Ellen Smith has announced her candidacy for re-election in November 2026. A long-serving Council member, when asked why she wants to continue she says: \u201cI don\u2019t think I am finished with the role. I think it\u2019s a job worth doing. It is gratifying when I can help get positive results for a fellow citizen or our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, she says: \u201cI believe that the city needs me to stick around. Continuity in leadership will be very important in this time of tremendous change. The \u2018Nuclear Renaissance\u2019 is bringing unprecedented new investment and development. This is welcome change, but city government will be challenged to accommodate the needs of new industry and new residents, and to try to ensure that the benefits promised by new industry flow through to the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith is an environmental scientist by profession, with education in geology, hydrology, and environmental science and policy. After coming to Oak Ridge in 1981, she worked at ORNL for 36 years, supporting DOE and other federal agencies in technical\/environmental analysis\/review on diverse aspects of nuclear and other energy technologies. This experience gives her a good comfort level with the planned \u201cnew nuclear\u201d while helping her identify questions that need to be asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the city, Ellen has been a homeowner, wife and mother, and taxpayer. She has engaged in numerous civic organizations and activities over the years. Her civic engagement continues, and she tries to be responsive to questions and concerns expressed to her by her fellow citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first formal involvement with city government was as a member and chair of the Environmental Quality Advisory Board (EQAB) beginning in the early 1990s. Environment continues to be a major interest, and as a Council member she serves on the Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources committee of the National League of Cities. She is proud of her role in developing the city\u2019s 1993 greenways master plan that started our successful greenways network. More recently she has promoted efforts to create a Pellissippi Blueway on Melton Lake, and she is currently engaged with a new campaign to preserve and enhance Clark Center Park as a state park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellen is glad to have been a part of other recent city progress, such as completion of the Senior Center, Preschool, Conference Center, the soon-to-open water treatment plant, new sidewalks, and improvements to the Oak Ridge Transit program. There are other projects currently in the works, and she looks forward to continued improvements to serve citizens better. As a member (currently chair) of Council\u2019s Budget & Finance Committee she stays informed about the kinds of choices that need to be made to maintain the fiscal health of the city and our utility systems while enhancing facilities and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellen urges her fellow Oak Ridgers to vote, and to cast their votes for Ellen Smith, for experience, knowledge, and commitment to a quality community. See www.ellensmith.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This appeared in The Oak Ridger newspaper on October 8, 2026. See it online at https:\/\/www.oakridger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/candidate-profiles\/2026\/10\/06\/ellen-smith-announces-run-for-oak-ridge-city-council\/92101370007\/ Oak Ridge City Council member Ellen Smith has announced her candidacy for re-election in November 2026. A long-serving Council member, when asked why she wants to continue she says: \u201cI don\u2019t think I am finished with the role. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellensmith.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}