Gateway Celebration

Comments from Mayor David Bradshaw

"Science.gov is a cool site"

I'm glad to be here. It feels like Science.gov Way, with all the science and technology represented here in this audience, and it's a thrill to be here.

We don't rename roads here in Oak Ridge very often, and I think this is a perfect time to do this.

Science.gov, it's a cool site and I've been using it. In fact earlier this week Congressman Zach Wamp was in town, and we wanted to get a presentation over to NOAA on SensorNet. I got a call to help host that event, and I wanted to brush up on SensorNet. The first place I went was science.gov, and found everything I needed, from The Oak Ridger articles, to articles from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Computation Sciences and Engineering Division and Computing and Computational Sciences Division, complete information, so I felt confident I knew what SensorNet was.

In addition, in reading those articles, it talks about DC-Net. I was much less familiar with DC-Net, so I typed in DC-Net and it popped right up, the ARL and the NOAA Web site, straight to the article on what DC-Net is all about. So from that perspective it was very helpful. And then from an economic development perspective, just this very morning I had an individual who owns a company called GeoConnect, and they do work with PSAP.

Now I know all you DOE folks think you know what PSAP is, but it has nothing to do with your security system. I had to learn what it was too. PSAP relates to 911 technologies and the acronym stands for Public Safety Answering Point. And it's what happens when you dial 911. You enter the PSAP system. Related to homeland security and protecting people and getting them emergency assistance when it's important, PSAP is a very important part of our country. And I needed to know more about that before I talked to this individual who's growing a company around that technology here in the Tennessee Valley Corridor.

I went to science.gov, typed in PSAP, and believe it or not, the DOE acronym was not the first one that popped up. It was the (correct) one. So I thought that was very good, that I could learn about PSAP right off of science.gov.

I am sure that Ken Green (principal of Oak Ridge High School) will take back science.gov to Oak Ridge High School and it will become a very important tool for the students there.

So finally let's go back to renaming the road. You know, Knoxville, our good friends in Knoxville, have Peyton Manning Pass, and Phil Fulmer Way and Pat Summitt Drive and lots of other names. They have a very quick system. I think Victor Ash just goes out and puts up the signs himself. But we have a method to go through, and it took a little time. But I want to thank all the folks who worked very hard to make that happen. This had unanimous support from council.

So we're taking an old road that's been here for a long, long time and we're renaming it what it ought to be. Something that represents Oak Ridge, what Oak Ridge is all about. It makes what we're all about accessible to the public. Just like you can come down the Turnpike and turn onto Science.gov Way anytime you want to.

And I'm sure people will come here and take pictures of our sign. Joe Valentino, our Convention and Visitors Bureau Director is already on that - it's going to be a stop on our Driving Tour.

You can get onto the Web, go to science.gov and make all the brainpower that's represented here available at the push of a button.

So we're proud of that, and we're glad to do a small part, where we can as a city support all the good things that go on here.

Thank you.