By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.—At a very busy session Thursday night, the Paris City Commission adopted the completed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) plan for the city which TLM Associates Engineer Travis Martin said will put Paris “ahead of the curve and you should be proud of that. Paris will probably be the first city in West Tennessee to have a completed plan.”
The city also approved the low bidder, NSITE of Milan, as site development coordinator for the Splash Pad project for Eiffel Tower Park and approved application for a grant to construct sidewalks from East Wood Street to Fairgrounds Road to Royal Oak and Lone Oak Roads which would provide a “much-needed safe path” of sidewalks in the Henry County Fairgrounds area, City Manager Kim Foster said.
On the ADA project, Martin provided an overview of the process, noting that the completed plan is over 1,500 pages. The process began by setting goals and included identifying a comprehensive list of barriers, public outreach, encouraged public participation and issued a realistic schedule for the project.
Martin and Foster said it was quite an undertaking, since everything owned by the city had to be evaluated and that included eight buildings, 10 parks, 22 miles of sidewalks, 150 to 200 unsignalized intersections and 24 signalized intersections.
The finished product is a 30-year plan but Foster noted it is not a plan that will just be placed on a shelf. “The law says you have to have a plan on how to fix these things and we will be showing we’re working on the plan,” she said.
The city and TLM opened bids for the Splash Pad Wednesday and Martin noted the low bid from NSITE was 10 percent higher than what was budgeted for the project. But he noted that the budget was developed in March 2018 and the prices of concrete are higher across the board for such projects. Martin recommended NSITE be selected, noting that “If I could have hand-picked anyone in West Tennessee for this project, it would have been them.”
Foster noted, “No one had a crystal ball telling us the price of concrete would go up by that much and that’s the lion’s share of this increase.”
On the sidewalks project, Foster noted the window has opened for the 2020 round of the TDOT Transportation Alternatives Grant.
This grant is an 80/20 match, highly competitive, she said. The project which would include construction of a sidewalk from East Wood Street at the Chickasaw/Fairgrounds Road intersection, to run along Fairgrounds Road to Royal Oak, and then turn down Royal Oak and run all the way to Lone Oak Road.
Foster said, “This would add a much-needed safe path from East Wood and surrounding roads to the Henry County Fairgrounds. As you know, this area is extremely congested with pedestrian traffic during major events like the World’s Biggest Fish Fry, Fair week and many other events held at the fairgrounds. It would also tie into our current project of sidewalks along Wilson and Patriot and ultimately provide a safe pedestrian path from East Wood Street through dense residential neighborhoods, past four schools, and connect to Mineral Wells, our most busy retail hub.”
Foster said the city staff feels that the time is right to attempt this project and add a safe pedestrian walkway in this area.
Martin said TDOT likes to see projects that are built on projects already being developed. “It’s a very good project,” Martin said. “It hits on all the areas TDOT likes to see.”
Martin said it would be announced next summer whether Paris receives the grant and if Paris is approved, it won’t be started until 2021.
In other business:
–The commission approved a rezoning request from Tim Wirgau for his property at 130 Abbott Lane. He requested to rezone from from PM (Planned Industrial) to PB (Planned Business). Wirgau plans to develop a portion of his property for an assisted living facility.
–The commission approved a rezoning request from Janet French for property at 102 Fairview Street. Ms. French is requesting the property be rezoned from the current R-1-M (Single Family Medium Residential) to a commercial zone.
–BPU General Manager Terry Wimberley updated the commission on the current water and wastewater projects.
Photo: Engineer Travis Martin, standing, shows the city commission the finished ADA plan. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
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