By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.—At a busy Thursday evening meeting, the Paris City Commission heard a summary of the Transportation Systems Management and Operations study which assessed signalized intersections throughout the city.
The study focused on 25 signalized intersections within the city limits, most in downtown Paris. The study was performed by the Neel-Schaffer firm and Professional Engineer Greg Judy presented the summary of its findings to the commission.
Focus of the study, Judy said, is to present recommendations that would allow the city to move forward on its ongoing traffic, safety and pedestrian flow concerns. For the study, engineers employed a lot of data collection from a variety of sources, including crash data, traffic volume, and and site visits that occurred over several months. The study showed a need to modernize and coordinate signalization. To that end, yellow and all-red vehicle clearance intervals were updated for all intersections and pedestrian clearance intervals were updated to conform to standard guidance.
The commission authorized the adoption of suggested improvements to traffic system management.
In a related item, the commission also authorized matching funds and Mayor Carlton Gerrell to execute documents related to the application of a 2019 TDOT multi-modal access grant. The window has opened for the 2019 round of the grant, City Manager Kim Foster said.
This grant is a 95/5 match, highly competitive grant and Foster said city staff has recommended a project which would include replacement of signalization at four intersections in downtown, as well as upgrades and ADA compliance at all associated curbs at these intersections.
TDOT Senior Planner Antoine Hawkins presented information on the grant to the commission. Foster said the city was grateful to TDOT for its guidance.
In other business:
–The commission approved the agreement with Henry County 911 to provide Centralized Dispatching Services. Recently the Paris Police Department agreed to test a completely centralized dispatch center for Paris and Henry County.
Foster explained, “Previously the City’s dispatch center was handling all calls except those transferred to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office that were non-medical. These represented only a small portion of overall calls, but the added time to transfer and the potential to lose a call prompted the HCSO to request the Paris Police Department Dispatch Center take responsibility for dispatching all calls coming into our center. ‘’
After an initial testing time to determine whether the Paris PD’s dispatch center could handle the additional volume, Chief Chuck Elizondo it was successful in absorbing the additional calls and feels this move is good for the community.
–As did the Henry County Commission earlier, the city commission rescinded the PILOT agreement with Revel Enterprises for the county spec building. Revel was not able to fulfill their expectations in regards to this agreement due to a contract not being awarded as expected.
–Citizen Ray Hopper said he felt that Animal Shelter employee Ricky Anderson deserved special recognition for the job he does. Gerrell said he agreed, noting the work that Anderson does that goes “above and beyond”. Foster said the city is “very fortunate” to have employees at the shelter who care so much about animals.
Photo: Greg Judy of the Neel-Schaffer Co. presents the transportation survey information. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
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