By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Paris City Manager Kim Foster announced at Thursday evening’s Paris City Commission meeting that the city has finally received ‘Notice for Construction’ for the long-planned installation of sidewalks along Wilson Street and Patriot Avenue.
The city is currently advertising the project for bids and will conduct the bid opening December 14 for the project.
She said the city recently received notice that it had finally passed hurdles for other planned projects as well. “All of a sudden, we were notified we passed hurdles on three different projects. We have really been on a roll,” she said.
In addition to the Wilson/Patriot sidewalk project, the city finally received approval of documentation for the signalization and safety upgrades and three downtown intersections; and documentation was approved for the Rison Street Bridge replacement.
As for the signalization project, Foster said TDOT has requested funds be allocated. “One that allocation has been made, we will receive notice to proceed to design.” The TLM firm is still looking at the Wood Street corners that TDOT did not adddress during the recent paving project downtown to see if anything more can be done to make the corners handicap-compliant, she said.
On the Rison Street project, she said documentation for the project was finally approved and the city is waiting for the funds to be allocated. “Since funds for this project are federal funds, this process may take awhile,” she said.
In new business, the commission authorized the Mayor to sign an application and other documents needed to apply for the current round of Transportation Alternative grants for a planned construction of sidewalks along Royal Oak and Fairgrounds Roads. The city previously applied last year, but the grant was not awarded.
Foster reported that 49 applications were received from local business and building owners totaling almost $560,000 interested in the Downtown Improvement Grant funding. “We have sent approximately half of the applications to the committee for scoring and will meet with the committee Monday afternoon,” she said. The other half of the applications will be sent to the committee next week.
With $150,000 available in the grant, the committee assigned to review the applications will have a difficult job. She said the city had intended to utilize some of the funds for downtown improvements (repainting poles downtown), but with so many applications received, the city will instead use city funds and the painting will be done by city employees. “We didn’t want to use money that could go to the business and building owners for their projects,” she said. “We just had an overwhelming amount of interest, which is good.”
In other business:
–After a public hearing and after previous planning committee meetings, the commission amended the city ordinance governing required screening for properties. The subject has been discussed at length at previous meetings. The amendments allow flexibility and allow different types of screening, such as vinyl fencing, vegetation, etc.
Photo: Wilson Street in front of Henry Co. High School and TCAT.