By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–At a busy meeting of the Paris City Commission, commissioners agreed to donate a parcel of land to Habitat for Humanity, set a special meeting for later this month to discuss annexation requests, received good news from TDOT on the downtown Paris intersections project and heard a report on city planning from students at Henry County High School.
HCHS World History Teacher Julia Hendrix provided an overview of the project and introduced the students who accompanied her to the meeting: Heidi Langley, Miles Adams, Promise Foster, and Lilly Powell. Hendrix thanked both Community Development Director Jennifer Morris and Administrative Assistant Jessica Crouch for speaking to the students “so that they know what city planning is like in real life.”
Morris thanked the students for their attentiveness and said, “When they know what goes into planning a city, it’s a good situation for us and them.”
The students stayed for the entire meeting and had a picture-taking session with commissioners after the session (and were invited to sit in the commissioners’ seats for a few of the pictures).
The board had asked the Paris Housing Corporation board to evaluate two properties: the first at Rison St. and another on L & N St., for possible donation to Habitat for Humanity. The Housing Corporation met September 27 and after discussion recommended the property at L & N St. be donated to Habitat. They felt the city should maintain ownership of the Rison St. property because of its historical significance and its proximity to Johnson St.
Habitat for Humanity is seeking another property for its next building project.
In other business:
–City Manager Kim Foster reported that the city of Paris is growing and just within the last few weeks has received stil more requests for sewer services outside the city limits. As a common practice, she said, Paris BPU will not extend their sewer lines and service outside the city limits without city permission.
Several of those making the requests are contractors or property owners who are wanting to “develop much needed housing that could benefit our community,” she said. She said she believes there is a need for a work session to begin researching the topic of annexation and to update the city’s ordinance and map. Commissioners agreed to meeting at 2 p.m. October 17.
–On the Multimodal Access Grant for the four downtown intersections, TDOT has agreed to additionally fund the proect in the amount of $173,904 due to increases in construction costs because of the delay.
–The commissioners approved a police department request to purchase an additional patrol car. Acquiring patrol cars is increasingly difficult and expensive each year and the Paris PD had budgeted and ordered two patrol cars for this years.
Early in September, the city police department was notified by the dealership that they had an extra vehice at the current year’s price and would hold it for the city if they wanted it. The current price of a vehicle is $37,174. Next year it will be $44,88, a 21 percent increase. By approving the extra vehicle, the city has saved the taxpayers $7,712.
Photo: Teacher Julia Hendrix and students posed with Paris City Commission members after the meeting. Shannon McFarlin photo.