Photo: Rev. Andre Richardson addresses Paris City Commissioners regarding the Rison St. bridge. Shannon McFarlin.
By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–At a busy and lengthy meeting of the Paris City Commission Thursday night, commissioners heard bad news on two fronts: the Chickasaw Road rehabilitation project and the Rison Street bridge replacement, both of which will take even longer to complete.
Paris BPU President Terry Wimberley reported due to not being able to use ARP (American Recovery) funds anymore on the Chickasaw Street project, it could take up to three years for the water lines to be installed, which could delay needed paving work by the city along both Chickasaw and onto Washington St.
“Chickasaw Road is a mess,” Wimberley said. “And it’s largely because of the work we’ve done with patching” of areas due to water-related issues. “The money we do have for the project is limited.” BPU has been planning a major water main repair on Chickasaw.
After some discussion, commissioners came to a consensus that a temporary fix on its planned paving of Chickasaw and Washington will have to be done in the interim.
Commissioners noted that motorists are now avoiding driving on Chickasaw because of the condition of the roadway.
The cost of paving with a top coat along Chickasaw and onto Washington St. will be some $300,000 and it should last three years until BPU can begin its water project. It will have to wait until the next fiscal year starts to begin the top coat paving project.
Commissioner John Etheridge said, “This is another example of wanting things done right now and the city isn’t going to be happy about this, but it’s the only option we have.”
Wimberley did have some good news involving Wynn Street, reporting that its water line project there will begin in early 2025, with sidewalk repairs to follow.
More bad news was reported regarding the Rison Street bridge project. The bridge has been closed since October 2023 and because of a backlog by TDOT, replacement cannot go forward until October of 2025.
Rev. Andre Richardson spoke during the citizen’s forum portion of the meeting, asking commissioners what is needed to expedite completion of the project. Richardson had posted on Facebook that a delay in an ambulance arriving at the home of a person involved with a medical emergency ended in tragedy.
“How do we get aid. It’s been taxing on our community,” Richardson said.
City Manager Kim Foster said the Rison Street bridge project has been frustrating with the delays from the state’s end of things. The City of Paris was first awarded an 80-20 grant for bridge replacement in 2019 but COVID happened, which placed state projects on hold.
And now, TDOT is telling the city of Paris they have a backlog of over 100 projects. TDOT also keeps asking for appraisals of properties that have already been performed.
Foster said costs have increased since the grant was awarded, noting, “If we walk away from the grant, it will cost us $1.5M.”
Etheridge said, “I’d like you to pursue how much it would take for us to fix the bridge. What do we need to do to get it open again? I’m confident that the city has done everything it can do, but we’re not getting good cooperation from TDOT.”
Commissioner Sam Tharpe said, “It’s just a mess. To me, it’s more than just a bridge. I was brought up on that street. We need to get things done and they need to show respect for the city of Paris.”
Foster said the city will continue its efforts to get TDOT moving on the project.
As for concerns about delays in the ambulance arriving at the home on Rison St., the Paris PD issued the following media release showing the timeline of events for the EMS call. City officials said the EMS call was handled appropriately:
Timeline of Events for EMS call on Rison Street 10/1/24
Paris, TN- The following is a time line of events for the Henry County EMS call on October 1st, 2024 at 840 Rison Street. This summary of information has been taken from the official CAD (CAD24-024956) on file at the Henry County 911 Center. Additionally, conversations took place between myself (Assistant Chief Ean Reed) and the dispatcher who was on duty at the time of the call and the EMS director, Justing Stambaugh.
15:01:09 911 call received at the dispatch center
15:01:59 call dispatched over the radio to Henry County EMS
15:03:18 EMS unit 32 checks on radio as responding from EMS base
15:04:34 EMS unit 36 diverts from another call and checks responding from the area of Hwy 69A going toward the airport
15:06:47 CAD indicates CPR in progress
15:08:41 EMS unit 36 checks on the scene of the call
15:12:36 EMS unit 32 checks on the scene as secondary unit
15:39:42 Paris Fire dispatched to assist EMS
15:42:07 Paris Fire checks en route
15:45:45 Paris Fire checks on scene to assist EMS
15:54:58 EMS unit 36 checks en route to hospital
15:59:54 EMS unit 36 checks out at hospital
Conversation with Mr. Stambaugh regarding any areas that might have been a problem during the call, yielded the information that the crew of the second EMS unit on scene (32) was a newer crew and may not have been familiar with the road closure but the initial EMS unit crew was aware and knew to respond accordingly. Overall assessment of the response shows that from the time of the phone first ringing in the dispatch center until the first ambulance arrived on the scene was 7 minutes and 32 seconds. This would be considered a better than average to exceptional response time given the location, time of day, and traffic factors.
Possible areas for improvement would be having dispatch remind the EMS unit of the road closure upon dispatch. However, this may not have been feasible given the circumstances such as dispatch actively giving CPR instructions over the phone.