The solid waste route system covering Cordova, Hickory Hill and East Memphis began as a first step toward privatizing all city solid waste collections during the tenure of a different mayor. Related stories: City faces critical decision on one of its most basic services
Memphis has an emergency contract with Team Waste in Area E, probably until the end of 2021. In the interim, officials are considering whether to keep using a private waste company to manage the area or expand city services to cover it. Related stories:
Plans to build a 49-mile pipeline to transport crude oil from southwest Memphis to another pipeline at a connecting point near Byhalia, Mississippi, have run into delays on a couple of different fronts.
In a recent interview, Memphis’ nominee for police chief talked about officer training, violence intervention, and why she initially pulled her application from the city’s search for a new head of police.
A nearly $3.4 million project is underway to install “mast arm traffic signal poles” at a dozen intersections along a six-mile stretch of Jackson Avenue. The city will place mast arms at more intersections as funding allows.
Meanwhile, the council delayed for two weeks a first reading vote on historic overlay district status for the Crosstown area.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is proposing a $716 million operating budget and an $89 million capital budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. It also includes 2% pay raises for firefighters and police.
The mayor has offered no clues on the specifics of the budget, but he is not expected to propose a property tax hike. However, setting the property tax rate will be more complicated this year.
Can a private oil pipeline company force private property owners to provide access to their land? The eminent domain case involving the Byhalia Connection project will attempt to answer that question.
The increase in demand for counseling services is just beginning, experts say. “The Cottage” will enable the Collierville facility to offer weekend mini-camps and workshops, not just its once-a-year camps for children and for adults.
‘Not here, not now, not ever on our watch,' said Rev. Dr. William Barber II during a rally Sunday protesting the Byhalia Connection Pipeline that would go through majority Black, poor neighborhoods in southwest Memphis.
Around 30 people gathered outside the National Civil Rights Museum on Sunday, April 18, to demand justice in three recent police killings in Knoxville, Chicago and Minnesota.
Although Memphis has long battled perceptions (and reality) about its crime rate, community leaders say it’s not as much of a factor in economic recruitment efforts as one might expect.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Greater Imani Pastor Rev. Bill Adkins says the case can be made for a new director from MPD ranks or for someone from the outside. Adkins also said he sees a new indifference to violent crime that calls for new solutions as well as new ways of policing the city.
Proposals by Memphis City Council members and Shelby County commissioners emerged during a second joint meeting Thursday of the two bodies. But other elected officials expressed concern that just talking about changes in economic development incentives could put the city and county at a disadvantage.
The permit is a critical juncture in the $60 million project. In an update for donors and potential donors Wednesday, April 14, park planners said the Tom Lee statue in the park will not be moved and will be a focal point of the park.
The second joint meeting of the County Commission and City Council includes several proposed changes to economic development incentives used locally to grow the Memphis economy.
Since the position was created in 1972, the department has had a dozen directors. A new era is set to begin with the April 14 retirement of Michael Rallings.
Michael Rallings, MPD’s director for five years, retires after 31-year career with the department.
Doug McGowen also says doses were wasted last weekend when the size of the line at the Pipkin Building site was overestimated. He says fewer than 100 doses have been lost since the city took over vaccine distribution in late February.
No-appointment hours at the Pipkin site are from 2-7 p.m. today and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The new private contractor serving 35,000 households transitioned Monday from dealing with a backup from the past month to making daily trash pickups in Cordova, Hickory Hill and East Memphis.
The contract cancellation comes at the end of a 20-day period to fix problems with waste pickup in Area E — Cordova, Hickory Hill and East Memphis. Residents in the area complained last month that Waste Pro not only missed scheduled trash pickup days but left trash by the curb for weeks.
The City Council Scorecard peels back the layers on the council’s April 6 vote on a $520,000 contract that put the issue of MLGW leaving TVA back on track after six months in limbo.
No date has been set for the return to City Hall by the council but it comes as budget season approaches. Meanwhile, the city’s political scene remains active, as chronicled in The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast.