By CHARLES RICHARDS
EParisExtra!
The Paris City Council has decided to make a one-time withdrawal of $400,000 from its cash reserves and undertake a methodical tearing down of every dilapidated house in the city.
Dr. AJ Hashmi
Taking down the city’s scores of dilapidated houses is something that council members have been talking about for years without making much progress, Mayor AJ Hashmi said during a special meeting Wednesday evening.
“With small amounts of money, one home is brought down, and another home is brought down, and the city is still full of dilapidated homes and dilapidated buildings,” the mayor said.
“I think it requires a lot of guts on the part of the council to make a brave decision today, but I am going to make the motion and I would request that my motion be supported,” Hashmi said.
“This will affect the entire community. We have plenty of homes that need to be demolished, and we will see a clear difference in the community and our city when we do that.”
The average tear-down cost is about $4,000, which means an infusion of $400,000 would allow the city to take down all 100 or so houses that the city’s Building and Standards Commission has marked for demolition.
District 3 councilman John Wright seconded the motion, getting in just ahead of District 2 councilwoman Sue Lancaster, and the council voted 6-0 for the mayor’s proposition.
At Wright’s request, Hashmi amended his motion to include instructions to city manager John Godwin to bargain with the city’s demolition contractor, Sanitation Solutions, for a discounted rate because of the increased work being thrown the company’s way.
The vote, with councilman Matt Frierson out of town, came shortly before the city manager unveiled his proposed 2012-2013 budget.
Godwin had $100,000 penciled in for demolitions in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The city manager recommended that the council leave that in place.
At Hashmi’s request, city finance director Gene Anderson had prepared a spreadsheet showing the city’s projected cash on hand as of Sept. 30 to be approximately $13.2 million — $9.4 million in the general fund and $3.8 million in the water and sewer fund.
“That is the amount that the city holds currently as cash. However, out of that, there are some committed funds, and what we have as our money currently is about $10.9 million,“ Hashmi said.
Anderson has said it is prudent to keep at least 25 percent of operating capital in reserve — enough to handle three months of the city‘s expenses in an emergency. On Godwin’s proposed 2012-2013 budget of $21.9 million, that works out to be about $5.5 million.
“I’m very happy that the city has been managed well and has well in excess of three months of reserves,” Hashmi said.
The mayor said the $400,000 is to be used only on dilapidated housing — not on buildings downtown.
“I think we have to come up with a distinct set of ideas for substandard buildings downtown. The demolition of downtown buildings is going to require a lot more money,” Hashmi said.
—
send questions about this article to
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
follow: RSS
