Category: News Blog

Although the Madison Avenue bike lane debate has been raging for several months, the city has yet to make a decision on whether to add dedicated bike lanes or “share the road” signage.

“We continue to receive letters of support and letters of opposition. But the mayor has not made a decision on the matter yet,” said city bike and pedestrian coordinator Kyle Wagenschutz before Bike-to-Work Day last month.

Tonight (June 29th), the city will hold the first of three public meetings to discuss bike lanes and other Madison Avenue infrastructure improvements. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at Minglewood Hall. For more info contact madisonavenue@memphistn.gov or visit the event’s Facebook page.

Earlier this week, the Shelby County Health Department reported the first West Nile virus-infected mosquitoes were found in the 38126 zip code, which encompasses the southern part of downtown.

But despite fears that last month’s flooding would lead to more potentially-infected mosquitoes, Dan Springer of Shelby County Vector Control said the first West Nile identified likely had nothing to do with the flooding.

“The event of the flooding is too far in the past,” Springer said. “A mosquito only lives for a week or two.”

In fact, Springer said the massive flooding event may have worked against mosquitoes this year. Mosquitoes typically lay eggs just below the water line of a small temporary water source, like a puddle. The puddle evaporates, and on the next successive rain event, the eggs will hatch.

“When there’s flooding, it goes over those habitats, and they’re not accessible for mosquitoes to lay their eggs anymore,” Springer said. “The water was already high back in March when the first mosquito eggs hatched, so the floodplains were flooded at that time. We didn’t generate mosquitoes.”

So far, this has resulted in lower numbers of mosquitoes than usual. Springer said numbers are lower than in 2009, when the city had its last high water event.

As for West Nile, Springer said it’s been detected in Shelby County every year since 2002, but the detection came later than usual this year. No humans have been infected. Those cases are more likely to begin showing up in August. The West Nile outbreak is expected to last through October, and Vector Control is focusing on truck-spraying zip code 38126 and surrounding areas this week. Vector Control has been larviciding every area in the county.

“The mosquito that spreads the West Nile virus is only active at night, and it primarily takes blood from birds,” Springer said. “It rarely bites people, but those who sit outdoors at night and don’t wear repellent and turn lights on right next to them are more prone to be bitten.”

To combat both infected and non-infected mosquitoes, the health department gives away free Gambusia fish, known to eat mosquitoes, for ornamental outdoor ponds.

“We collect them in ditches and sloughs, and they’re wonderful,” Springer said. “They’re a little minnow, and they love to eat mosquito larvae.”

Contact Vector Control at 901-324-5547 to request free fish or to request NOT to have the area in front of your home sprayed by mosquito trucks.

A group of park preservationists, ecologists, business leaders, and others have launched a Speak Up for Overton Park campaign to gauge interest in forming a nonprofit conservancy to fund and manage Midtown’s largest park.

The conservancy would be similar to the ones that manage Shelby Farms Park and the Memphis Botanic Gardens. The group’s website — OvertonPark.org — says the park “is threatened by inadequate funding and haphazard planning,” and the advocates claim that a conservancy might be the answer. If approved, a conservancy would maintain the city’s ownership of the park, while decreasing its obligation to maintenance and upkeep.

Speak Up is hosting two public meetings this week to gauge interest in the conservancy model. One will be held on Saturday, June 25th from 10 a.m. to noon and the other on Tuesday, June 28th from 5 to 7 p.m. Both will be held inside the Memphis College of Art. The public survey is also available online.

• Come hell and high water: St. Paul AME Church is destroyed by flood and fire.

Last month, Memphis Flyer reporter Hannah Sayle interviewed the Rev. George Turks after his North Memphis church was filled with floodwater.

Last night, Turks’ St. Paul AME Church was destroyed by fire. The church had already been abandoned after damage caused by flooding. Fire broke out at the church on McNeil just after 1 a.m., and though Memphis firefighters responded quickly, the church is not salvageable.

After the flood, Turks told the Flyer he was going to the Small Business Administration to take out a loan because the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn’t provide funds for churches to rebuild. Turks planned to use the loan to build in a new location.

“We’ll never be able to go back in the church that’s been under water because there’s too much damage,” Turks told the Flyer after the floodwaters had begun to recede in mid-May. “And we will not build in a flood zone again. It may never flood again, but we will not take that chance.”

On Monday, the Shelby County Commission voted 8-3 to defund the county’s Office of Early Childhood and Youth (OECY). Commissioners Brooks, Bunker, Ritz, Shafer, Thomas, Roland, Ford, Chism voted to defund the Office. Mike Carpenter, Melvin Burgess, Walter Bailey voted against.

The Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth leverages about $400,000 in county funding each year to bring in millions of dollars — primarily from the state and federal governments. These funds are then directed toward programs that aid children and families.

According to a press release sent shortly after the vote, current funding is directed toward evidence-based pre-natal programs at the Med and Hollywood Health Loop clinic; providing hard-to-find resources like diapers, breast pumps, cribs, and car seats; and community-wide, multi agency, case management tracking software to follow families and improve the service delivery system.

Also hanging in the balance is $4.2 million awarded by the state, which would allow for six master-level social workers to recruit and follow pregnant and parenting teens in Memphis high schools and link them to quality pre-natal care, case management, home visitation services, Head Start, and Pre-K.

Dottie Jones, head of the Community Services Division for the county, says she’s not sure the commissioners were clear on the implications of the vote — or even that a “Yes” vote was a vote to defund the office.

“I personally believe the commissioners may have been confused about what a ‘Yes’ vote meant versus what a ‘No’ vote meant,” said Jones. “Literally by pushing the ‘Yes’ vote they might have thought they were voting ‘yes, I support the office’ rather than ‘yes, I want to defund the office.’”

“There is a lot of confusion about the office and what it does,” she added. “I don’t think there’s a good understanding of how we bring in money [and] leverage our general fund dollars. And there are some commissioners who believe that what they deem a ‘social program’ is not what the county government should be doing.”

The budget has not yet passed, leaving time for the defunding of OECY to be revisited. The rules of the commission allow anyone who voted on the prevailing side of the resolution — in this case, defunding OECY — to bring the issue up for reconsideration at the next meeting.

“Any one of those 8 people who voted to defund the office can bring the issue up and we could have another vote,” said Jones. “I think it’s likely. I’m hopeful that we’ve gotten the message out to enough commissioners over the last day and a half. It’s very hard to understand why someone would vote against an office whose entire purpose is to make sure that the welfare of children is an important aspect of Shelby County government.”

Before the Memphis City Council got to the meat of the city operating budget on Tuesday, they debated whether or not to increase pension benefits for city government retirees.

City administration recommended a one percent pension benefit increase for people who have already retired, an increase of $740,000. City finance director Roland McElrath said that money would not come from the controversial operating budget, but rather, the city is looking at investment gains to cover the increase. Currently, there is $2 million in the city pension fund.

City councilman Kemp Conrad was the only council member to vote against the proposal because he didn’t feel comfortable voting on an increase that depends on an unreliable stock market.

“When are politicians going to stop making promises they can’t keep?” Conrad said.

McElrath said, if the investment gains didn’t cover the increase, the city would not turn to the operating budget to fund the difference. Instead, the city would either propose a reduction in benefits to future retirees or propose an increase in the amount employees give to the plan. Currently, city employees give up to eight percent of their salaries.

Councilman Jim Strickland proposed an amendment that essentially bars the pension fund from relying on the city operating budget if there isn’t enough money to cover the increase due to market fluctuations.

Councilman Joe Brown accused fellow council members who questioned the increase of “trying to put mud” on important pension benefits for retirees.

“Some members of this council seem to want devastation to come to the pension plan. It’s common knowledge, if you know anything about investments, that this pension plan is not going belly up,” Brown said.

Memphis fire union president Larry Anthony actually spoke out against the increase because he wanted a higher increase for city retirees.

“The promise was if you take care of the city, the city would take care of you,” Anthony said. He said the proposed one percent increase was “a slap in the face” and instead proposed a three or two percent increase.

The one percent increase is expected to go into effect by July 1st.