Howdy, Mid-South! Today is Tuesday, April 12, and the Center City Revenue Finance Board meets this morning. They’ll be discussing a couple of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) requests and The Walk mixed-use planned development on Union Avenue. 

Tonight, the Bartlett Board of Mayor and Alderman will consider a number of purchases for the police department, including new vehicles, in-car cameras, new weapons and wireless routers for both police and fire vehicles. Sounds like a big night for Bartlett cops.

THE NEED TO KNOW

Two Grizzlies fans checked out their purchases after leaving the Grizzlies Garage Sale at the FedExForum last August. The city and county will have to pay millions to keep the franchise. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)

New lease on Grizz life: The Memphis Grizzlies may be here to stay through at least 2029, after the team reached an agreement that will require the city and county to pay $4.95 million a year for four seasons (starting with 2021-2022) and $6.3 million for the four seasons after that (ending in 2028-2029). The Shelby County Commission unanimously approved the county’s $18.5 million share on Monday. The agreement still must be approved by the NBA. A previous lease agreement with the city and county obligated the governments to buy tens of millions of dollars of tickets and suites to keep the team here if attendance fell below a certain level (and during the pandemic, it did fall below that level). But negotiations that do away with that provision have been underway for more than a year. So what happens after 2029? The Daily Memphian’s Geoff Calkins speculates that the team isn’t going anywhere.

Plans have been submitted to turn Parkview Apartments at 1914 Poplar Avenue into market-rate apartments. The senior-living facility was built as a hotel/apartment building in 1923. (Neil Strebig/The Daily Memphian)

Vacating Parkview: Residents of the Parkview senior-living facility overlooking Overton Park have been given until the end of the month to vacate their apartments. Forge Partners has filed plans to convert the building into 162 market-rate apartments. Forge Partners principal Tim Williams said seniors were notified on January 25 that they would have to relocate, and they held two housing fairs in February offering relocation options. About 12 residents still reside in the building. “It’s unfortunate we’re going to lose old people. But we’re going to give 130 new people an opportunity they’ve never had and revitalize a building that has just been sitting there,” Williams said. 

Sites available for early voting in Shelby County will not change, a special judge ruled Monday, April 11. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)

No change to early voting sites: The number of early voting sites will not increase, Chancery Court Judge James F. Butler ruled on Monday. The decision came at a hearing on a motion by the Memphis Branch NAACP, UpTheVote 901 and the Black Clergy Collaborative seeking a court order that would open all 26 early voting sites this Wednesday. As it stands, the only site open for early voting this Wednesday and Thursday will be the Shelby County Election Commission office Downtown. The other 25 sites, mostly churches, will open next Monday after Easter Sunday as planned.

Plans for a newly built juvenile detention center Downtown were dropped for a renovation of the old Shelby Training Center on Old Getwell Road that, in its last use, was owned by the private prison company Core Civic. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)

“Rush and vote”: Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer told the commission in Monday’s regular meeting that a recent special session in which emergency funds for the new county juvenile detention center were approved was a “rush and vote” matter that could have waited. Sawyer was unable to attend that meeting on March 28 and said she would have voted against the funds — an additional $13 million due to cost overruns for the new center — if she’d been in attendance. Sawyer tried to have her no vote added to the record before the minutes of that special meeting were approved on Monday, but the move was ruled out of order. “This is a serious issue,” Sawyer said. “We can’t give $20 million to new schools, but we can give $20 million to new jails.”

Amendments to 3Gs bill: The bill impacting ownership and operations of four Memphis-Shelby County Schools was heavily amended by the state Senate on Monday. The legislation would codify a 2017 attorney general opinion stating one school district cannot operate within the boundaries of another system. In Shelby County, it would affect Germantown Elementary, Middle and High (the so-called “3Gs”) and Lucy Elementary in Millington (though Millington has not held conversations with the county school system). The bill aims to force the county system and municipal school leaders into an agreement about the ownership and operation of those schools. The new amendments affect how long that agreement can last.

MEET MEMPHIS

A portrait of Memphis photographer Tommy Kha and his mother wearing masks in a Whitehaven home in 2019. (Courtesy: Tommy Kha)

Memphis artist Tommy Kha made national headlines recently when his Elvis self-portrait was removed from Memphis International Airport following social media complaints from Elvis fans, some of which alluded to Kha’s race. The work, “Constellations VIII/ Golden Fields,” was later reinstalled following even more complaints from Kha’s fans. Kha grew up in Whitehaven, where he attended Graceland Elementary. He started practicing photography while attending Overton High, and he eventually enrolled in Memphis College of Art before moving onto Yale School of Art. Kha has become best-known for his self-portraiture. “It eventually grew into being about representation, being about image and depiction,” Kha said of his work.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Memphis Grizzlies fan Vivian Havens, 3, (left) throws the ball onto the court for center Jaren Jackson Jr., (right) before taking on the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday, April 9. Jackson started this ritual with Vivian before every home game. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Good luck girl: Turns out the secret to the Memphis Grizzlies’ success this past season may not have been Ja Morant’s alley-oops or Dillon Brooks’ defense. It may have been 3-year-old fan Vivian Havens, the daughter of season ticket holders from Little Rock who make the drive to Memphis for nearly every home game. Several of the Grizzlies’ key players have a tradition before every game of passing the ball to one another in a certain order, and one day, Jaren Jackson Jr. handed the ball off to Havens as part of the dance. She threw it back, and a new tradition was born. Jackson claims Havens is good luck. “If she’s sitting there before the game, I’m going to give [the ball] to her,” Jackson said. Perhaps Havens was the charm that led to some of the Grizzlies’ best moments of the season, which The Daily Memphian’s Chris Herrington has highlighted in part two of his “50 best” series. 

The “Memphis Most Wanted” website follows the establishment of the Memphis Police Department’s new Fugitive Unit. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)

Have you seen this Memphian? The Memphis Police Department has launched a “Memphis Most Wanted” website as a way to encourage citizens to call in with tips. The site provides the latest information on violent fugitives, as well as critical information that could lead the MPD’s new Fugitive Unit, which was launched in late February, toward arrests. 

New strategy for crisis calls: Mental health professionals will join Shelby County Sheriff Crisis Team Intervention officers on crisis calls, according to a new initiative announced by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and Sheriff Floyd Bonner at Monday’s Shelby County Commission meeting. The use of mental health professionals on police calls was among several reforms called for nationwide following the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody. “All too often, residents with persistent mental health issues end up in our criminal justice system instead of in an appropriate health care setting,’’ said Harris.

International Paper announced in March its intention to “explore strategic options” that might include selling its interest in Ilim Group, Russia’s largest pulp and paper company. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

International Paper and Russia: Back in March, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Memphis-based International Paper announced that it would consider selling its 50% ownership interest in Ilim Group, Russia’s largest pulp and paper company. But an analyst who studies packaging and forest products says that might be easier said than done. “If you’re trying to sell a Russian asset to anybody these days, you’re going to take a haircut,” said Mark Wilde, a managing director at BMO Capital. The Daily Memphian’s Rob Moore offers a look at logistical, legal and financial challenges IP faces in selling its interest in Illiam Group.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Oh Horn Lake, you never cease to amaze. 

And I’ll leave it at that. Have a terrific Tuesday!

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