Reporter
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
There are 3905 articles by Bill Dries :
Some commissioners have doubts about the move to every other year reappraisals. Assessor Melvin Burgess Jr. says the results will be less sticker shock from increases in values after four years.
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.
Monday’s commission agenda includes prep for the budget season that begins later this month in county government.
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.
The seven flagpoles on the Mud Island River Park’s southern end were removed this week. The park, beloved as a memory that in some ways may be too faithful to its 1980s trappings, will get some much-needed maintenance this spring.
Corker surfaced as former President Donald Trump was leaving office, prompting speculation Corker may be looking at a presidential bid in 2024 or some other bid for elected office in the 2022 midterm elections.
The co-leaders of the countywide vaccination distribution effort talked on “Behind The Headlines” about a move this week to no appointments for some and why the federal vaccination presence at the Fairgrounds is unique.
Ashley Cash led the team that developed the comprehensive Memphis 3.0 plan that covers residential and commercial development across the city.
The $60 million capital campaign to remake Tom Lee Park reached the 80% mark Thursday, April 8, with $3.2 million in funding commitments from three health care corporations as well as AutoZone and First Horizon Foundation.
City also giving MATA riders free rides to Pipkin and making blocks of slots available to groups, including businesses.
The City Council voted Tuesday, April 6, to approve a consultant’s contract that is the next step leading to recommendations by the end of this year. But there was some dissent on the council before the vote.
On April 10, the city could terminate its contract with Waste Pro for poor service or determine that Waste Pro has made good on dealing with the backlog of trash. The council voted Tuesday calling on the administration to cancel the city’s contract.
City Council also endorsed a general plan for athletic fields by Christian Brothers University on 7 acres at the intersection of Avery Avenue and South Hollywood.
A timetable for the Fairgrounds conversion has the new youth sports complex opening in the fall of 2022.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced Monday, April 5, that he is appointing police Deputy Director Mike Ryall as interim director effective immediately.
The April 6, council session includes a vote on $75 million in revenue bonds for the Fairgrounds renovation as well as a vote on the $520,000 contract to explore alternatives to TVA as MLGW’s electric power supplier. And council members review a month of vocal complaints about trash pickup.
Memphis River Parks Partnership has city administration approval for a plan to slow traffic on Riverside Drive while keeping it open to auto traffic.
The river park’s closing last year due to the pandemic allowed Memphis Parks Partnership to save some money that is going into improvements, such as repairing the Riverwalk and resodding the south lawn.
Rev. Keith Norman of Baptist Memorial Health Care and Meritan CEO Melanie Keller talked about the vaccine outreach to the homebound and homeless on “Behind The Headlines.”
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, state Rep. Mark White acknowledges the bill doesn’t address many of the complexities of the local schools merger and demerger that kept the three namesake Germantown schools in the Shelby County Schools system.
Social justice group seeks to be part of the discussion and decisions about police reforms and the selection of the next Memphis Police director.
The Thursday, April 1, press release from the company is the latest salvo in an exchange between the city and the company that went public last week.
Tutor says the next local party chairman has a chance to win back countywide offices in 2022 that Republicans lost due to what Tutor says was the result of anti-Trump sentiment.