A standing-room-only crowd in Whitehaven got a deep dive last week into the bureaucracy behind the road-construction project on Elvis Presley Boulevard. They didn’t like the news delivered at the town hall event: There are five more years of road construction ahead for the Whitehaven neighborhood. “We’re talking about 2031 before we can get a street we can drive on — from 2013?” asked Patricia Ball, a 40-year Whitehaven resident. “Sir, I know that if this were Poplar Avenue, … this would have been completed years ago.”

Also last week, outgoing Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert is seeking certified election return information in her bid to be the next Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk. The Shelby County Election Commission is adding the Division 8 position to five other special judicial races already on the ballot; Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft, who currently holds the position, has retired. And the University of Memphis Board of Trustees approved a tuition increase for all students as well as a $100,000 performance bonus for President Bill Hardgrave.

Looking ahead, the Memphis City Council meets Tuesday, when they could move closer to closing out the budget season at Tuesday’s council day. Six of the city’s seven outdoor pools will open Wednesday, including the newly renovated Bickford Aquatic Center. And the Memphis Flyway — a 218-foot-long observation deck on the south end of Tom Lee Park that offers an elevated, unobstructed view of the Mississippi River — opens Friday.

— Metro editor Jane Donahoe

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A standing-room only crowd in Whitehaven heard that the Elvis Presley Boulevard project, begun in 2013, may last another five years.

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