Renovations Planned for Georgian Hills Middle

Memphis City Schools has applied for a $2.4 million permit for renovations to Georgian Hills Middle School (also known as Georgian Hills Junior High) at 3925 Denver St. in Frayser’s 38127 ZIP code. The school is on 1.54 acres on the west side of Denver Street north of St. Elmo Avenue.

Because the permit has not been pulled, or approved, yet, information about contractor, architect, completion date and total project cost is not available, said a Memphis City Schools representative.

Georgian Hills Middle is headed by principal Rosalind Martin and assistant principal Michael Henry.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Kate Simone

MLGW Board to Discuss Network Maintenance, Lease

On the agenda for Thursday’s Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division board meeting is a resolution awarding a nearly $670,000 contract to Venture Technologies Inc. for network maintenance.

Also on the agenda is a resolution approving a lease agreement between the utility company and Belz Investco GP for property at 5791 Summer Trees Drive covering a five-year term in an amount not to exceed $1.6 million. Both resolutions require Memphis City Council approval.

The board meets at 3 p.m. in the MLGW Administration Building, 220 S. Main St.

– Andy Meek

MPACT, MULYP Host MeetUP with MED CEO

MPACT Memphis and Memphis Urban League Young Professionals will host Thursday a “YP MeetUP” with Dr. Reginald Coopwood, president and chief executive officer of The Regional Medical Center at Memphis.

The event will be at 5:30 p.m. on the MED campus in the Adams Auditorium, 842 Jefferson Ave.

The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.

MPACT Memphis and MULYP have partnered to ensure the young professional voice is heard on the quality of health care offered within local hospital systems.

The “YP MeetUP” is a new collaboration of partnered events among MPACT Memphis and MULYP to increase awareness of young professionals’ concerns and to create a dialogue to address the city’s issues.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Tactical Magic Designs Receive Industry Praise

Print magazine has selected two pieces created by Tactical Magic for recognition.

One is a trademark for Basha Shine fashion products. The other is a print advertisement for Memphis Bioworks Foundation.

The pieces were singled out as examples of excellent creative marketing communications from among thousands of nominations from across the country.

– Tom Wilemon

Mid-South Red Cross Responds to Hurricane Earl

The Mid-South Chapter of the American Red Cross has dispatched volunteers and its national emergency response vehicle to Raleigh, N.C., to respond to Hurricane Earl.

The volunteers departed Wednesday.

Their service is part of the American Red Cross’ national network. Since Hurricane Katrina, the non-profit organization has increased its disaster response capacity. It has quadrupled its trained disaster volunteers, who now number more than 100,000. Half of these are available to travel to disasters nationwide.

– Tom Wilemon

County Election Winners Sworn in Wednesday

With former Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout doing the hosting duties and interim county mayor Joe Ford on stage, 26 winners from the Aug. 5 county elections took the oath of office Wednesday at the Cannon Center.

Wednesday marked the first day of the terms of office for all 13 Shelby County Commissioners, seven court and other clerks and four of the seven Shelby County board members, as well as Sheriff Bill Oldham and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.

“Today marks a new direction for Shelby County,” Luttrell said after taking the oath of office from General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Joyce Broffitt. “It’s time to re-establish credibility in the eyes of taxpayers and it’s time to explore a new vision for county government.”

He pledged an open and transparent government that is accountable.

Luttrell also acknowledged the financial difficulties all local governments face in the current national recession.

He also pledged an “ambitious agenda” of sustainable growth practices, help for small business growth and a continuation of the Operation Safe Community anti-crime strategy he helped pursue as sheriff.

“There’s a tendency today to look for magic and easy answers,” Luttrell said. “Until we tackle the real issues such as teenage pregnancies, low student achievement scores and school dropout rates, we’ll continue to have a growing culture of violence and despair.”

– Bill Dries

Former City Employee Hires Attorney

The city’s former public records coordinator has hired an attorney.

Bridgett Handy-Clay was fired by the city last week from the city attorney’s office after requesting public documents on a supervisor and other employees in the office.

Handy-Clay has said she was seeking information about nepotism and “cronyism.”

She has hired attorney Carol Chumney, a former city council member and mayoral candidate.

“She is a whistleblower,” Chumney said in a written statement, “having reported numerous abuses of taxpayer dollars, and has been fired for merely exercising her constitutional First Amendment right to speak on matters of public concern.”

City Chief Administrative Officer George Little has said the city will produce the records Handy-Clay requested and that her dismissal was for other issues, including an ongoing dispute with her supervisor.

Chumney called those reasons a “mere pretext.”

– Bill Dries

U of M Ranked in Top 100 by Washington Monthly

The University of Memphis has been ranked among the top 100 schools in Washington Monthly magazine’s 2010 university rankings.

The University of Memphis is ranked No. 100.

Washington Monthly ranked universities based on their contribution to the public good in three categories: the ability to help students move up the income ladder, how well the university fosters scientific and humanistic research and how well the university promotes service to the community.

The rankings also use a method based on a comparison of the college’s actual graduation rate to the predicted rate based on its students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.

The magazine’s top five schools are University of California, San Diego; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University; and University of Texas, Austin.

– Taylor Shoptaw

New HIV Campaign Launched in Shelby County

The Shelby County Ryan White Program has launched the “Know Now, Live Longer” campaign to encourage more people to get tested for HIV.

The program provides free primary medical and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS in the county. The initiative is in response to the fact that 78.7 percent of the 6,673 people Shelby County residents living with the virus are African-American.

The campaign will include billboards, public service announcements, posters, bus ads, fliers and social media.

A care hotline, 877-HIV- KNOW, has also been set up.

All of the campaign materials feature county residents who are living with the virus. They share their stories about how the program helped them confront the health threat and provided them with medication.

People eligible for the program also include residents of Crittenden, DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, Tunica, Fayette and Tipton counties.

– Tom Wilemon