Paris, Tenn., among 3 pilot communites for new preservation plan

PARIS, Tenn. — A local community is one of three chosen by the USDA to pilot a new program to preserve their heritage.

Paris is full of iconic landmarks, but some of its oldest neighborhoods are slowly fading away.

“We were approached a few weeks ago by the USDA Rural Development, and they wanted to partner with us on neighborhood beautification preservation type project,” City Manager Kim Foster said. “Maybe it’s sidewalks, maybe it’s some improved street lighting, maybe it’s some signage.”

The city will be working with the USDA to preserve homes, schools and churches in the area.

“Our big push is going to be to try and find which neighborhoods are interested the most interested in this project,” Foster said.

The Cavett House is one of many examples of the city of Paris coming together to preserve their heritage, and with this new project their hope is to preserve Paris from the inside out.

“You start in a smaller piece and figure out what works, what doesn’t work, and then you try and duplicate that,” Foster said.

“These neighborhoods that we see so many times that we are passing through, they look like thy have become distressed, and you start thinking, wow, what could that look like with just a little bit of effort and a little bit of money,” Paris Mayor Carlton Gerrell said. “And so we are excited about the opportunity for that to happen. We really want the community to understand we’ve got a great thing that’s been offered to us and hopefully we can maximize it to make out community better.”

The city of Paris will conduct a public input meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at City Hall to seek input from citizens on Preserve Paris.

Bolivar and Springfield are the other two cities working with the USDA in this pilot program.