Search begins for interim director

Second agenda item is contract for Riverview Apartments renovation

Posted on Tuesday, July 6, 2004

BY ERIN SIMPSON
Staff Writer

The Phenix City Housing Authority has a called meeting today.

Chairman Kellon Shepard said some of the items on the agenda were tabled at the last meeting after the board voted to terminate the contract of executive director Chuck Roberts.

Judy Hare, the Housing Authority finance director, said the only two items on the agenda for the 5:30 p.m. meeting were discussion of an interim executive director and discussion of the contract with Amerson Construction, the company working on the renovation of Riverview Apartments.

Riverview has been undergoing a $4.6 million renovation on 16 apartment buildings; eight are in progress.

The plan to renovate Riverview is at odds with Phenix City public and private sector plans to revitalize the housing complex and turn it into mixed-income housing, which would house market-rate apartments and public housing units together.

Riverview residents would pay the same rent for the new apartments as they currently pay. Mayor Sonny Coulter appointed Jim Lynn, former planning commission vice chairman, to the Housing Authority in May, instead of reappointing longtime member Buddy Helton.

At the board's meeting June 29, Lynn and Housing Authority members Eva Williams and Juanita Sellers voted to fire Roberts, who had been director for 38 years. Shepard voted against the termination. The fifth board member, Cora Greene, was absent.

Hare, as Roberts' second-in-command, has been mentioned as an interim director possibility.

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Contact Erin Simpson at (706) 571-8586 or esimpson@ledger-enquirer.com