City manager Frank Johnson did not mention Ed Jasper – the Philadelphia Eagles football player who is willing to invest $4.5 million on tax delinquent lots to build low-to-moderate income housing – while making a presentation to Marshall Independent School District board of trustees Monday night about affordable housing.

Instead Johnson spoke generally about a multi-component plan he said the city has had in place for "several years" to eliminate vacant properties in Marshall as he assured the board that the city agrees with the long-term approach of transferring ownership of the 13 lots as opposed to the "quick approach" the city favored.

"We were trying to take the hurry-up approach to address these 13 lots," Johnson told the board at its regular meeting. "And as I understand it, y'all's attorney, for various reasons, felt like the interlocal agreement would be would be better. And we're fine with that."
----
"I believe things are going in the right direction," he said. "---It took Longview a year---We think we can short-circuit that substantially if we can get everybody's attorney happy with it," maybe by the board's meeting in September, he added.

As it stands, the city's and the (school) district's attorneys, "don't have anything hammered out yet," Johnson said.