Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued the following statement.
Tuesday, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba announced that the City of Jackson has been approved by the City Council to enter into nine emergency interlocal agreements with the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to resurface 59 streets throughout the city.
The list of resurfacing projects includes roads in the areas of the Norwood neighborhood, Lake Hico, North Jackson, Westland Plaza and Provine, Jackson Industrial Park and West Jackson, Jackson Medical Mall, Green Elementary School, and Presidential Hills at a cost not to exceed $3,914,088.67 for all improvements.
During Tuesday’s press briefing, Mayor Lumumba said, “As I have previously stated, the City of Jackson stands willing to accept all resources that can help with our infrastructure issues. We have noted the historic issues with making certain that these type of interlocal agreements happen on a timely basis and so, when we took office we discovered interlocal agreements that have been stuck in purgatory since 2014. And so, I have discussed a more efficient process going forward that we feel will better serve the ends of the supervisors and what they are trying to accomplish and better serve the ends of the citizens of Jackson.”
Mayor Lumumba also praised the work of his Public Works Department and the City Attorney’s Office saying, “Both of these departments received a challenge that I put out for them that we make certain that we uncover all the interlocal agreements that we could and work rapidly to provide them to the Council so that they could be signed. They met that challenge. They exhausted more hours than normally would be placed in that type of work and they committed themselves to resolving that.”
All of the roads mentioned in the list have been selected and funded by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors.
The next step in the process is for the City Clerk’s Office along with the City Attorney’s Office to review and verify the minutes from Tuesday’s Council meeting before they are signed by Mayor Lumumba and returned to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors who will then send them to the Office of the Attorney General of Mississippi.
36 comments:
Is the money coming out of the School Bond recently approved?
It seems like roads in Jackson have been an afterthought, if a thought at all, for the past administrations. I'm glad to see someone taking this seriously. Some of the roads on that list are damn near gravel.
This is what a city administration is SUPPOSED to do. Not build a "radical city" or foist a "big payback" upon the citizens. Sounds like Antar has had a sharp wake-up call in regard to what the real needs of a city are.
Good on the Lumumba administration for addressing this.
Odd how many Jackson Democrat activists are having the street on which they reside get paved. Coincidence? You decide.
Will they fill the potholes or pave around them? They have been there so long they may have historical significance.
“As I have previously stated, the City of Jackson stands willing to accept all resources that can help with our infrastructure issues."
Wow, there's a commitment to lead! "I stand ready to take whatever anybody will give me!" Where have we heard that before?
Interesting priorities here. Not a single street in NE Jackson that I see. Also nothing about major arteries in the Fondren area: State Street to Northside, Meadowbrook from I-55 to State, and Northside from I-55 to State.
Well, that is probably because Robert Graham and Peggy Hobson Calhoun are providing the money out of their road budgets. Most of Fondren and Belhaven are covered by other Supervisors. District 5 comes into Belhaven as does 2.
If Jackson would start charging people for their water usage again, additional money may become available.
Paving gerrymandering--
Robert Graham deserves most of the credit here. He has been pushing these agreements for months and the city just sat there. Every board meeting he had it on the agenda for more streets. Even the Board Attorney was frustrated with the city's snail pace...and he use to be their attorney. Thank you Supervisor Graham and Hinds County for helping Jackson.
Louie, London Avenue is in NE Jackson. Guess who lives on London?
Several months ago I ventured down Northside Dr. from I-55 to North State St. I could not drive more than 10 mph most of the way and had to come to a crawl to traverse some of the craters. Have any repairs been made to this section of road? I can't imagine how school buses are able to get to Chastain and Boyd schools.
Baby Chock finally did what he should have done a year ago, and months ago. Some of these have been around since Tony's incompetent days. Word is Chock got his title in a wringer a few weeks ago and had to finally do something about thsee deals rather than just keep on planning to do something.
Dig deeper on this Fish - there is something in the details here that smells.
Paving streets. What a RADICAL concept!
Here's a novel idea - fix the worst streets no matter whose stupid district or ward they're in. And restore all of the money that's been stolen from the street maintenance fund over the years. Wonder what Jackson budgets for street repair compared to other cities its size.
9:33am who?
Ok, I missed both London Avenue and N. Cheryl, which are in NE Jackson. So who lives on those streets?
Sorry not to see W Capitol on this list. It’s a disaster, which is crazy for the link from I-220 to downtown.
Northside Drive and State Street are MDOT projects. Don't know about W. Capitol or Meadowbrook Rd. Someone needs to get MDOT moving faster.
The largest tax base is from northeast Jackson, yet the fewest streets to be paved...
Louis LeFleur - right you are! No work to be done in Ashby Foote's kingdom. Wrong side of town. Maybe it's a political statement of some kind?
Seriously, Chokwe - you're not going to do anything about the catastrophes called Northside Drive or Meadowbrook?
I understand you live somewhere off Pear Orchard. I guess your chauffeur has learned how to navigate the potholes well enough that you don't even know where they are. And the C fo J undoubtedly does the maintenance on your car, so you don't have to pay for suspension repairs of new tires.
1112, close, but no cigar. Northside Drive and N State are both being funded largely by federal dollars, which means MDOT has an oversight role. But they are City of Jackson projects. It is the City that needs to get moving these to construction, not MDOT.
Is there a timeline for these repairs? Will they begin paving in 2018?
Road surface conditions at the intersection of Northside and Old Canton are
sponsored by the Mississippi Dental Association--
I thought under the Unit system of county government, Is was not legal to have road budgets for each supervisors. There is to be only one road management system and not 5.
Money is there to redo Northside Drive. Jackson has been holding back.
12:17 you are right. But they still spread the dollars evenly over the five districts, as they should. Graham and Calhoun’s districts are exclusively inside of Jackson.
The road from N. State to Old Canton that runs by the Post Office is literally impassible. It will absolutely tear your car up.
When we pave several roads in Rankin county we don't hold a press conference and say look at us. It is called just another day at work!
Expect more people.
London Ave. lists no other than a failed candidate for Ward 1 Council (D)
And one questionable financial advisor on N. Cheryl stands out among other potential friends of chokwe.
Here is an idea for a city with ever shrinking revenue. Make sure the streets around your high sales tax generators are in good shape. Make sure these areas have a lot of police coverage. Why should people chance their cars getting beaten up or themselves attacked when they can go to the suburbs with no such fear?
Generate cash and that will solve some problems, or provide more assets to distribute to your pals.
"It is called just another day at work! Expect more people."
How many more? Gimme a clue!
Park Lane, London Avenue, and one other are east of I-55, out of about
56 streets to be repaired? Gee, I wonder what criteria is used to decide
which streets get to be passable . . . has anyone seen the 'Pothole Machine' at work lately? I think it's like the Idaho Potato Truck, lost in traffic in L.A.
Do a news conference the next time the water works and the bills are correct. Do a press release when you flip the switch and the lights come on. To some, that's news.
This article does not have the full details on why the above streets was selected. Once you read the other articles it will clear up you all thoughts. Jackson has a lot of issues just glad to see some are getting tended to.
It's not much more than a drop in the bucket (59 streets). Would have made more sense to decide which streets to pave by first considering either: (a) safety needs for traveling public; or (b) pacifying the neighborhoods that are paying the most city taxes. But that's not what they did. Well, the decision-makers of the City of Jackson may find out how to prioritize fiscal spending the hard way. If children in a school bus or SUV going to or from school are involved in a serious auto accident and injured on a Jackson street because of the unattended known potholes and street conditions, there could be a serious lawsuit against the City of Jackson or its decision-makers. If there is a way around immunity of the City leaders/employees based upon the facts, then the right lawsuit could bankrupt some of them. But I digress. Yes, the drop in the bucket of just 59 streets is a start, no matter how small or how unintelligently allocated.
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