Jackson Jambalaya

Is the rest secured in a lock-box somewhere?

The facts are going to have to be found and written in an order by a federal judge to overcome Lumumba's BS machine (his big mouth).

10:32 is right. None of this matters.
The man could drown puppies in the street and still convince the city masses to cheer for him.

Sounds like a fake news witch hunt. Am I doing this right Republicans?

The mayor is pathetic. How much more obvious could it be that the water system failure was by design.

Just proves how racist the Dept of Health is. Surely MSDH knows that they should have given the rest of the $27 million to the City, despite the City not spending it or asking for it. They are good for it. Silly racist.

10:58 thinks its cool when libs do the same wrong things that conservatives do.

Someday, we remaining folks with brains, will agree that wrong is wrong.
No matter the political affiliation or skin color of the wrong-doer.

Not enough information in this post, KF. What's the money for? Does it require engineering and planing first? How much? How long does that take? Nice dog whistle you posted here, but I'd like a little more substance.

Maybe the state required good credit for the loan; you know, like someone paying their bills on time.

So many unanswered questions. So much BS. And the mayor always seems to find a way to be standing on top of the pile. I tip my hat to the master.

Time to act Shad!

It has become obvious that the elected officials and surprising most of the citizens of Jackson don’t want help from the state. They want no more police officers and no Cory system that will hold criminals accountable. They want no one who can run and effectively manage a water system.

Ok, the screw it. The state should give them what they ask for, NO HELP.

Clearly this money proved too difficult to grift effectively.

10:58: "Two wrongs don't make a right." Ever heard that one before?

11:27, Lumumba is way past the benefit of the doubt, unless we pretend that he has never spoke before today, and that this is his first day in office.

I disagree with 12:33. I live in Jackson and usually vote democrat. But anyone who doesn’t want to turn over as much control as possible to Fed and/or state authorities is ignoring the reality of our incompetent and dishonest mayor. I don’t think he will be re-elected—remember Yarber. But his damage is done. The trajectory of the city is clear and it’s time for extreme measures. Are my views in the minority of Jackson residents? Maybe, but I doubt it.

They didn't ask for the money because it was a LOAN from a LOAN PROGRAM and they wanted a GRANT from a LOAN PROGRAM.

@1:33 I think he will be re-elected. I thought he was finished in 2021 when most of south Jackson went without water for 28 days. He still won. If that didn't get him out,nothing will.

That was the first year the qualifying deadline was Feb 1.

The one thing Chokwe, Tate, John Horhn, Delbert, and Gunn could agree on.

“Nice dog whistle you posted here”, you heard the whistle?

Bill Dees, that's not a dog whistle, that's just a fact. People use the dog whistle phrase when there is an indisputable fact, that goes along with the unpopular opinion of someone doing something incompetently, and gets called out on it, with nothing to back it up otherwise.

Please tell me in any capacity where the mayor excelled...literally what has he done that has benefitted the city, extra points for a public service(water, sewer, garbage, police, etc.., that has bettered the situation in Jackson. Name me one.

When you have no facts to support your position, yell racism.

Well 10:58 at least we have clean water, while you have to buy bottled water to drink with your Kool-Aid, before you pollute the Pearl River with the results..

Must be a problem with MUNIS

Oh, come on, Bill. Your comment is ridiculous, and you know it. The SDWRF is the Mississippi Safe Drinking Water Revolving Fund, and per the MSDH website which you could look at for yourself, the money is "to assist public water systems to finance the costs of infrastructure needed to achieve or maintain compliance with SDWA requirements and to protect public health objectives of the Act." In other words, it's money to be used for maintaining and repairing water systems such as Jackson's. But you know that.

I admittedly don't know if engineering or planning is required to obtain the loan, but I do know that Jackson qualified and was approved for the loan. And it qualified in 2021. Jackson has engineers and planners, so the City has had more than enough time to have done any required engineering or planning to have received the other $27,000,000 which by the way would have paid for all the repairs the State paid for in late 2022.

Quit making excuses for the City's repeated failures. And quit saying this is a "dog whistle" which implies racism, which it is not.

The mayor has a bigger problem on his hands than he thinks. The cities and towns south of us on the Pearl are going after him now. Seafood industry should also after 952,000,000 gallons of raw boo boo water was let out into the Pearl. Their livelihood is severely damaged and If I were them and the towns in Louisiana that obtain their water from the Pearl I would have him imprisoned.

It's DWSRF. The way those loans work is they do some planning and design and then get the loan. The first two payments are typically reimbursements for the P&D already done. The loan includes a schedule for advertising for bids, awarding contracts, and building the project. If the bids aren't good and they have to redesign and/or re-advertise, it takes longer. Then, further loan monies are paid out as reimbursements on a generally monthly basis as the contractors work to build the project. However, generally these projects should be deep into construction if not completed by the time a year from loan award passes.

Bill Dees, nice try to cover for the inept city but lets be real.

The SRF loan was in 2021. Two years ago, plus or minus? If it required engineering, much of that had to be done prior to the application - check the requirements, the city can apply based on the back of an envelope 'plan'. Details have to be provided; yes, there might be additional engineering required after approval but damn, they did get a small part of the loan paid to them so the engineering must have been done.

Maybe its like everything else with the city - they couldn't get anybody to do the actual work because even when they have the money in the bank account, they don't pay their bills.

Remember the guy (United something) that asked the state when they took over management of the Curtis plant ---- who's going to pay me, cause I ain't working for the city ----to install the pumps that failed. (Yes, the pumps that failed a month before the 'flood that caused the failure', but we can come back and discuss that later.) Just like the contractor that pulled off on one job, and slowed down on several others, because the city wasn't paying him. Or the multiple engineers that aren't getting paid for months, years, but they can't complain because they are awarded contracts based on who the Mayor likes, not by competitive bids.

The city doesn't pay folks - have had sewer trucks repossed because they didn't pay the leasor. Have had sewer pumps removed where they were supposed to be bypassing the colapsed sewer lines and leaving raw sewage running across the streets because the city did not pay the rental fee for years on end.

And here, the city had a twenty million dollar loan approved BY THE STATE that the city and the NAACP has tried to claim the state has been withholding funds from, but --- I digress ---- and they don't bother to use the funds available to help solve the problem. What problem?? The failed water system treatment plant. The water system treatment plant that failed in 2021, again in 2022, and again ---- when??? ---- in 2022.

Next time come back with something more than suggesting a dog whistle. Hell, even my dog knows when to ignore some whistles, those that are only trying to deflect from reality.

Free the SWDRF Loan Proceeds!

Bill Dees, more than 24hrs has elapsed since my comment and I feel certain you have read it. Do you have any accomplishments of this mayor that has been a positive benefit for the City of Jackson? If you can’t come up with one and reply back, I say you’re grandstanding. Remember, it’s not racist if it’s the truth.

12:18 pm I'm not Bill Dees and just reading this.
I have a question.
Does the city have the means to pay back the LOAN?
The key word here to me is LOAN.
All loans have conditions on how the money can be spent and how it is to be paid back.
The other thing I can't help but be curious about is what roles,if any, does the city council and county and State have regarding this loan? Seems to be the "process" in Mississippi regarding any money is beyond "convoluted" and has " too many hands grabbing at the pie".
I know that politics is all about "muddying the waters" by focusing on any facts that might help you and ignoring the facts that do not as if all facts should be given the same weight. Neither party owns their mistakes but is excellent at shining a light on the mistakes of the other party ...indeed you both well magnify even the irrelevant ones that can be chalked up to expected "human error".
Worse, politicd likes to ignore anything in the larger environment that might have impacted the ability to use/reimburse the funds...lawsuits, separate decisions by government agencies,etc.
Politicans see issues as gaming and frankly, the rest of us are sick of that.
The bottom lines are 1) how much will it cost to get the system operational?2) how many people and with what qualifications and pay requirements will be needed to get it done right?3) what equipment and materials are needed and how much do they cost and how long will it take to get them?
I trust EPA far more than I do those of you trying to make this about mayor vs governor, republican vs democrat,and yes, black vs white.
We all drink water, damn it!

Long ago, when the two parties got along better, two neighborhoods in the county of Madison had a simple "infrastructure" problem with a "simple solution". They had federal funds available to borrow and the ability to pay it back in fees. It should have taken , max 5 weeks to get it done. It took years because both Jackson and Madison wanted to "annex" us. It took us years of jumping through every hoop and every part of local and county governments wanting some of that money as well as every contractor with political "connections".
Call me jaded, but I'm not convinced this isn't worse in every way. At least, the bad political "agents" and "profiteers" in the parties then didn't try to get all the citizens in both cities and counties to " choose up sides". They were afraid it'd then be obvious they were morally bereft or crooked.
Now more than a few of those folks were " elevated" despite their shenanigans and have no fear. Great...just great ( sarcasm).