Jackson Jambalaya

Our bumbling Public Works Director is at it again as he delays more road projects. Actually, he is not at it again and that's the problem. The Northside Sun reported: 

The Jackson public works director seems to be stalling a project to repair and repave more than 300 neighborhood streets in the city.

Instead of making a change to a contract, which would have allowed the work to already be under way, the public works director wants to re-bid the project, which would most likely drive the cost up and possibly move the start date to 2028.

“It defies logic,” said Ted Duckworth, a member of the One Percent Sales Tax Commission, which is funding the project.

“Why is someone hung up on creating more processes and making the cost go up? The only one logical reason is because they want someone else to do the work and they don’t care what it costs…It’s the citizens and taxpayers on the hook.” (KF: Does anyone want to bet that someone else is IMS?) 

The commission approved a total of $16 million in 2025 and earlier this year for repaving 350 streets, which are in Phase II of its project to improve roads in Jackson neighborhoods.

A change order to an existing contract would have allowed the work to begin, but the city’s public works department hasn’t taken the steps needed to make that happen and the city council hasn’t been given the opportunity to approve it.

LORENZO Anderson, the city’s public works director, has questioned the legality of changing the contract to include additional streets, even though legal counsel for the city has advised him numerous times that it’s OK.

The 350 streets to be repaved and improved with new curb and gutter, as needed, are spread throughout the city and are included in Jackson Mayor John Horhn’s plan to pave 450 streets by the end of 2027, an effort supported by funding from the one-percent sales tax that the commission allocates, federal highway funding, contributions from the Capitol Complex Improvement District and the $40 million bond backed by internet sales tax revenue....

Many of the streets to be improved are located in Belhaven, Fondren, Eastover, East Manor Estates, Lake Trace, Northpoint Estates, Sheffield, Sugaloch and Riverwood Place, while others are off Pear Orchard Road, Manhattan Road and Executive Place....

Commission members thought the city would have a contract in place so paving could begin earlier this year when spring weather would be ideal, but that did not happen, said Pete Perry, a member of the commission....

Commission members added additional streets to the initial list of neighborhood streets and determined in February or March that a change to an existing contract would allow the work to get under way and take less time than issuing a new contract, he said.

“We agreed in May (during our meeting) and in June, talked about it in August and agreed about it in September,” Perry said.

The change order could have been put on the agenda in June or July for the council to approve, he said. “They could be paving those streets today and all of last month and the month before.”

The contractor, AdCamp, agreed with the plan to add more streets to the original contract and even agreed to the same pricing for the materials, Perry said.

Duckworth said it’s not always the case that a contractor agrees to hold their pricing.

“It’s pretty unusual especially in this environment where everything is going up,” he said. “If the city re-bids the project, it’s going to cost more.”

Perry faults Anderson for not getting the change order on the city council agenda.

“He said he didn’t want to do it,” he said. “He was preparing for new bids to be taken next summer.”

Re-bidding the project would drive the cost of it up and push back the start of construction back for months, Perry said.

“If they bid those 350 streets, it would be this time in 2028 before they get through with the work,” he said.  Article

Unfortunately, this is becoming an all too familiar story.  Check out this headline from April 3: 

Who can forget when Lorenzo dropped the ball on Woodrow Wilson? JJ reported in July: 

The Central Mississippi Planning & Development District distributes federal road funds to cities and counties.  Up for grabs was a $6 million grant to fund improvements and repair to Woodrow Wilson from Mill Street to I-55.  Jackson would have to provide $2 million in matching funds for the grant. 

Commissioner Pete Perry asked Public Works Director Lorenzo "St. DuBois" Anderson about the status of the grant. Mr. Anderson confessed the application was rejected because it was incomplete.  Yup.  The city of Jackson missed out on a major grant to fix Woodrow Wilson because it could not fill out paperwork.  Sounds familiar.  However, Mayor John Horhn reassured everyone as he said CMPDD would administer a second round of grants in November.  Article with video.

A disturbing pattern is emerging.  Is the Laurel import in over his head? 

Kingfish note: Did someone say Lorenzo, baby?