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Jackson Mayor warns to be vigilant on budget


Rural King

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Mayor Charles Farmer in his State of the City address to the Jackson Rotary Club spoke on issus ranging from the need to keep an eye on the city's budget which while currenly in very good shape with strong reserves is facing rising employee related costs (stated in the article as 59% of the budget) , rising building operation costs, and the city entering 5-yr period of increased debt servicing costs. He also spoke of the the need to develop I-40 near Pringles Park to reap its potential economic benefits and his opinion that the city should continue the pursuit of developing a downtown entertainment district. He re-interated his support of the construction of a new Jackson Central-Merry High School constructed on a 50 acre site already designated. Mayor Farmer also stated once again that he would not be standing for re-election.

The development projects are stated in the article to be things that would not be in full effect/completed for 5-7 years, so there would be no immediate effects.

Jackson Sun Article:

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../601190311/1002

So what does everyone think? Is Jackson on the right path? Is the Mayor during his last term setting the city up to do well in the years to come as long future administratiosn keep the city on the path he laid out?

I think it all sounds good and that Mayor Farmer has set the city up for a bright future via his past leadership and what he has envisioned for the future.

Sidenote: In a seperate article the Jackson Sun reported on his statement in the State of the City address about dissolving the City Charter to obtain defacto metro governnace, I provided that as a new post in my Jackson Metro Goverment thread, which can be found here along with that Jackson Sun article link: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17143

Its a very interesting read as well IMO.

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Jackson's big enough to avoid the sort of in-bred, local aristocracy running things like in some town of 10,000, while small enough to avoid the big city machine politics of places like Memphis.

Employee costs at 59%? And rising. I bet that's healthcare costs.

Too bad Shelby County's debt is over $1.1 billion dollars.

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Getting commercial and residential development around that ballpark would be a huge step in helping the team stay there. Jackson has a nice downtown which was unfortunately severely damaged by those tornados a few years ago. But getting it back on track and continuing to spur growth and investment there will reap big dividends for the city. Also, the city is sprawling too much to the north and south, and needs development to occur closer to the existing city to the east and west.

But Jackson seems in good shape. I've long been impressed with how well it has done and of its importance in West TN.

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the city is sprawling too much to the north and south, and needs development to occur closer to the existing city to the east and west.

But Jackson seems in good shape. I've long been impressed with how well it has done and of its importance in West TN.

As much as you would like that, I don't think that you could do all that much on those sides of town. You could get some stuff around the ballpark, but the rest of East Jackson is considered crime-ridden and that is where much of the industry is. West Jackson doesn't have a very good reputation either(for locals anyway). Plus, the experimental farm and other land uses such as Cypress Grove nature park, industrial property and the Middle South Forked Deer river bottoms don't allow for much development.

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As much as you would like that, I don't think that you could do all that much on those sides of town. You could get some stuff around the ballpark, but the rest of East Jackson is considered crime-ridden and that is where much of the industry is. West Jackson doesn't have a very good reputation either(for locals anyway). Plus, the experimental farm and other land uses such as Cypress Grove nature park, industrial property and the Middle South Forked Deer river bottoms don't allow for much development.

Yeah, Jackson seems to have a crime problem. I've mentioned it before, but in some categories, it beats out Memphis.

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