Mayor talks about upcoming Jackson City Council meeting

JACKSON, Tenn. — “We are excited about the new year,” Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist said. “We’re very optimistic about the growth of the city, and a lot of what we’re doing tomorrow has to do with that.”

On Tuesday, City Council members will meet to address a number of hot topics. The first item on the agenda is to appeal the discount for early payment of property taxes, which most taxpayers didn’t take advantage of.

“With interest rates being so low, we’d have a $1,000 property tax bill and only get $1 back,” Gist said.

Council members also will be voting to accept the budget amendment that would provide Jackson with a new communication system. The new radios will cost almost an additional $300,000.

“We’ll have a new communication system for our city hopefully in six months if council approves that bid,” Gist said.

But the most talked about item on the agenda is the contract for garbage services. Bids were placed by both Red River Waste and Waste Management, the current provider.

“The committee recommended Waste Management based on a rating scale,” said Kim Harville, Waste Management’s municipal marketer for West Tennessee. “We are, again, part of this community and we plan on standing up and being in this community.”

Although Waste Management was the recommendation, representatives from Red River Waste say they can do the same job for less money and keep the current staff employed.

“We can save the city and the taxpayers $3.3 million over the life of the contract,” said Red River Market Director Steve Smith. “That’s a lot of money.”

“We’ve met all the criteria, we’ve got the capability, we’ve got the experience and there’s a huge amount of money that will be saved,” Vice President of Development David Cooper said. “We want to hire all the employees we can because they know the routes, they know the community, they know those special things someone from the outside might not know.”

Being in Jackson for 30 years, Waste Management says they know how much it costs to get the job done.

“As far as pricing goes, the unique prices the Waste Management turned in, is created by our experience servicing this city,” Harville said. “The city is growing, and we want to grow with the city.”