Jackson City Council approves funding for new city court building

JACKSON, Tenn. — It’s out with the old and in with the new after the Jackson City Council meeting Monday.

“The council approved the low bid today, which was about $2.6 million, 13,000 square feet, on our city court building,” Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist said.

Bids were placed a couple of weeks ago to build the new city court building.

They hope to start construction by the beginning of September and be finished by July of 2019.

The new building will be at the intersection of South Royal Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Sammy West is the lead architect for HFR Design in Jackson.

He says the main thing to expect from the project is more space.

“A lot bigger building, gets it out of the core of downtown, plenty of parking adjacent to the building, so we think it’ll be a benefit for the city court,” West said.

Mayor Gist says the money for the project is coming from a $17 million loan the city received four years ago.

“We calculated and by the time we payed the lease cost on the city court building and on the drug court, that would be just about enough to make the payments on the loans,” Mayor Gist said.

The council also discussed taking property adjacent to Whitehall Pre-K to get the school up and running.

“They can not open the school unless they meet the parking requirements, so really that residence and that lot will be blended into the parking area at Whitehall,” Gist said.

If the owners won’t voluntarily turn the land over, the council approved to use eminent domain to acquire the land.