Jackson mayor reflects on time in office during State of the City address

JACKSON, Tenn. — After announcing he would not seek another term, Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist reflected on his time in office Wednesday with his final State of the City address.

Since first being elected as Hub City mayor in 2007, Gist said it’s time he leaves office after announcing he would not run for mayor in the upcoming city election.

Mayor Gist talked about some of the highlights as well as disappointments from his term during the annual State of the City address.

“Saving the Carnegie I think is one of the highlights, and also saving Lambuth University, as far as the future of our education,” Gist said.

Gist also said additional work needs to be done to increase revenue coming into Jackson.

“We’ll need to continue to build our retail and commercial development industry, because that brings people into the city,” Gist said. “I also regret that we lack the funding to resurface 380 miles of city streets.”

He said people can look forward to new business in the city even with the announcement of Sears closing.

“I guess we were truly blessed to have the Sears store as long as we have, so I look forward to the new things happening at the mall,” Gist said.

He said he also looks forward to the construction of new schools.

“[A] new Madison Academic school being built by the city and the county, building the new JCM campus, I think that’s going to be a tremendous asset,” Gist said. “We’re very optimistic about our public school system. It will take a while before we get there, but I think we’re all very optimistic about the future.”

Mayor Gist said when his term ends in five months, he plans to spend more time with his grandchildren.