Jackson City Council holds March meeting, discusses audit

JACKSON, Tenn. — Council members discuss an audit on the city and its findings during the regular Jackson City Council meeting.

“The important thing is that we took in more money than what we spent, which is always a good thing,” Mayor Jerry Gist said. “Our fund balance is roughly $16 million, that un-obligated cash. It’s not obligated to be paid out at some point in the year, so that’s a good, strong number for any city throughout the state.”

But Gist says the city still has work to do.

“We’ve got to do some things internally between our funds, but that’s minor and those can be easily done just by staff and changing some procedures,” Mayor Gist said.

“We have health and sanitation fund, we have the sportsplex, we have a number of separate funds, and the way we shuffle the money around to each of them when it’s needed needs to be done a little bit differently,” Mayor Gist said.

Council members also voted on annexing more land.

“We had two annexations in today’s meeting, and those don’t happen very often anymore,” Mayor Gist said. “If you have property adjacent to city property, then you can request annexation on your side.”

The council members voted to annex a part of the Emerald Breeze area and part of an area between North Parkway and Brown’s Church Road.

“The only way that major subdivision can be built is because of mainly wastewater and the utilities that the city can provide,” Mayor Gist said.

City Council members also discussed construction bids for a new animal care center.