Jackson, Madison County mayors review 2019 achievements

January 2, 2020

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News Staff,

JACKSON, Tenn. — 2019 brought Jackson its first new mayor in over a decade, a potential public-private partnership for new schools and the beginning construction stages of a new jail.

City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger was elected just six months ago after a run-off election, the first in almost half a century.

“All the success we’ve had over the past six months are attributed to the people I work with,” Conger said.

Two of the things Conger says he’s most proud of from his first six months is the new 311 number and the Public Art Initiative.

“We want to make Jackson an attractive place, not only for people to move to Jackson, [but for] high school students that are going off to college; give them a reason to come back. Those college students that are here, give them a reason to stay here and make Jackson home,” Conger said.

For Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris, his top achievements from 2019 all include expansion.

“The public-private partnership and the building of two new schools for Madison Academic, and the new JCM,” Harris said.

Another achievement was the beginning phases of the new jail construction.

“We studied the issue for four years before we ever determined the direction we needed to go on that expansion, so it was nice to see a conclusion come on the direction we’re going,” Harris said.

As for 2020, both men say we can look forward to road paving in Jackson, modernizing the way city government handles things and more tough decisions made by our leaders.

“A solid, I’d say, eight months of repaving. Our goal is to hit 50 percent of our priority one and two streets in the next calendar year,” Conger said.

“County government is like all governments. It’s always challenging. There’s always more wants than revenue to do it, and so we have to make some tough decisions,” Harris said.

Harris also said there’s been growth in business, hotel and motels in Madison County.