Capital committee discuss how projects will be funded after COVID-19

JACKSON, Tenn. — The COVID-19 pandemic has left the Madison County Commission and Committees with concern about budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year. The capital committee met Monday to discuss those concerns.

Madison County Sheriff John Mehr came to the committee with another request and this time, for new vehicles. Compton says due to the current situation they are unable to fund those type of requests this year.

“We had several capital requests from across the county close to $4 million this year, but due to the current situation with tax dollars and everything coming down, we just don’t have the dollars to be able to budget for capital,” said chairman Jason Compton. “We had $4 million in requests and we’ve got about $1 million to be able to meet those requests.”

Compton said for now, the committee is recommending every county department keeps their budget tight.

“We are just not able to give those capital requests out this year. We did what was obligated to do with yearly with some leases and some different things and we are holding back about $800,000 dollars for emergencies and that’s all we are able to do right now. We are doing the best we can in the situation that we are in right now,” said Compton.

Another concern was a grant the county already received for $500,000 for parks and recreation. The county would have to match that grant. Compton says the county had to work in a way to stretch the grant to be used over the next two years.

“We were able to find a way to keep that grant in to be able to do the equestrian center down south at Young Park and to do two new playgrounds,” said Compton.

It was also discussed during the meeting that some Cares Act from the state will be used.

“Some of that money to go towards educational capital to buy several school buses, so we are using some of that Cares Act money to go towards ed capital this year,” said Compton.

The capital committee is also looking at the possibility of getting new voting machines to replace older equipment.