City council talks future of ballpark, budget savings amid pandemic
JACKSON, Tenn. — The City of Jackson says they’ve made an agreement with the Winnipeg Goldeyes to use the ballpark this summer.
“What the city is trying to do is make the best use of the stadium and request proposals,” said Lewis Cobb, attorney for City of Jackson. “And while we’re waiting for a long-term solution, we’re trying to do the best we can with short-term opportunities.”
This effectively cuts out the Jackson Generals as the middleman between the Canadian team and the city.
Their agreement with the city was up at the end of May, after the team was not invited to join the newly restructured Minor League Baseball system.
We asked if the Generals were still in the building.
“Well, they may play a role in the Goldeyes’ baseball future,” Cobb said. “We don’t know that.”
Since it’s June 1, the city officially has one month to get the next fiscal year’s budget approved. That means they had to wrap things up from this past year and vote on next year’s.
“This past year was our best guess, and we budgeted a $3 million deficit last year. And now we’re ending the year with a $8.5 million surplus,” said City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.
The city is working with an almost $76 million budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
That’s roughly the same amount of money they’ve had to work with in past years, but Conger says they’re still tightening the purse strings so the city can pay down debt.
That’s when they’ll get back to expensive projects, like the animal care center.
“We have to have at least 33% of our annual budget in fund balance,” Conger said. “That’s the first time we’ve gotten to that point, around $25 million. So when we have that delta leftover, then we’ll analyze how we’ll spend that on road resurfacing and finishing construction projects.”
The city also plans to not raise taxes for the next year.
“This is our money. This is taxpayer money. We have to spend it like our own household budget,” Conger said. “A penny saved is a street paved, and we’re going to continue that as it allows us to pave more streets going forward.”
After the city council meeting, Mayor Conger tweeted: “This is just the beginning for exciting news with the city’s ballpark. Stay tuned!”
City Attorney Lewis Cobb also told us any event for this summer, including concerts, will need to have an agreement made with the city.
