City Council talks public transportation, skate park
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson City Council is bringing new public transportation vehicles and possibly a new skate park.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the Jackson Transit Authority requested the city to provide 10% match funds in their purchase of new buses and vans.
The Federal Transit Administration provides 80%, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation pays 10% of the matching funds.
“Last year we allocated $711,711 for Jackson Transit Authority for these needs. So I think what we’re trying to kind of get in the right process now is that the contracts for these purchases, even though it’s just a 10% match for us, and the bulk of the dollars come from the Federal Transit Authority, that the contracts come to my office and the council prior to entering into the contracts in the middle of the dollars,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.
With Ford, Georgia Pacific and other opportunities that are coming to West Tennessee, the council wants to ensure Jackson has a public transit system that works for everyone.
“You can see the bus routes now. I think the next step for us is looking at how to go to that cashless payment system for the riders. How do we provide that next level of service for the people that ride the bus, but a lot of those grants are dictated when they come down,” Conger said.
The city council and the mayor are moving towards the compliance to have all purchases over $5,000 approved.
They are going to try to start incorporating JTA into the city budget process so that they can plan accordingly.
As for the American Rescue Plan, the council says the final federal guidance gave them a lot more flexibility.
“That was positive for us. Now, we still do have to qualify a significant portion of it, but the total amount doesn’t have to be qualified anymore, and so that felt like a big win for the city. We can get some necessary capital improvements that we’ve been hoping for for a while,” said District 6 City Councilman Paul Taylor.
They are also utilizing the Love Your Block grant to look at capital needs.
“Now with the American Rescue Plan, and having that community impact piece, then we can say these are where the needs are. Here’s the funding for the needs. So we have immediate impact instead of just having a plan and bookshelf on it for whenever we found the dollars,” Conger said.
Plus, Jackson may get a new skate park. The city will not have to handle the capital funding.
“I gave them a list of what our properties are and the opportunities that we had. They landed on that, and they can have some plans on what their fundraiser is going to look like,” Conger said. “Excited that we can come along and partner to do that and provide a skate park.”
The skate park will be built by fundraising, and then the city will take over the operational responsibility of it.
The Jackson City Council will meet in a special called meeting Thursday, Feb. 3 at 5 p.m. in Jackson City Hall.
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