Jackson sells Oman Area for $1, talks redistricting map

JACKSON, Tenn. — City leaders held their monthly council meeting to discuss several topics.

One of them being surplus properties.

“That’s a property that the city currently owns and maintains. We mow it and often those come off of issues on being able to pay your taxes or the upkeep of the property. If an individual sees that they would like to purchase that property, they can make an offer on that. There’s a public disclosure of that and someone else has an opportunity to make a counter offer and after the final offer is made, it’s presented to us to approve,” said City Councilman Paul Taylor.

The city is also looking to have additional state sales tax.

The city used to receive a bigger percentage of that tax, but has not since the early 2000s.

The council has put together a resolution requesting the state return to the prior way it distributed the tax, thus giving cities a larger share than they are receiving today.

“What we’re asking for is simply to restore that historic relationship. What that means for the City of Jackson taxpayers is about $1,040,000 coming back to the city and not staying at the state level,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.

Conger says there are many changes coming to the Hub City.

“We’re looking at revitalization of the midtown area, the center city area with Oman Arena and the school system, their Hub City plan and also moving forward with Georgia Pacific,” Conger said. “To get those closing documents so that property not only creates a little revenue and a little profit for us, but allows us to leverage to look at more industrial property. Brings a new industry to Jackson. A ton of investment.”

Another topic was redistricting in the city.

“Under law, it says that every 10 years when the census results come out, we are to reapportion or redistrict our districts so that we can have as equal populations represented in our districts so that you have voting populations that are pretty balanced across the city,” said Stan Pilant, the Director of Planning for the City of Jackson.

Some community members do not agree with the proposed redistricting map that was presented to the city council. They say it does not represent everyone equally.

“The map that was proposed to the city council today was one that did not reflect that. It only had people of color represented by three out of the nine districts, and we felt that was not fair,” said Harrell Carter, President of the Jackson-Madison County Branch of the NAACP.

Pilant says the focus of the redistricting is to optimize our population.

“We look at the statistical data, look at the existing districts and where those population numbers have gone. And then we see which ones are below what they need to be and which ones are greater than they need to be, and we try to adjust them to get as close to the optimum population,” Pilant said.

Carter says they will present a new possible district map.

“We’re working with some larger institutions to redraw the maps that we will be presenting to them in the next few days through the mayor’s office. So they can take a look at it and see what we call the balance of the representation here in Jackson-Madison County, as opposed to under representation,” Carter said.

The Oman Arena will now be owned by the Jackson-Madison County School System.

Photo from the Jackson-Madison County School Board Work Session on February 7, 2022.

“The council approved me to sign today is a deed transfer to sell that property. Essentially sell it for a dollar. It just makes sense for them with the amount of money that they have coming from ESSER. They can use that on capital improvements, but they have to own the property,” Conger said.

The deal between the city and Georgia Pacific is closer to being complete.

“We’re in the process of trying to finalize that deal, making sure that we have the sell agreement, the deed over,” Conger said. “Then they can finish their due diligence period, which I think should end probably in the next three to four weeks, and then hopefully have an announcement.”

A special called meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday to discuss the new redistricting map that will be presented to the council.

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