Residents react to the mayor’s State of the City address
JACKSON, Tenn. – Jackson Mayor Scott Conger released his State of the City address on Tuesday.
A few of the city’s residents shared their opinions on what the mayor addressed.
“I love the City of Jackson, and I love to see what we’re doing in making the future move forward,” said Kyle Nevels, a local barber and resident of Jackson.
We asked Nevels about the mayor’s plans to create a new public safety complex.
“Personally, I feel that we do need to put more money into our first responders whether that be police, fire, or EMS. I think a lot of that may not be necessarily facilities, but training and stuff like that,” Nevels said.
Mayor Conger did say that in the future, the police department plans to put more focus on officer training and education.
In his address, he speaks about an emphasis on speed enforcement in the city.
We spoke to Desmond Springfield, a Jackson native and local artist. Springfield agrees that speed enforcement is necessary.
“That’s definitely a good idea, definitely a good idea because a lot of people in Jackson drive fast,” Springfield said.
We also talked about the city doubling the amount of Flock camera systems in Jackson.
“I think they’re great. I think they need to turn the brightness down a little bit because when you drive it’s kind of distracting. But overall I think it’s good,” Nevels said.
“We just don’t want to have so many cameras because we don’t want to take away from people’s privacy and stuff like that. As long as they don’t get too out of control, I think it’s okay,” Springfield said.
Nevels also weighed in on the proposed men’s homeless shelter that’s coming this year.
“I think a men’s homeless shelter is great. I hope we have a women’s one as well. So we need a place for them to go. I think it keeps the city safer and cleaner as well,” Nevels said.
“I like that idea because there’s a lot of homeless people and it’s cold right now. So imagine how they feel right now,” Springfield said.
As an artist, Springfield likes the idea of the mayor’s plans to put a focus on art in Jackson.
“Well, the music area is lacking. It’s not like Memphis. You know, Memphis has artists coming out of the blue every other week or so, you know what I’m saying? So we definitely need improvement in that,” Springfield said.
We asked Nevels his opinion on the mayor’s new housing commission and his pledge to work with state legislators to create new incentives to develop houses.
“I think it’s great. We see an influx of people that are coming in and buying these housing developments and turning around and making them rental houses. I don’t know what that looks like in the long-term effect, but I think if we had more homeowners it would incentivize people to stay in Jackson,” Nevels said.
Lastly, we asked the two men what they thought a focus needed to be on in Jackson and we received very similar answers.
“I think that some of our roads still need some work. That sort of thing needs to be very much focused on,” Nevels said.
“I just feel like the streets, the roads, especially on the east side, like over in downtown, that stuff’s raggedy. We need to get those fixed,” Springfield said.
Watch the address for yourself below:
For more news in the Jackson area, click here.
