Police vehicles, tourism dollars, debt considered at City work session
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson City Council held a work session Thursday afternoon that went into the early evening.
In the $36 million dollar bond request, $1.6 million is designated for 30 police vehicles. The councilmembers asked what these were going to be used for.
“So we have several cars that are high mileage that we’ve had not a take-home program, where they’ve been fleet cars that have basically been running 24/7,” said Jackson Police Deputy Chief Gary Benton. “We’re trying to get rid of those. We can phase them out, but also extend our take-home vehicle program to our officers as an incentive to come here and work here.”
Currently, JPD has around 230 vehicles. 73 of them are Ford Explorers between the years 2020 and 2025, with an average mileage of 35,000. 128 vehicles in the entire fleet have less than 100,000 miles. JPD currently has 199 officers.
Click here to see a list of JPD’s current vehicles.
Most of the work session revolved around how the bond requests can help grow tourism dollars and bring in more revenue from the city. While there are infrastructure items in these requests, it was not a big topic Thursday.
“With the growth comes a much needed look at our infrastructure and our storm water,” said Councilwoman Marda Wallace. “I think we’re doing that, but I think this needs to be part of our discussion.”
One of the council members also asked to Nathan Reed, the new City Recorder, a question that multiple people have been asking.
“In your opinion, are we able to service that debt in the next couple years without a tax increase?” asked Councilman JP Stovall.
“I don’t think that this debt, absent any other factors, would necessitate a property tax increase unless your priorities changed, or you had new things that you wanted to do,” said Reed.
This is based off of current projections for revenue increases in the future.
The council should vote on the bond request in their January meeting. However, the agenda has not been set at this time.
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