City not responsible for road improvements at new Pope School, Mayor Conger says

JACKSON, Tenn. — There have been some new developments regarding the off-site improvements needed for the new Pope School being built in Jackson.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Jackson City Mayor Scott Conger sent a statement to various local leaders including: Jackson-Madison County School Board members, Superintendent Dr. Marlon King, Madison County Mayor AJ Massey, Jackson City Council members, and Madison County commissioners. In this statement, Mayor Conger addressed the city’s position of not funding or constructing the road improvements needed for the new Pope School on Ashport Road.

Mayor Conger went on to say that there were two options for the location of this school. One being on Passmore Lane which was priced at $1.75 million, and the other being the Ashport Road location priced at just under $800,000.

An analysis was held by Orcutt | Winslow to determine a suitability study for either option. In their evaluation, they state that the Passmore sit was more suitable for building the next K-8 school.

According to previous reports back in 2019, Madison County decided to go with the Ashport Road option. Some members on the school board at that time were unhappy with the decision, as they were not consulted on the matter.

In Mayor Conger’s statement, he says that this decision ignored substantial additional expenses that were associated with preparing this site for construction.

We were able to speak with Mayor Conger regarding the city’s position on the matter.

“So, we want to help, but it’s unfair too, so there’s been some meetings. Some public meetings that there’s been individuals say ‘Well, the city needs to pay for this because it is a city street.’ Well, that’s not what the ordinances say, that’s not what the Board of Zoning Appeals said. So we wanted to kind of remove the confusion and start all on a level playing field of ‘Hey, let’s work together,” said Mayor Conger.

We reached out to Madison County Mayor AJ Massey who said the county has no comment. We also reached out to the Madison County Commission who said they have no updates. The Jackson-Madison County School System have not given a response.

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