Vann Drive property rezoning, kratom ban among City Council topics

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson City Council held their regular monthly meeting Tuesday morning, and it was a longer one than normal.

They began by recognizing students from various schools in Jackson who are now a part of the Mayor’s Youth Council.

“They get to hear about what’s going on in the city,” Mayor Scott Conger told us. “Right now it is juniors and seniors. They give us feedback on what they think is going on and what we can do better to reach out and make those connections. And they also work on some projects throughout the year as well.”

There was also the second vote to rezone the area at 191 Vann Drive. It passed in a 6 to 3 vote. However, this does not mean the plans for this area are set in stone.

“The vote on that for the second reading means that the property will officially be rezoned to the planned commercial development district,” Mayor Conger said. “Now they will have to do preliminary development plans. They have to do traffic studies and water runoff, storm water study.”

There was also money transferred from one department to the senior center to make some necessary payments. Mayor Conger explains why this happened.

“So we have a new purchase order system that goes along with our new core financial system that, when we get into budget time, will say that these items in this purchase order or contract have not been expended this year. You need to budget for it. So it will let us know beforehand,” Conger said.

It was stated in the meeting that this amount was overlooked and Mayor Conger says the new system should fix this issue in the future.

The council also voted to send a resolution to the State suggesting the ban of synthetic kratom.

“It is just showing support for a topic. We ask them to consider what the resolution states. We are asking them to ban that. They’re already talking about it. It is just like writing an email to your council member. This says the whole entire City of Jackson, the City Council voted on this,” Conger said.

It was said in the meeting that the State has already started looking into this matter.

For more local news, click here.